/lit/ - Literature

>>12994633
>>12994645
Exactly. Ultimately Aristotle and Plato agree on quite a bit, and the places where Aristotle appears to disagree with Plato are just points where he is coming at a problem from a different perspective.

In the Catholic context, this is even more true for Augustine and Aquinas. People like to pit them against each other a lot, but at the end of the day Aquinas and Augustine agree on every point they both examine. It's just that they sometimes take different approaches to various issues, so it can appear that they disagree on the surface level.

Anybody else here interested in integralism/post-liberal Church-State relations? I attended a really interesting talk at my graduate school tonight on the subject. I post on Catholic Twitter, so I'm already aware of the concept, but this talk was a really good summary of integralist thought as it stands at the moment. It also heavily involved Augustine and his conception of political power in the City of God, which was nice.

>>12391749
This. Augustine was a Berber, he must have been at least a little bit brown.

>>12233911
God sees all of history in a single glance, and he can interact with the whole of time in a single instant. Calvin's view of God's acting in the world posits that God sees time the way human sees it, when in fact, as Augustine demonstrates, he does not.

Did you celebreate Saint Augustine's feast day yesterday, /lit/?

A lucid explanation of the essential otherworldliness of Christians. Christians don't fully belong to this world. They have one foot out the door constantly, always thinking of the life and the world to come.

>>11640693
>but there is at least one key difference between augustine and hobbes: that is, that man can be redeemed. which makes all the difference in the world.

Ironically, Augustine has every bit as negative a view of humans as Hobbes does. I mean, when Calvin says he gets the idea of "total depravity" from Augustine, he's not just blowing smoke up your ass.

But what separates them is that Augustine really and truly does believe in the power of God. As you say, Augustine thinks that, through the grace of God, all men can be redeemed, even those who are the vilest and most wicked. And he knows this because he counts himself among the vile and wicked, yet God did great things in his life.

Hobbes is effectively an atheist. Read the bits in the Leviathan about miracles; Hobbes is sort of winking at the reader that all supposed acts of God are hokum, but he has to pretend so as not to upset the established Church of England. But it's not hokum for Augustine. God's no joke for Augustine.

>>11262544
Just the order of things:

Start with the Confessions, because that's what everyone starts with, and it's very easy to relate to while also being very profound.

Then read the Enchiridion, it's a shorter work but nonetheless very profound.

And if you like those two, then you're ready for the big leagues and can read the City of God. I might also suggest, among his numerous dialogues and treatises, reading "On Free Choice of the Will."

>>11143409
This.

If you're Christian, you can take the Augustinian position and say that the Forms all emanate from God.

Why isn't Augustine on the favorites list? I voted for Plato, but only because Augustine wasn't there.

>tfw you've always sympathized with Plato more than Aristotle
>tfw you've always sympathized with Augustine more than Aquinas, despite finding wisdom in both