Carol Harrison counters the assumption that Augustine of Hippo's (354-430) theology underwent a revolutionary transformation around the time he was consecrated Bishop in 396. Instead, she argues that there is a fundamental continuity in his thought and practice from the moment of his conversion in 386. The book thereby challenges the general scholarly trend to begin reading Augustine with his Confessions (396), which were begun ten years after his conversion, and refocuses attention on his earlier works, which undergird his whole theological system.
Review
I would cordially recommend reading this study...Seldom I have read such a fierce defence of Augustine in recent literature. Harrison offers the reader a brilliant anthology of the early Augustine and is as such a valuable thematic introduction in the writing and thinking og Augustine before 396. But the monograph is much more, it is a meritorious overview of the several key elements in the continuity and a lesson in understanding how the central features of Augustine's conversion remain fruiytfully present in his thinking. Anthony Dupont Ars Disputandi ...sheds a helpful light on the entirety of Augustine's writing ... lucid and cogently argued study of some of Augustine's least-known works. Edward Dowler, New Directions this is a seminal work, the best of Harrison's three distinguished volumes on the architect of Western Christendom. Mark Edwards, Church Times a valuable corrective ... her re-assertion of elements of continuity is welcome. The Tablet
About the Author
Carol Harrison is Lecturer in the History and Theology of the Latin West, University of Durham.
Description:
Carol Harrison counters the assumption that Augustine of Hippo's (354-430) theology underwent a revolutionary transformation around the time he was consecrated Bishop in 396. Instead, she argues that there is a fundamental continuity in his thought and practice from the moment of his conversion in 386. The book thereby challenges the general scholarly trend to begin reading Augustine with his Confessions (396), which were begun ten years after his conversion, and refocuses attention on his earlier works, which undergird his whole theological system.
Review
I would cordially recommend reading this study...Seldom I have read such a fierce defence of Augustine in recent literature. Harrison offers the reader a brilliant anthology of the early Augustine and is as such a valuable thematic introduction in the writing and thinking og Augustine before 396. But the monograph is much more, it is a meritorious overview of the several key elements in the continuity and a lesson in understanding how the central features of Augustine's conversion remain fruiytfully present in his thinking. Anthony Dupont Ars Disputandi ...sheds a helpful light on the entirety of Augustine's writing ... lucid and cogently argued study of some of Augustine's least-known works. Edward Dowler, New Directions this is a seminal work, the best of Harrison's three distinguished volumes on the architect of Western Christendom. Mark Edwards, Church Times a valuable corrective ... her re-assertion of elements of continuity is welcome. The Tablet
About the Author
Carol Harrison is Lecturer in the History and Theology of the Latin West, University of Durham.