Although it is widely acknowledged that St. Augustine was a consummate artist as well as a great philosopher, and that he was deeply concerned with art, beauty and human values, relatively little attention has been paid to his theory of aesthetics. Now a distinguished Augustine scholar turns to this important subject and offers a book that is at once engaging, comprehensive and complete.  Father O'Connell begins with a paradox: how could so dedicated a literary artist propose, at times, a theory of art that amounts to the banishment of art? In attempting to answer this and other important questions, the author's purpose is not merely to recount but to retrieve St. Augustine's views. He suggests that Augustine's need to understand, and by understanding to exorcise, art's spell on him provides a key to all the philosophical and theological questions that absorbed him. Seen in this light, St. Augustine's aesthetic may lie at the very heart of his philosophy.

Art and the Christian intelligence in St. Augustine

O'Connell, Robert J.

Religion & Spirituality

Blackwell

Although it is widely acknowledged that St. Augustine was a consummate artist as well as a great philosopher, and that he was deeply concerned with art, beauty and human values, relatively little attention has been paid to his theory of aesthetics. Now a distinguished Augustine scholar turns to this important subject and offers a book that is at once engaging, comprehensive and complete.Father O'Connell begins with a paradox: how could so dedicated a literary artist propose, at times, a theory of art that amounts to the banishment of art? In attempting to answer this and other important questions, the author's purpose is not merely to recount but to retrieve St. Augustine's views. He suggests that Augustine's need to understand, and by understanding to exorcise, art's spell on him provides a key to all the philosophical and theological questions that absorbed him. Seen in this light, St. Augustine's aesthetic may lie at the very heart of his philosophy.

Art and the Christian Intelligence in St. Augustine

Harvard University Press

<p>About the Author      O'Connell Robert J. Robert J. O'Connell is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. He is the author of St. Augustine's Early Theory of Man and St. Augustine's "Confessions": The Odyssey of Soul.</p>

St. Augustine’s Early Theory of Man, A.D. 386–391

Christian Books & Bibles

St. Augustine's Early Theory of Man, A.D. 386-391

Belknap Press

Teilhard's Vision of the Past: The Making of a Method

The Phenomenon of Man, by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, has been characterized as metaphysics, poetry, and mysticism-virtually everything except what its author claimed it was: a purely scientific mmoir.Professor O'Connell here follows up on a nest of clues, uncovered first in an early unpublished essay, then in the series of essays contained principally in The Vision of the Past. Those clues all point to Teilhard's intimate familiarity with the philosophy of science propounded by the celebrated Pierre Duhem. It was Duhem's central claim that science, to remain true to itself, must aim at establishing a genuine natural classificationphenomenal reality. That insight, Professor O'Connell argues, guided Teilhard's lifelong effort to describe the imposed reality-factorswhich science in its variety of forms suggests as ingredients and operative at every phase in the evolutionary development of planet Earth. Limiting his focus to the way Teilhard unfolded his vision of the past, Professor O'Connell concludes that those who deprecate Teilhard as unscientific betray little awareness of how sophisticated his understanding of science truly was.

History

Fordham University Press

William James’ celebrated lecture on “The Will to Believe” has kindled spirited controversy since the day it was delivered. In this lively reappraisal of that controversy, Father O’Connell contributes some fresh contentions: that James’ argument should be viewed against his indebtedness to Pascal and Renouvier; that it works primarily to validate our “over-beliefs” ; and most surprising perhaps, that James envisages our “passional nature” as intervening, not after, but before and throughout, our intellectual weighing of the evidence for belief.

William James on the Courage to Believe

A great thinker once said that all philosophy is merely footnotes to Plato.Through Plato, Father O'Connell provides us here with an introduction to all philosophy. Designed for beginning students in philosophy, Plato on the Human Paradox examines and confronts human nature and the eternal questions concerning human nature through the dialogues of Plato, focusing on the Apology, Phaedo, Books III-VI of the Republic, Meno, Symposium, and O'Connell presents us here with an introduction to Plato through the philosopher's quest to define human excellenceor arete in terms of defining what human beingis body and soul, focusing on Plato's preoccupations with the questions of how and what it means to have a good lifein relation to or as opposed to a moral life.

Plato on the Human Paradox

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Images of Conversion in St. Augustine's Confessions

Fordham Univ Pr

St. Augustine's Platonism

Villanova Univ Pr

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Connell, Robert J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by O'Connell, Robert J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Connell, Robert J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Art and the Christian intelligence in St. Augustine

Art and the Christian Intelligence in St. Augustine

St. Augustine’s Early Theory of Man, A.D. 386–391

St. Augustine's Early Theory of Man, A.D. 386-391

Teilhard's Vision of the Past: The Making of a Method

William James on the Courage to Believe

William James on the Courage to Believe

Plato on the Human Paradox

Images of Conversion in St. Augustine's Confessions

St. Augustine's Platonism