The history of theology could be told through theologians’ reaction to war. In times of war, theology’s debates over seemingly inconsequential distinctions come face to face with the lived reality of religious communities’ encounters with power and powerlessness. War is when we discover how truly dangerous theology can be. The history of modern theology is, […]
Is there Theology in this Book?
This review essay discusses three recent books on, and two new translations of, Augustine’s Confessions. Long appreciated for its stylistic beauty and existential profundity, the Confessions has recently become a resource for creative philosophical reflection in both the analytic and continental traditions. However, there has not been a recent theological treatment of the Confessions, a […]
Theology and the University: A Lover’s Quarrel
“A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution,” Thomas Jefferson declared in a letter written to philosopher Thomas Cooper in 1814. These words uttered by America’s third President, regarding his plans to found the University of Virginia, echo a standard Enlightenment principle: theology and the university do not mix. Jefferson shared this […]
The Trajectory of Faith, Love, and Hope
At its core, Oliver O’Donovan’s Self, World, and Time (SWT) is a reflection on God’s life as faith, love, and hope intended to illuminate the shape and direction of our life together.1 O’Donovan provides us with an occasion to see how moral and doctrinal claims interlock, for theology cannot properly be theology if it does […]
Augustine’s De magistro: Scriptural Arguments and the Genre of Philosophy
Augustine’s De magistro has been of particular interest to those working on the philosophy of language, as can be seen most recently in Emmanuel Bermon’s Habilitationsschrift, published as La Signification et l’enseignement (Paris, 2007). The focus on the philosophy of language has, however, tended to occlude analysis of the argumentative value of Augustine’s quotation of […]