On Ethics, Politics and Psychology in the Twenty-First Century

The Reading Augustine series presents concise, personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo from leading philosophers and religious scholars. John Rist takes the reader through Augustine’s ethics, the arguments he made and how he arrived at them, and shows how this moral philosophy remains vital for us today. Rist identifies Augustine's challenge to all ideas of moral autonomy, concentrating especially on his understanding of humility as an honest appraisal of our moral state. He looks at thinkers who accept parts of Augustine's evaluation of the human condition but lapse into bleakness and pessimism since for them God has disappeared. In the concluding parts of the book, Rist suggests how a developed version of Augustine's original vision can be applied to the complexities of modern life while also laying out, on the other hand, what our moral universe would look like without Augustine’s contribution to it.

An extremely enjoyable read, another product of the author's brilliance ... After devouring this book cover to cover, I had a much better idea of Augustine's implicit political inclinations, explained through his more well-known theological doctrines, and not in the least, through his refreshing, liberating complaints of today's modern Western world., John Rist has found an idea format to take up Augustine’s thought in relation to modern concerns … Rist’s book effectively allows Augustine to speak out amidst current philosophical and political thought., Rist’s Reading Augustine will be a helpful text for those who are interested in how to reinterpret him in today’s world. Readers will also find that Rist is passionate about reviving Augustine’s theology and ethics against the inundating challenges of neoliberalism. Rist is definitely engaged not only in reinterpreting Augustine’s multi-layered theological insights and ethical guidelines but also in applying his theological visions and ethical ideas to our society., Most books on St. Augustine try to tell us what he said and what he meant in his own day and age. In this book John Rist does the opposite and tells us what Augustine would say if he were with us here and now. Rist does for Augustine what Plato did for Socrates, he brings him to life in the time of the reader. He speaks as Augustine would in response to our present circumstances: How can we still say “I” in an age of impersonal science, must theology be deductive and systematic, do we create ourselves and our gods, or do we look for salvation? The book is colorful and insightful as it addresses our theological, political, and moral situation., In this 21st century polemic inspired by the early Christian controversialists, Rist offers an updated and corrected ‘Augustine’ who is informed by his own deep and wide knowledge of intellectual history. Ranging over questions of philosophical and theological methodology, philosophy of education, epistemology, moral psychology, ethics, and legal and political theory, he marshals this learning to argue for the enduring importance of Augustine and to radically critique the ethical and political theories of modernity.

John Rist is Professor Emeritus of Classics and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada. He has published extensively on the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus and Neoplatonism, as well as Ethics, Patristics and Augustine. He is the author of fifteen books, including Real Ethics: Reconsidering the Foundations of Morality (2001), What is Truth? From the Academy to the Vatican (2008) and Plato’s Moral Philosophy. The Discovery of the Presuppositions of Ethics (2012).