The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine

In the teaching of Augustine of Hippo—as in that of the Common Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas—philosophy is recognized as the most complete expression of rational knowledge regarding the highest objects of the human mind. Attending to the data of divine revelation, Augustine recognizes that philosophia, love of wisdom, begins with faith and then moves gradually and by grace into an understanding of that faith. Following the genesis and development of Augustine’s profound understanding and expositions of the Trinity and the Incarnation, creation and original sin, nature and grace, freedom and desire, and the human person as the imago dei, Gilson shows the rich philosophical themes which recur throughout the Augustinian oeuvre. An ideal companion volume to Gilson’s renowned The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine is a comprehensive and coherent map to that vast and intricate world of Augustinian thought which has enriched the entire history of philosophical and theological endeavor following the Patristic era.