The Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 A.D. made the young religion a powerful social and political force in the late Roman Empire. Born just four decades later in a remote province of the empire, Augustine of Hippo (354–430) achieved for Christian thought an intellectual standing every bit as dominant and enduring as the legacy of the first Christian emperor.
Augustine found in Christianity a collection of authoritative sacred texts and creeds passed down by preaching and accepted by faith; he fashioned it into a formidable, systematically articulated, deeply intelligible account of the fundamental nature of reality and humanity’s place in it, the sort of account that could claim a place in the vibrant, contested marketplace of ideas in late antiquity. With brilliant intelligence, passionate curiosity, and remarkable rhetorical skill he transformed the philosophical heritage of the ancient world and used it to express a new Christian philosophy that would conquer the world.
For nearly two millennia, Augustine’s arguments, insights, and ideas have profoundly shaped the Western intellectual tradition. Augustine and Aquinas scholar Scott MacDonald explores some of those enduringly compelling ideas.
9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Faith Seeking Understanding
What is religious faith? How can believers be faithful and also intellectually responsible and deeply curious about the world? Augustine’s rich model of the relation between faith and understanding opens up the possibility of an intellectually rigorous Christianity.
11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Searching for God (and Other Things)
How can you search for an understanding of something if you don't know what it is you’re looking for? But if you already know what it is you’re looking for, why would you need to search for an understanding of it? This paradox of inquiry is, in Augustine’s writings, a persistent and astonishingly fruitful puzzle. Wrestling with it leads Augustine to some of his deepest insights into human nature.
12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Lunch (participants provide their own lunch)
1:30 to 2:45 p.m. Good, Evil, and Free Will
How can there be evil in a world created and governed by a perfectly good, omnipotent, omniscient God? Augustine’s account of the nature of good and evil and the role of free will provides a perennially intriguing—and controversial—answer.
3 to 4:15 p.m. The Human Mind and the Divine Trinity
What does it mean to be created in the image of God? What exactly is the image and what about the divine nature does it represent? Augustine’s search for the divine image in human beings yields a creative, original, and strikingly modern set of reflections on the nature of the mind.
MacDonald is professor of philosophy and Norma K. Regan professor in Christian Studies at Cornell University.
