Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Philosophy of religion
|
Buy Now
Inner Grace - Augustine in the Traditions of Plato and Paul (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,211
Discovery Miles 22 110
|
|
Inner Grace - Augustine in the Traditions of Plato and Paul (Hardcover)
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
This book is, along with Outward Signs (OUP 2008), a sequel to
Phillip Cary's Augustine and the Invention of the Inner Self (OUP
2000). In this work, Cary traces the development of Augustine's
epochal doctrine of grace, arguing that it does not represent a
rejection of Platonism in favor of a more purely Christian point of
view a turning from Plato to Paul, as it is often portrayed.
Instead, Augustine reads Paul and other Biblical texts in light of
his Christian Platonist inwardness, producing a new concept of
grace as an essentially inward gift. For Augustine, grace is needed
first of all to heal the mind so it may see God, but then also to
help the will turn away from lower goods to love God as its eternal
Good. Eventually, over the course of Augustine's career, the scope
of the soul's need for grace expands outward to include not only
the inner vision of the intellect and the power of love but even
the initial gift of faith.
At every stage, Augustine insists that divine grace does not
compromise or coerce the human will but frees, heals, and helps it,
precisely because grace is not an external force but an inner gift
of delight leading to true happiness. As his polemic against the
Pelagians develops, however, he does attribute more to grace and
less to the power of free will. In the end, it is God's choice
which makes the ultimate difference between the saved and the
damned, and we cannot know why he chooses to save one person and
not another. From this Augustinian doctrine of divine choice or
election stem the characteristic pastoral problems of
predestination, especially in Protestantism. A more external,
indeed Jewish, doctrine of election would be more Biblical,
Carysuggests, and would result in a less anxious experience of
grace.
Along with its companion work, Outward Signs, this careful and
insightful book breaks new ground in the study of Augustine's
theology of grace and sacraments.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|