Bibliography
Nov. 30th, 2007 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyConcerning the City of God Against the Pagans - Saint Augustine
It's probably worth mentioning that I've been reading this since the summer. It's a big book, and I've read it in chunks rather than straight through, as I think I'd probably have gone mad if I'd tried to read it all in one go. He's a lot to get your head round, is Augustine. Plus there was all that stopping recreational reading in the middle in order to pass the comprehensive exams business, which didn't help, although I think Augustine suffered more from that one than Swinburne (through whom I am still trudging, but as it is a collection of poems it is more suited to putting down and coming back to).
With that said, hopefully nobody is going to be surprised if I say that I'm more proud of having made it through this one than retaining any of the content. My original reason for wanting to read it was because of its appearance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and thus my wish to achieve that particular goal is satisfied. However, I can see quite why Teddy Lloyd says that he struggled with it for so long - it really is far too much to take in all at once.
That said, I'm glad that I slogged through it - the first book in particular showed a far more enlightened view of women than I was expecting to see, and it was quite fun to read the sorts of theological speculation made about all sorts of passages, such as the application of numerological theory and some very interesting metaphorical/symbolic readings of the Old Testament. It's a sort of theology that we don't really do now in terms of comparing what X said against what Y said and therefore why Z is, in fact, the correct answer - there's some great stuff in there picking out 'truth' from the ancient philosophers, which I found great fun, not to mention some fantastic bits about various theological interpretations of Christians and Christian heretics.
The one thing I will say is that I'm guessing I only understood as much as I did because I'm a classical philosopher by training - not only do I get the cultural context, I get some of the lingo (reviewing that neoplatonist book before the summer was better preparation for this than I could have expected). Do not dive into this one expecting an easy read. If I had more time, I'd put more effort into it - but there are so many other exciting books out there that such a project will have to be set aside.
It's probably worth mentioning that I've been reading this since the summer. It's a big book, and I've read it in chunks rather than straight through, as I think I'd probably have gone mad if I'd tried to read it all in one go. He's a lot to get your head round, is Augustine. Plus there was all that stopping recreational reading in the middle in order to pass the comprehensive exams business, which didn't help, although I think Augustine suffered more from that one than Swinburne (through whom I am still trudging, but as it is a collection of poems it is more suited to putting down and coming back to).
With that said, hopefully nobody is going to be surprised if I say that I'm more proud of having made it through this one than retaining any of the content. My original reason for wanting to read it was because of its appearance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and thus my wish to achieve that particular goal is satisfied. However, I can see quite why Teddy Lloyd says that he struggled with it for so long - it really is far too much to take in all at once.
That said, I'm glad that I slogged through it - the first book in particular showed a far more enlightened view of women than I was expecting to see, and it was quite fun to read the sorts of theological speculation made about all sorts of passages, such as the application of numerological theory and some very interesting metaphorical/symbolic readings of the Old Testament. It's a sort of theology that we don't really do now in terms of comparing what X said against what Y said and therefore why Z is, in fact, the correct answer - there's some great stuff in there picking out 'truth' from the ancient philosophers, which I found great fun, not to mention some fantastic bits about various theological interpretations of Christians and Christian heretics.
The one thing I will say is that I'm guessing I only understood as much as I did because I'm a classical philosopher by training - not only do I get the cultural context, I get some of the lingo (reviewing that neoplatonist book before the summer was better preparation for this than I could have expected). Do not dive into this one expecting an easy read. If I had more time, I'd put more effort into it - but there are so many other exciting books out there that such a project will have to be set aside.
