Access To God In Augustine's Confessions: Books X-XIII (Bk.X-XIII)

This is the final volume in Carl G. Vaught's groundbreaking trilogy reappraising Augustine's Confessions, a cornerstone of Western philosophy and one of the most influential works in the Christian tradition. Vaught offers a new interpretation of the philosopher as less Neoplatonic and more distinctively Christian than most interpreters have thought. In this book, he focuses on the most philosophical section of the Confessions and on how it relates to the previous, more autobiographical sections. A companion to the previous two volumes, which dealt with Books I–IX, this book can be read either in sequence with or independently of the others.Books X–XIII of the Confessions begin after Augustine has become Bishop of Hippo and they are separated by more than ten years from the episodes recorded in the previous nine books of the text. This establishes the narrative in the present and speaks to the'believing sons of men.'Augustine explores how memory, time, and creation make the journey toward God and the encounter with God possible. Vaught analyzes these conditions in order to unlock Augustine's solutions to familiar philosophical and theological problems. He also tackles the frequently discussed problem of the alleged disconnection between the earlier books and the last four books by showing how Augustine binds experience and reflection together. Access to God in Augustine’s Confessions Books X–XIII......Page 4 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ENTERPRISE......Page 18 UNITY AND SEPARATION IN AUGUSTINE’S THINKING......Page 22 SPEAKING AND HEARING AS PRIMORDIAL PHENOMENA......Page 27 PROBLEMS OF ACCESS TO THE TEXT......Page 32 1. The Nature of Memory (Book X)......Page 40 THE MEANING OF CONFESSION (10.1.1–10.5.7)......Page 42 THE MIND’S WAY TO GOD (10.6.8–10.27.38)......Page 49 AUGUSTINE’S SPIRITUAL CONDITION (10.28.39–10.41.66)......Page 94 CHRIST, THE MEDIATOR (10.42.67–10.43.70)......Page 109 2. The Problem of Time (Book XI)......Page 114 MOTIVES FOR CONFESSION (11.1.1–11.2.4)......Page 116 CREATION AND THE SPEAKING WORD (11.3.5–11.13.16)......Page 122 WHAT IS TIME? (11.14.17–11.20.26)......Page 136 MEASURING TEMPORALITY (11.21.27–11.27.36)......Page 143 MEMORY, APPREHENSION, AND EXPECTATION (11.28.37–11.28.38)......Page 153 STRETCHED OUT, GATHERED UP, STRETCHING FORTH (11.29.39–11.31.41)......Page 157 3. The Hermeneutics of Creation (Books XII–XIII)......Page 164 FORM AND THE ABYSS (12.1.1–12.13.16)......Page 166 AUGUSTINE AND HIS CRITICS (12.14.17–12.16.23)......Page 180 ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS (12.17.24–12.22.31)......Page 185 MEANING, TRUTH, AND INFINITE RICHNESS (12.23.32–12.32.43)......Page 193 CREATION AND THE TRINITY (13.1.1–13.11.12)......Page 203 FIGURATIVE INTERPRETATION (13.12.13–13.34.49)......Page 215 THE TELOS OF THE NEW CREATION (13.35.50–13.38.53)......Page 237 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION......Page 240 NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE......Page 243 NOTES TO CHAPTER TWO......Page 256 NOTES TO CHAPTER THREE......Page 262 Bibliography......Page 270 B......Page 278 C......Page 279 E......Page 281 F......Page 282 G......Page 283 I......Page 285 l......Page 286 M......Page 287 O......Page 288 P......Page 289 S......Page 290 T......Page 292 Z......Page 293 "This book continues Carl G. Vaught's thoroughgoing reinterpretation of Augustine's Confessions - one that rejects the view that Augustine is simply a Neoplatonist and argues that he is also a definitively Christian thinker. As a companion volume to the earlier Journey toward God in Augustine's Confessions: Books I-VI, it can be read in sequence with or independently of it. This work covers the middle portion of the Confessions. Books VII-IX. Opening in Augustine's youthful maturity. Books VII-IX focus on the three pivotal experiences that transform his life: the Neoplatonic vision that causes him to abandon materialism: his conversion to Christianity that leads him beyond Neoplatonism to a Christian attitude toward the world and his place in it: and the mystical experience he shares with his mother a few days before her death, which points to the importance of the Christian community. Vaught argues that time, space, and eternity intersect to provide a framework in which these three experiences occur and which give Augustine a three-fold access to God."--BOOK JACKET At the beginning of Book X, Augustine makes a transition from the death of his mother in 387 A.D. to the time at which he writes the Confessions some ten to thirteen years later.