The Cambridge Companion to Augustine

It is hard to overestimate the importance of the work of Augustine of Hippo, both in his own period and in the subsequent history of Western philosophy. Until the thirteenth century, when he may have had a competitor in Thomas Aquinas, he was the most important philosopher of the medieval period. Many of his views, including his theory of the just war, his account of time and eternity, his understanding of the will, his attempted resolution of the problem of evil, and his approach to the relation of faith and reason, have continued to be influential up to the present time. In this volume of specially-commissioned essays, sixteen scholars provide a wide-ranging and stimulating contribution to our understanding of Augustine, covering all the major areas of his philosophy and theology.

• Augustine is a figure of enormous importance in medieval philosophy and subsequently • Essays are very clearly and accessibly written • Will be of interest to students of theology as well as philosophy

Introduction Eleonore Stump; 1. Augustine: his time and lives James J. O’Donnell; 2. Faith and reason John Rist; 3. Augustine on evil and original sin William Mann; 4. Predestination, pelagianism and foreknowledge James Wetzel; 5. Biblical interpretation Thomas Williams; 6. The divine nature Scott MacDonald; 7. De Trinitate Mary T. Clark; 8. Time and creation in Augustine Simo Knuuttila; 9. Augustine’s theory of soul Roland Teske; 10. Augustine on free will Eleonore Stump; 11. Augustine’s philosophy of memory Roland Teske; 12. The response to skepticism and the mechanisms of cognition Gerard O’Daly; 13. Knowledge and illumination Gareth Matthews; 14. Augustine’s philosophy of language Christopher Kirwan; 15. Augustine’s ethics Bonnie Kent; 16. Augustine’s political philosophy Paul Weithman; 17. Augustine and medieval philosophy Martin Stone; 18. Post-medieval Augustinianism Gareth Matthews.

‘Taken as a whole, the volume is a success. It achieves a balance of historical contextualization and philosophical engagement without sacrificing the primary aim of clear exposition. It should prove rewarding both to those looking for an overview of Augustine’s thought and to those seeking a volume representing the best of contemporary scholarship in Anglo-American Augustine studies.’ – Blake D. Dutton, Loyola University, Chicago

‘This volume promises to fill an obvious gap very usefully …’. – The Journal of Theological Studies