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Haven't had enough Augustine? Host Danny Lobell and Wes Alwan reflected on our recent discussions on Augustine's Confessions, with an actual Augustine scholar, James Wetzel of Villanova University, author of such books as Augustine and the Limits of Virtue
What does it mean to act for the sake of God in Augustine's sense? What is Augustine really trying to do? What's his place in history? Jim says his philosophy is "a Romanized form of Stoicism." The discussion covers humility, love, desire, grief, sex, misogyny, degrees of reality, and how love of God fits in with relating to other people, given that all views of God are "necessarily fictional." (Meaning that by definition, he's infinite and unknowable; see our episode #101 on negative theology.)
This was recorded today (9/6/15), and posted with minimal editing, and shared in full for the first time over the full, public podcast feed. To get in on future Aftershows and other Not School discussions, and to listen to full Aftershows like this on most 2015 episodes and subsequent two-episode runs, become a PEL Citizen.
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Thank you James Wetzel! I am not sure I would have been able to appreciate Augustine from simply reading the primary sources by themselves. The confessional stuff tends to get exasperating for me after awhile. However, listening to this helped provide some context as well as helped me interpret certain parts of Augustine that I would have otherwise not taken as seriously/not understood as well..