Many contemporary readers have reduced the richer meaning of conversion in Augustine's Confessions to merely its social, psychological, or philosophical dimensions. These constricted readings have often been compounded by the conflation of Augustine's understanding of "the self" with problematic modern and postmodern meanings of the term, thereby misconstruing the role Augustine's thought played in bringing about the Hermeneutic Revolution in twentieth-century philosophy and theology.
Interpreting the Self addresses these issues by reading Confessions through the lens of Bernard Lonergan's dynamic account of the self as the subject of ongoing conversions--an understanding that emerged in large part through Lonergan's lifelong dialogue with Augustine's thought. The essays in part 1 disentangle the meaning of both the self and conversion from several prominent contemporary misreadings and argue that Lonergan's own Augustinian and hermeneutic turn in his later works provides an especially apt framework for interpreting Augustine's Confessions. Building on these insights, the essays in part 2 explore Lonergan's four distinct dimensions of conversion--intellectual, moral, religious, and psychic--positing that each reveals a different aspect of the transformation that unfolds across and beyond the books of the Confessions. Ultimately, the essays in this section contend that a mutual mediation of Augustine and Lonergan provides for a better understanding of each.
About the Author :
Benjamin J. Hohman is an assistant professor of religious and theological studies at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. His areas of research center on Lonergan studies, theological hermeneutics, theology and science, and ecological theology. His published works have appeared in Theological Studies, Horizons, Heythrop Journal, and other outlets.
J. Patout Burns, S.J. is Edward A. Malloy Professor of Catholic Studies Emeritus at Vanderbilt University and is currently guest professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is a specialist in early North African Christianity.
Neil Ormerod is professor of theology in the School of Theology and member of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at Australian Catholic University in Strathfield, Australia. He is the author of A Public God: Natural Theology Reconsidered (Fortress Press, 2015) and Re-Visioning the Church: An Experiment in Systematic-Historical Ecclesiology (Fortress Press, 2014), and coauthor of Foundational Theology: A New Approach to Catholic Fundamental Theology (Fortress Press, 2015) and Creator God, Evolving World (Fortress Press, 2013).
Review :
Celebrated for its psychological depth and philosophical profundity, St. Augustine's Confessions is a natural choice for engaging with Bernard Lonergan's equally earnest understanding of subjectivity and correlated dimensions of conversion. In this edited collection, Benjamin J. Hohman assembles noteworthy commentators who surface these themes, beholden to the hermeneutical challenges facing a culture that claims to be postmodern. The reader will profit from the exchange that richly unpacks the significance of a credible report about an aging Lonergan who confessed more than once, "The older I get, the more Augustinian I become." --Jim Kanaris, associate professor of philosophy of religion, McGill University, and author of Toward a Philosophy of Religious Studies: Enecstatic Explorations (2023)
Interpreting the Self is an excellent collection of essays on an important but easily misunderstood topic: conversion in the Confessions. This volume is a boon both to Augustinian and Lonerganian studies. --Michael P. Foley, professor of patristics, Baylor University, and author of St. Augustine's Cassiciacum Dialogues (2020)
A real gem of a book that explores the greatest theological work of antiquity through the sharpest Christian mind in modernity. The result: a searching examination and compelling renewal of the pivotal theme of conversion. It is hard to find a better collaborative response to Pope Leo XIII's call "to augment and perfect the old with the new." Take up and read! --Dominic Doyle, associate professor of systematic theology, Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry, and author of The Promise of Christian Humanism: Thomas Aquinas on Hope (2012)
This is the book I've been waiting for! Having taught Augustine's Confessions to first-year students for many years, I now have a resource to empower students to unpack the dynamics of conversion in a more fulsome way. The essays in this volume bring Lonergan's analysis of conversion to bear on one of the greatest conversion stories ever told and, in the process, help students and scholars alike to appreciate the profound intellectual, moral, religious, and psychic transformation at the heart of the Confessions. --Joseph C. Mudd, associate professor of religious studies and director of Catholic studies, Gonzaga University
Those intimidated by the vast, varied, and demanding contributions of either thinker, Augustine or Lonergan, should discover here new inroads and fresh insights into both. The volume demonstrates--I think successfully--that there is more to say about the self, and that revisiting and reworking the concept of conversion can assist our interpretations of Augustine's and Lonergan's trajectories. --Ian Clausen, editor of Augustinian Studies, Villanova University, and author of On Love, Confession, Surrender, and the Moral Self (2017)
Splendid! Interpreting the Self captures and advances the expansiveness of the dynamics of conversion in Augustine's Confessions. Its importance cannot be overestimated. --Joseph Ogbonnaya, associate professor of theology, Marquette University, and authorof Under the Shade Tree: Reading the Bible in Africa (2025)
Benjamin Hohman deserves hearty praise for this edited volume. It places a stellar group of scholars in conversation with Augustine of Hippo and Bernard Lonergan, whose explorations of the self are among the most compelling in Western tradition. This collection is a key resource for students interested in the relationship between the Confessions, conversion, and contemporary philosophy. --Brian Dunkle, S.J., associate professor of Historical Theology, Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
