Reading Augustine with Marion: A Postmodern Ressourcement
By Bret Saunders, doctoral student, University of Dallas
For the sake of space, I must assume my readers know something about one of the most profound philosopher/theologians at the turn of this century, the French Catholic-postmodern author, Jean Luc-Marion, currently at Chicago and the Sorbonne.  The topic of the relationship [...]

Commentary on Moorman’s Essay
by Dan McClain
Mary Moorman begins her erudite essay with a three point outline of Augustine’s use of the nuptial metaphor in his ecclesiology (about which I admit to knowing little). I was fascinated to learn that Augustine links his nuptial imagery not only to the cross but also the creation of woman. [...]

Quando Tu and The Nuptial Creation:
St. Augustine’s Enduring Influence on Contemporary Ecclesiology
Mary C. Moorman, Ph.D. candidate, Southern Methodist University
Historians such as David Hunter have proposed that one of Augustine’s favorite popular metaphors for the Church, as we find in his sermons, is that of a virgin bride, contracted in marriage to her husband by the [...]

Commentary on Dagle’s Essay, “Augustine and Plantinga: The Civitas Dei, the Civitas Mundi and the task of Ecclesial Philosophy”
By James Gibson, Western Michigan University
Mike Dagle describes the influence of Augustine’s motif on Plantinga’s conception of Christian philosophy (Dagle’s essay).  The motif is one of two cities fundamentally at odds: “they are fundamentally different things [...]

Augustine and Plantinga: The Civitas Dei, the Civitas Mundi and the task of Ecclesial Philosophy

By Mike Dagle, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Detroit

Introduction
“…two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. [...]

Commentary on Mike Jones’s Essay by Dr. Victor Salas
Mr. Jones presents a paper that seeks to discern the manner in which one makes an “ascent” to God, paying special attention to the thought of St. Augustine and Hegel on the subject. Jones’ paper begins with the question: “how can one know God?”  At once as [...]

On Restless Hearts:  Augustine, Hegel, Ascent
By Michael Jones, doctoral student, University of Dallas
How can one come to know God?  The philosophical tradition offers many accounts of ascent to God.  Talk of “ascent” might indeed be so common that its status as an image goes unappreciated.  But to speak of ascent is to make us of [...]

Commentary on Ingalls’s Essay by Dave Belcher
First of all, I’d like to thank Jason for his thoughtful reflection, and for the opportunity to offer my own brief questions to Matt Jenson’s thought-provoking book. Matt was an interim teaching pastor at my church for a time, and I had the chance to hear him preach a [...]

Some Contemporary Reflections on Sin:
Matt Jenson’s use of St. Augustine in The Gravity of Sin

By Jason Ingalls, M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary
Matt Jenson’s recent book The Gravity of Sin: Augustine, Luther, and Barth on Homo Incurvatus in Se (London: T&T Clark, 2006) contributes to contemporary Augustinian scholarship and hamartiology.  Perhaps most interesting is that [...]

Commentary on Dr. Cary’s Essay
by Dr. Joel Garver,
Professor of Philosophy,
LaSalle University
Professor Cary’s paper helpfully explains the relationship of Luther to Augustine, particularly Luther’s notion of the Gospel as an efficacious promise, communicating what it signifies and offers.  As Cary notes, this marks a shift away from Augustine for whom the alternative to the Law’s condemnation [...]

Per Caritatem’s first annual Augustine Blog Conference is now underway!  Below is the first of a series of posts bringing Augustine into conversation with philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages, Reformation, Modernity, and Postmodernity. The format of the conference is as follows:  an essay will be posted for approximately two days, then a short [...]

Commentary on Wilkins’s Essay
By Jonathan McIntosh,
Fellow of Humanities, New Saint Andrews College
In “Henry of Ghent and the Waning of the Divine Light,” Shane Wilkins presents Ghent’s epistemology as an alternative to St. Thomas’s thirteenth-century synthesis of Aristotelian naturalism and Augustinian supernaturalism. Being more familiar with Aquinas’ ideas than I am with Ghent’s, I [...]

Per Caritatem’s first annual Augustine Blog Conference is now underway! Below is the first of a series of posts bringing Augustine into conversation with philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages, Reformation, Modernity, and Postmodernity. The format of the conference is as follows: an essay will be posted for a two days, then [...]

Commentary on Williams’s Essay by Garrett Smith
Mr. Williams has given us some weighty food for thought in his essay on divine memory in the thought of three of the most difficult of Christian thinkers, and for this we must thank him. He has discussed an interesting link, perhaps even one heretofore unnoticed. Especially useful (at [...]