To Die For: Bodies, Pleasures, and the Young Augustine
The perennial human need to ground the self in something greater than itself takes many forms. This paper explores several values that are often considered worth dying for, from one's country or religion, to - among the many that are often advocated in contemporary Western societies - one'...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2017]
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| In: |
Augustinian studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 48, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 93-103 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBC Doctrine of God NCF Sexual ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Augustinus, Aurelius Saint (354-430) Confessiones
B Human Sexuality B Western Society B Pleasure B AUGUSTINE, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 B God |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The perennial human need to ground the self in something greater than itself takes many forms. This paper explores several values that are often considered worth dying for, from one's country or religion, to - among the many that are often advocated in contemporary Western societies - one's sexuality. Given the recent level of interest in Augustine's early sexuality, I argue that, for Augustine, sex, when compulsively pursued, was a failed value. His experience revealed to him that the ultimate object with which the self can be identified is God: "You [God] have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (Confessiones 1.1.1). Augustine's Confessiones narrate the long process by which his lust problem was transmogrified into the love project: "My weight is my love; by it I am carried wherever I am carried" (Confessiones 13.9.10). |
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| ISSN: | 0094-5323 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Augustinian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/augstudies201741928 |