Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine

Abstract

In this open access book, Mark Boone explains the theology of desire developed in a cross-section of Augustine’s On the True Religion, On the Nature of Good, On Free Choice of the Will, On the Teacher, On the Usefulness of Believing, On the Good of Marriage, Enchiridion, and Confessions. Throughout his writings and in many ways, Augustine develops a Platonically informed, yet distinctively Christian, account of desire. Human desire should respond to the goodness inherent in things, loving the greatest good above all and great goods more than lesser goods. Above all, we should love God and souls. Sin, an inappropriate desire for lesser goods, is healed by the redemption of Christ. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Hong Kong Baptist University