Augustine on the Nature of Virtue and Sin

✍ Scribed by Katherine Chambers

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 370
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Augustine of Hippo is a key figure in the history of Christianity and has had a profound impact on the course of western moral and political thought. Katherine Chambers here explores a neglected topic in Augustinian studies by offering a systematic account of the meaning that Augustine gave to the notions of virtue, vice and sin. Countering the view that he broke with classical eudaimonism, she demonstrates that Augustine's moral thought builds on the dominant approach to ethics in classical 'pagan' antiquity.  A critical appraisal of this tradition reveals that Augustine remained faithful to the eudaimonist approach to ethics. Chambers also refutes the view that Augustine was a political pessimist or realist, showing that it is based upon a misunderstanding of Augustine's ideas about the virtue of justice.  Providing a coherent account of key features in Augustine's ethics, her study invites a new and fresh evaluation of his influence on western moral and political thought.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title page
Imprints page
Contents
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translations and Abbreviations
1 Introducing the Issues
Love and Actions
Augustine and Eudaimonism
Virtue, Sin, and ''Happiness''
Ancient Eudaimonism
2 Political Virtues?
Justice and Love
Justice and Political Life
Human Justice and True Justice
Philippians 3:6-9
Civic Virtue
1 Corinthians 13:3
Morally Neutral Things and Sins in Themselves
3 Political Vices?
The Love of Material Possessions
The Love of Glory
The Love of Domination
4 Augustine's Definitions of Virtue
Living in Agreement with Nature
Augustine's Definitions of Virtue
Augustine's Definitions of Vice
Stoicism, Virtue, and the summum bonum
The summum bonum
Love as Eros
Philia and ''Cleaving to'' God
The Criticism of Stoicism: Eros and Philosophy
The Criticism of Cicero and the Sceptics
5 Augustine's Place within the Eudaimonist Tradition
The Search for God
The Criticism of Manicheanism: God Bestows Wisdom
The Criticism of Platonism: God Bestows Virtue
The Sin of Pride
The Image of God
The Virtue of Continence
Virtue in Augustine's Early Writings
6 The Life in Accordance with Nature
What Is the Life in Accordance with Human Nature?
Augustine's Criticism of the Stoics and Platonists: Happiness and Pain
Grief, Compassion, and Virtue
''Happy is he who has God''
''That God may be all in all''
Eros as Ordered Love: Loving Things ''for God's Sake''
''For Use'' and ''For Enjoyment''
''Using'' Temporal Things
7 Self-Love and Neighbour-Love
Virtue, Self-Love, and Neighbour-Love
Vice, Self-Love, and Neighbour-Love
Benevolence for Self and Neighbour
Eros-Love and Benevolence
Eros-Love for the Self
''Using'' Ourselves
Loving and Hating the Self
Eros-Love for Other People
8 The Nature of Sin
Original Sin as Carnal Concupiscence
The Effects of Baptism
The Parts of the Soul
Memory and Habit
''Suggestions''
Consenting to Carnal Concupiscence
Being at Once Virtuous and Sinful
9 Weakness, Ignorance, and Pride
Virtue and Venial Sins
Sinning from Weakness
Sinning from Ignorance
Post-Baptismal Ignorance
Venial Sins
Pride and Damnable Sins
Pride and the Theft of the Pears
Pride and Adam's Sin
Bibliography
Index