The Universal Way of Salvation in the Thought of Augustine: (T&T Clark Studies in Ressourcement Catholic Theology and Culture)

This work examines Augustine's critique of his Roman predecessors to reveal key aspects of Christ's mediation of the universal way of salvation. Porphyry of Tyre had noticed that Christianity can make a claim that pagan religion and pagan philosophy cannot: that all types of human being can be saved through the one salvific action of Christ mediated sacramentally through the one Catholic Church. Augustine's response to Porphyry is grounded firmly on Christology, especially on what Augustine sees to be the unique act of Christ as mediator, based in turn on Christ's unique position as true God and true man, which in turn is capable of healing the whole man and, by healing the whole man, also healing each of the parts of the soul. Christ himself, as concretely universal, is capable of saving each and any type of human being, no matter which part of the soul rules within him, Augustine counters, which is not a claim his pagan interlocutors can replicate. In addition to careful considerations of ancient authors like Plato, Cicero, Varro, and Porphyry, this book also ranges through Plutarch, Shakespeare, and contemporary political thinkers like Pierre Manent and Leo Strauss; scholars of religion such as Michael Bland Simmons, theologians such as Erik Peterson and Ernest L. Fortin, as well as well-known Augustine scholars such as James Wetzel, G.R. Evans, John Cavadini, Robert Dodaro, Mary Keys, Michael Foley, Rowan Williams, Oliver O'Donovan, John Rist, and many others.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part One: Setting up the Argument about the Universal Way of Salvation Chapter One: Politics, Perception, and Religion from Republic to Empire Chapter Two: Religious Universalism in the late Roman Empire and the Arguments of Porphyry of Tyre Chapter Three: The Few, the Many, and the Universal Way of Salvation in Augustine's Early Works Part Two: Christ's Mediation of the Universal Way of Salvation Chapter Four: Human Wholeness and the Universal Way of Salvation in the City of God Chapter Five: Plato on the Divisions Among Human Beings Chapter Six: Augustine's Engagement with Platonic Political Philosophy on Ignorance and Difficulty Chapter Seven: Augustine's Argument with Porphyry on the Universal Way of Salvation Chapter Eight: Christ the Mediator of the Universal Way of Salvation Chapter Nine: Charity, Justice, and Reconciliation in the Transpolitical City of God Part Three: The Universal Way of Salvation and Augustine Himself Chapter Ten: Human Wholeness in the Confessions Chapter Eleven: Augustine's Philosophic Ascent Chapter Twelve: Salvation for the Philosopher and the Non-Philosopher: The Cases of Victorinus and Antony Chapter Thirteen: Augustine's Moral and Religious Conversion: Soul and Body, Few and Many Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Thomas P. Harmon is Professor & Scanlan Foundation Chair in Theology, Directory of the MA in Evangelization & Culture and Associate Director of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.

Review :
A fine and welcome contribution to our grasp of Augustine's critical and constructive articulation of Christ's universal way of integral human salvation. At a time when an abstract and sentimental 'universalism' is disorienting and hollowing out Western societies, Thomas Harmon's book judiciously helps us to grasp anew the unique import of the Christian offer of salvation to all human beings. Through a sober, learned and refreshingly clear reading of Augustine, it explains how the mediation of Christ is uniquely able to overcome and cure the otherwise intractable divisions among human beings and within every human breast. For those who have not given up on asking how they should live, this is a courageous, encouraging and illuminating book. The Universal Way of Salvation in the Thought of Augustine sheds new light on an old distinction, that between the few and the many or the wise and the unwise. Thomas Harmon masterfully explores the writings of St. Augustine and discovers that although Augustine was well aware of the distinction and even influenced by it in the way that he categorized people, his Christian faith sought ways to minimize or transcend the gulf between the elite and hoi polloi, all in imitation of the Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. This volume is well poised to become the definitive word on the subject. In the preface to Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche famously quips that “Christianity is Platonism for the people.” Thomas Harmon's Augustine gives the lie to that seductive simplification. Harmon shows us that in his deep engagement with the great scholastic Platonist, Porphyry of Tyre, Augustine chides Porphyry not simply for his metaphysical mischief-his tendency to pit intellect against affect-but also for his self-serving exultation of mental askesis. It is no liberation to exult your spirit to spite your flesh. Much of Harmon's intricate exegesis of Augustine's case for an incarnate, Christ-transfigured universalism centers on City of God. But the universalist thematic is not confined there, as Harmon also effectively shows. One of the many virtues of Universal Way is Harmon's deft ability to tease out the (body) politics of an essentially transpolitical faith.