A Pastoral Theology of Desire: Reading Augustine’s Theology of Desire in A Broader Corpus

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Abstract

The Enarrationes in Psalmos are an important source for understanding the Augustinian theology of desire, linking it to his systematic theology and his pastoral practice. In this paper I illustrate by overviewing the expositions on Psalms 10 (11), 11 (12), and 12 (13). These Psalms teach us to love, trust, and seek God only, a failure to do which marks the Donatist schism; to seek the one complete and perfect good which is God, as the source of our eternal happiness; and to expect a heavenly, not an earthly, satisfaction. One thing we can learn from studying the Enarrationes is that in order fully to understand the Augustinian theology of desire we must study its relation to his ecclesiology and his eschatology and not only to familiar topics like Augustine’s relationship to neo-Platonism, his theory of free will, and his metaethics of goodness built into the structure of creation.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023
EventAsia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society 13th Annual Conference: Pluralistic Contexts in Early Christianity - Trinity Theological College, Singapore
Duration: 7 Sept 20239 Sept 2023
https://apecss.wixsite.com/apecss/next-conference

Conference

ConferenceAsia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society 13th Annual Conference
Country/TerritorySingapore
Period7/09/239/09/23
Internet address

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