Collecting together numerous examples of Augustine's musical imagery in action, Laurence Wuidar reconstructs the linguistic laboratory and the hermeneutics in which he worked. Sensitive and poetical, this volume is a reminder that the metaphor of music can give access not only to human interiority, but allow the human mind to achieve proximity to the divine mind. Composed by one of Europe's leading musicologists now engaging an English-speaking audience for the first time, this book is a candid exploration of Wuidar's expertise. Drawing on her long knowledge of music and the occult, from antiquity to modernity, Wuidar particularly focuses upon Augustine's working methods while refusing to be distracted by questions of faith or morality. The result is an open and at times frightening vista on the powers that be, and our complex need to commune with them.

Articulating an Augustinian treatment of the nature, limits, meaning, and end of work, this volume will push Augustinian studies toward a more-detailed engagement with issues of political economy. Zachary Settle argues that we inhabit a culture that insists that our life's meaning is bound up in our work; we experience constant pressures at work to be more efficient and productive; and we know the ways in which our work-structures contribute to a seemingly ever-growing, corrosive system of poverty and oppression. These cultural assumptions regarding work, along with a cluster of other labor-related problems (i.e. automation, wage depression, wage theft, the rise of a flexible labor force, a lack of worker representation, over-work, and productivism) have rightfully raised a number of questions about the nature, meaning, and limits of our working lives and working structures. This book sets out the ways in which St. Augustine offers us-in piecemeal fashion-elements with which we can assemble an alternative vision. By examining his understanding of the role of work in the context of the monastery, we see his understanding of both the ways we should undertake our work and the ends toward which we should direct that work during our lives in a sinful world. Settle draws on these piecemeal treatments of work scattered throughout St. Augustine's varied writings in order to develop and articulate a unified theology of work.

Most people would agree that human perfection is unattainable. Indeed, theologians have typically expressed ambivalence about the possibility of human perfection. Yet, paradoxically, depictions of human perfection are widespread. In this volume, Robin Gill offers an interdisciplinary study of human perfection in contemporary secular culture. He demonstrates that the language of perfection is present in church memorials, popular depictions of sport, food, music and art, liturgy, and philosophy. He contrasts these examples with the socio-psychological concept of 'maladaptive perfectionism', using commercial cosmetic surgery as an example, as well as the 'adaptive perfectionism' suggested in the lives of Henry Holland, Paul Farmer, and, more ambivalently, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Gill then provides an in-depth analysis of New Testament and Septuagint usage of teleios and theological debates about the human perfection of Jesus. He argues that the Synoptic accounts of the Transfiguration offer a template for a Christian understanding of perfection that has important ecumenical implications within social ethics.

This book reads texts of Augustine on the topic of the human body in the context of contemporary debates in philosophical theology and relevant authors from the cognitive science of religion. Martin Claes focuses particularly on Augustine's special position in the intellectual discourses of Western philosophy (free will, theodicy), theology (grace, incarnation) and humanities (anthropology, political sciences, law), arguing that his written work is an excellent point of departure for a multidimensional scholarly approach. The reading in this book shows that a different picture emerges if we make the effort to situate Augustine's mature anthropology within contemporary debates in philosophical theology and cognitive science of religion. Omnipotence, vulnerability, suffering but also purification and perfection are discussed in dialogue between patristic and philosophical theology; the human offers the clue to concepts of unity in diversity in Christ.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Drawn from the world's most beloved songs, the more than 70 examples in this book explore the history and crucial elements of melody, which is the very basis of song. This unique guide allows readers a new insight into the composition of songs and focuses solely on how simple musical lines combined with the right texts can make a catchy melodic phrase that lasts throughout the ages without consideration of harmony, counterpoint or other constructs.

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