Comments on: Augustine and Plato on “Going to Pieces” and the Dis-Harmony of the Soul http://percaritatem.com/2008/06/13/augustine-and-plato-on-going-to-pieces-and-the-dis-harmony-of-the-soul/ Non intratur in veritatem nisi per caritatem. St. Augustine Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:14:25 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Cynthia R. Nielsen http://percaritatem.com/2008/06/13/augustine-and-plato-on-going-to-pieces-and-the-dis-harmony-of-the-soul/comment-page-1/#comment-2799 Cynthia R. Nielsen Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:53:11 +0000 http://percaritatem.com/?p=567#comment-2799 Hi Tim, I like the way you put it: "Augustine grounds the Platonic 'ascent' of the soul to God on God’s own gracious “descent” to sinful man". I tend to lean toward your reading as well. If you have the time and are interested, (since you joined my facebook blog network), you can listen to my recent lectures on the Confessions). I'm sure that everything there is "old news" to you, but you might find them interesting (that is, if my overuse of the word "so" doesn't become too distracting : ) Best wishes, Cynthia Hi Tim,

I like the way you put it: “Augustine grounds the Platonic ‘ascent’ of the soul to God on God’s own gracious “descent” to sinful man”. I tend to lean toward your reading as well. If you have the time and are interested, (since you joined my facebook blog network), you can listen to my recent lectures on the Confessions). I’m sure that everything there is “old news” to you, but you might find them interesting (that is, if my overuse of the word “so” doesn’t become too distracting : )

Best wishes,
Cynthia

]]> By: Tim Enloe http://percaritatem.com/2008/06/13/augustine-and-plato-on-going-to-pieces-and-the-dis-harmony-of-the-soul/comment-page-1/#comment-2798 Tim Enloe Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:42:05 +0000 http://percaritatem.com/?p=567#comment-2798 Very interesting, Cynthia. I read the Confessions last semester for the Medieval World class, and one thing I kept seeing throughout was that Augustine continually transforms Platonic imagery and themes into Christian forms. I particularly noticed this in terms of the theme of "ascent," and in my paper for the class I argued that Augustine grounds the Platonic "ascent" of the soul to God on God's own gracious "descent" to sinful man. Thus the Christianized Platonic ascent in Augustine is actually God pulling man up to Himself, not man himself flying up to God. That's probably not a new or a startling insight, but I thought I'd share it anyway in light of your interesting post on the same theme of transformation of Platonic categories. Very interesting, Cynthia. I read the Confessions last semester for the Medieval World class, and one thing I kept seeing throughout was that Augustine continually transforms Platonic imagery and themes into Christian forms. I particularly noticed this in terms of the theme of “ascent,” and in my paper for the class I argued that Augustine grounds the Platonic “ascent” of the soul to God on God’s own gracious “descent” to sinful man. Thus the Christianized Platonic ascent in Augustine is actually God pulling man up to Himself, not man himself flying up to God.

That’s probably not a new or a startling insight, but I thought I’d share it anyway in light of your interesting post on the same theme of transformation of Platonic categories.

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