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10 - Love, Will, and the Intellectual Ascents

from Part II - Main Themes and Topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2020

By
Sarah Catherine Byers
Edited by
Tarmo Toom
Tarmo Toom
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

When Augustine tells us in Books 7 and 9 of the “Confessions” that he saw “that which is,” he is not claiming to have seen God as a whole or one of the divine persons, each of whom is equally God, but that he understood an eternal standard that God is also eternally understanding, thereby achieving a union with God in the knowing of one divine idea. This is a union that provides momentary intellectual possession or “embrace” of an intelligible beauty, because the Forms are intelligible beauties in Platonism.

Keywords

mysticismPlatonismlovebeing
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's 'Confessions' , pp. 154 - 174
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Ayres, L. Augustine and the Trinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boone, M. “The Role of Platonism in Augustine’s 386 Conversion to Christianity.” Religion Compass 9/5 (May 2015), 151–161.Google Scholar
Brittian, C. “Attention Deficit in Plotinus and Augustine: Psychological Problems in Christian and Platonist Theories of the Grades of Virtue.” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 18 (2003), 223–263.Google Scholar
Byers, S. “Augustine and the Philosophers.” In A Companion to Augustine, ed. Vessey, M.. Oxford: Blackwell, 2012, 175–187.Google Scholar
Cooper, S. “The Platonist Christianity of Marius Victorinus.” Religions 7/122 (October 1, 2016), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenney, J. P. Contemplation and Classical Christianity: A Study in Augustine. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Menn, S. Descartes and Augustine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rist, J. M. Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Rist, J. M. “Plotinus and Christian Philosophy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus, ed. Gerson, L.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Sorabji, R. “Time, Mysticism, and Creation.” In Augustine’s Confessions: Critical Essays, ed. Mann, W.. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006, 209–235.Google Scholar

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