"God" in Augustine's Confessions

被引:0
|
作者
van Oort, Johannes [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Pretoria, Fac Theol & Relig, Pretoria, South Africa
关键词
Augustine; Confessions; Manichaeism; Neoplatonism; doctrine of God; concepts of evil; anthropomorphism; God as body; spatiality of God; God as Spirit;
D O I
10.1163/15743012-bja1004
中图分类号
B9 [宗教];
学科分类号
010107 ;
摘要
When reading through Augustine's Confessions, one notices a striking variety of descriptions of God. The aim of this paper is to discern and - as far as possible - to interpret these various descriptions. Our main focus will be on pivotal texts from Books 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7. They document how much Manichaean views played a part in Augustine's quest, and how closely this quest was linked to his ideas about evil. Briefly stated, Augustine's search went from anthropomorphic-spatial thinking about God to corporeal/material-spatial and even panentheistic ideas and then (mainly under the inspiration of Neoplatonic philosophy, i.e., in all likelihood Plotinus's Enneads) to a strictly spiritual and non-spatial understanding. But in all this, Manichaean ways of thought and even concepts remained present until the end. A final conclusion draws out the significance of this study for conceptualising the formation of God/gods in the Christian tradition as well as in other religious formations.
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页码:5 / 29
页数:25
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