Abstract
The quote is not the typical beginning to a study of someone’s ethics; yet, if at all, it is fitting in St Augustine’s case. This middle-class Roman citizen was born in Tagaste, Africa, today’s Souk Ahras in Algeria near the Tunisian border, in 354 AD.1 His was to be a life enmeshed in love, unconscious—in one sense at least and by his own admission2—and conscious, illicit and licit, and ultimately all-consuming. In stages he went from grammar school student to playboy-student, to a career-seeker using grammar and rhetoric as a means to a bureaucratic position in the Roman government. In his early 30s he experienced a career jolt as a result of reading St Paul that is reminiscent of Paul’s own sudden reversal in mid-life and at the outset of that famous person’s own career.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Armas, P. Gregorio, La moral de San Agustin ( Madrid: Difuso del Leiro, 1954 ).
Bourke, Vernon J., History of Ethics vol. I (Garden City, New York: Image Books, 1970 ) pp. 80–4.
Bourke, Vernon J.,Joy in Augustine’s Ethics (Villanova, Pennsylvania: Villanova University Press, 1979 ).
Bourke, Vernon J.,‘Voluntarism in Augustine’s Ethico-Legal Thought’, Augustinian Studies, I (1970), 3–17.
Bourke, Vernon J., Will in Western Thought ( New York: Sheed & Ward, 1964 ).
Bourke, Vernon J., Wisdom from St. Augustine (Houston, Texas: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1984 ).
Boyer, C., San Agustin. Sus normas de Moral (Buenos Aires: 1945).
Brown, P. R. L., ‘Political Society’, Augustine, ed. R. A. Markus (Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1972 ) pp. 38–58.
Combes, G., La charité d’après S. Augustin ( Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1934 ).
Cranz, F. Edward, ‘The Development of Augustine’s Ideas on Society before the Donatist Controversy’, Augustine … pp. 336–403.
Cranz, F. Edward, ‘De Civitate Dei,XV, 2, and Augustine’s Ideas of the Christian Society’ Augustine … 404–21.
Cranz, F. Edward, de Lubac, Henri, SJ, Augustinianism and Modern Theology (trans. Lancelot Sheppard) (New York: Herder & Herder, 1968); originally published under the title Augustinisme et théologie moderne (Paris: F. Aubier, Editions Montaigne, 1965).
Di Giovanni, A., La dialettica dell’amore ‘Uti-frui’ nelle preconfessioni di S. Agostino (Roma: 1965).
Fortin, Ernest L., ‘The Political Implications of St. Augustine’s Theory of Conscience’, Augustinian Studies, I (1970), 133–52.
Gilson, Etienne, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine (trans. L. E. M. Lynch) (New York: Random House, 1960 ).
Holloway, Alvin J., SJ, The Transformation of Stoic Themes in St. Augustine (unpublished PH.D. Thesis) ( New York: Fordham University, 1966 ).
Holte, R., Béatitude et Sagesse. Saint Augustin et le problème de la fin de l’homme dans la philosophie ancienne ( Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1962 ).
Jolivet, R., Le problème du mal chez S. Augustin (Paris: Archives de Philosophie, vol. VII, 2 (1930), 1–104 ).
Madec, G., ‘Verus philosophus est amator Dei’, Revue Sc. Phil. Théol, 61 (1977), pp. 549–66.
Mausbach, J., Die Ethik des Hl. Augustimus 2 vols. ( Freiburg: Herder, 1909 ).
O’Connell, Robert J., SJ, ‘Action and Contemplation’, Augustine … ; 38–58.
O’Connell, Robert J., De Libero Arbitrio I; ‘Stoicism Revisited’, Augustinian Studies, I (1970), 49–68.
O’Connor, William Riordan, ‘The Concept of Person in St. Augustine’s De Trinitate’, Augustinian Studies, XIII (1982), 133–43.
O’Connor, William Riordan, ’The Uti/Frai Distinction in Augustine’s Ethics’ Augustinian Studies, XIV (1983), 45–62.
O’Donovan, Oliver, The Problem of Self-Love in St. Augustine ( New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980 ).
Pedone, Il problema della voluntil in S. Agostino (Lanciano: 1940).
Ramirez, J. Roland E., ‘Demythologizing Augustine as Great Sinner’, Augustinian Studies, XII (1981), 61–88.
Rist, John M., ‘Augustine on Free Will and Predestination’, Augustine ... ; 218–52.
Roland-Gosselin, R., La morale de S. Augustin ( Paris: Rivière, 1925 ).
Rowe, William L., ‘Augustine on Foreknowledge and Free Will’, Augustine ... ; 336–403.
Stark, Judith Chelius, ‘The Problem of Evil: Augustine and Ricoeur’, Augustinian Studies, XIII (1982), 111–22.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1989 Thomas Losoncy
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Losoncy, T. (1989). St Augustine. In: Cavalier, R.J., Gouinlock, J., Sterba, J.P. (eds) Ethics in the History of Western Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20203-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20203-4_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-45244-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-20203-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)