A Theology of Public Life

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Abbreviations for works by St. Augustine......Page 16
A mirror for Christian citizens......Page 17
Why (and which) believers need a dogmatics of public life......Page 19
Enduring: an ascetical strategy......Page 26
During the world......Page 31
An Augustinian worldliness......Page 34
Conclusion......Page 39
Part I A theology of engagement......Page 45
An Augustinian theology of engagement......Page 47
Is the project otherworldly?......Page 51
Is the project apocalyptic?......Page 53
1 Life before God......Page 59
Augustinian epistemology: against Platonic idealism......Page 63
Mind’s relationship to world......Page 65
A contemporary Augustinian epistemology......Page 71
Augustinian agency......Page 73
The problem of agency......Page 74
Sin, freedom, and grace......Page 75
Reimagining autonomy after Augustine......Page 84
Towards an Augustinian understanding of engagement......Page 86
Conclusion......Page 88
2 Life in the world......Page 90
Practices of using......Page 107
Ontology and confession......Page 98
Prudence and providence: inhabiting the hermeneutics of caritas......Page 110
The nature of "Christian teaching"......Page 111
Reality as semiotic and Christianity as a pilgrimage of "reading"......Page 116
Conclusion......Page 120
3 Life together......Page 121
From pluralism to engagement......Page 125
The failure of secular toleration......Page 126
The prospects for genuine dialogue......Page 132
From engagement to communion......Page 137
The virtues of engagement......Page 145
How dialogue would proceed, and where it would lead......Page 152
Conclusion......Page 156
Part II The liturgy of citizenship......Page 159
Introduction to Part II......Page 161
The challenge of our contemporary civic condition......Page 162
The poverty of contemporary liberal political theory......Page 168
The recovery of politics......Page 173
How faith is good for civic engagement, and how civic engagement is good for faith......Page 176
Conclusion......Page 182
4 Faithful citizenship......Page 185
The communitarian proposal......Page 189
The civic republican strategy......Page 191
Reconceiving sovereignty: faith in but not of politics......Page 196
Recovering traditional sovereignty......Page 198
Augustinian politics: an endless secular republicanism......Page 203
Faithful citizenship: resisting immanence......Page 209
The practice of suffering faith......Page 211
Faith in public: confessing faith beyond identity......Page 215
The ascesis of faithful engagement......Page 226
Conclusion......Page 229
5 Hopeful citizenship......Page 230
The contemporary crisis of cultural criticism......Page 234
Secularized apocalyptic pseudo-Augustinianism......Page 235
The (academic) culture of (cynical) critique......Page 240
Augustinian cultural criticism: the hermeneutics of hopeful charity......Page 246
Augustine’s ideology critique in de civitate Dei......Page 247
Augustinian cultural criticism: irony beyond cynicism......Page 252
Critically hopeful citizenship......Page 254
The practice of disconsoling hope......Page 258
Eschatologically hopeful citizenship......Page 265
The ascesis of hopeful engagement......Page 272
6 Charitable citizenship......Page 277
The agonist proposal......Page 282
Agonism’s attractions......Page 283
Agonism’s problems......Page 285
The priority of charity......Page 290
An alternative Augustinian cosmology......Page 292
An alternative Augustinian psychology......Page 298
A charitable citizenship......Page 301
The practice of enduring love......Page 303
Love in politics: longing for communion......Page 311
The ascesis of loving engagement......Page 319
Conclusion......Page 322
Conclusion: The republic of grace; or, the public ramifications of heaven......Page 324
Kairos and ordinary timethe dialectic of public life......Page 325
Apocalyptic escapism......Page 327
Augustinian eschatology against apocalyptic escapism......Page 329
Called to the feast of the kingdom of God......Page 332
At last, the first things......Page 336
References......Page 338
Index......Page 373