Eloquent Wisdom
Rhetoric, Cosmology and Delight in the Theology of Augustine of Hippo
By (author) Augustine of Hippo By (author) Mark Clavier
In this book, Mark Clavier provides an in-depth historical and theological study of the nature and role of delight in Augustine’s theology. He contends that Augustine drew primarily from Cicero’s rhetorical theory as mediated through later Neoplatonic commentators to develop a rhetorical theology that could explain how even those une
Augustine of Hippo employed delight within his theology in ways unprecedented in Christian thought. It underpins his approach to creation, redemption, the Christian ministry and the inner conflict between desire and the will. Moreover, his understanding of delight would make an enormous impact on the shape of monastic theology in the Latin West. Yet no full-length study of Augustine’s theology of delight has ever been undertaken. In this book, Mark Clavier provides an in-depth historical and theological study of the nature and role of delight in Augustine’s theology. He contends that Augustine drew primarily from Cicero’s rhetorical theory as mediated through later Neoplatonic commentators to develop a rhetorical theology that could explain how even those unenlightened by the liberal arts could discover God. Clavier argues that delight functions within Augustine’s theology as eloquence does within Cicero’s rhetorical theory, engaging people’s hearts in order to make them receptive to a wisdom they would otherwise neglect or resist. Augustine conceived of God as an orator who persuades people to turn away from death towards salvation by pouring delight into their hearts through the reception of the Holy Spirit, presented as God’s own delight. His close identification of delight with the Holy Spirit laid the ground for the affective turn in western medieval theology and its understanding of contemplative reading as a participative process of ascent to God. Clavier’s work demonstrates that scholars need to consider the rhetorical basis for Augustine’s thought at least as seriously as they have considered the philosophical.
- By (author) Augustine of Hippo
- By (author) Mark Clavier
Other Titles in this Series
Bonds and Boundaries among the Early Churches
Community Maintenance in the Letter of James and the Didache
Volume 29
The Discovery of the Individual
Post-Chalcedonian Christological Debates and the Dawn of Scholasticism in Early-Byzantine Thought
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Late Antique Calendrical Thought and its Reception in the Early Middle Ages
Proceedings from the Third International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 16-18 July, 2010
Volume 26
Meditations of the Heart: The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice
Essays in Honour of Andrew Louth
Volume 8
The Anthropology of St Gregory Palamas
The Image of God, the Spiritual Senses, and the Human Body
Volume 38
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
From Topography to Text
The Image of Jerusalem in the Writings of Eucherius, Adomnan and Bede
Volume 30
Early Medieval Ireland and Europe: Chronology, Contacts, Scholarship
Festschrift for Daibhi O Croinin
Volume 14
Tabernacle, Table, Ark, and Text
Richard of Saint Victor on the Interpretation of Scripture
Volume 67
‘Vigilemus et Oremus’
The Theological Significance of 'Keeping Vigil' in Rome from the Fourth to the Eighth Centuries
Volume 42
The Easter Controversy of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Its Manuscripts, Texts, and Tables
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus, Galway, 18-20 July, 2008
Volume 10
Analogical Identities
The Creation of the Christian Self: Volume 2: Self-catholicization, Meta-narcissism, and Christian Theology
Volume 57
Seeking the Face of God
The Reception of Augustine in the Mystical Thought of Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St Thierry
Volume 11
My God, my God why have you abandoned me
The experience of God's withdrawal in late antique exegesis, Christology and ascetic literature
Volume 43
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