Once Out of Nature

259 Pages·2011·0.909 MB·English

by  Andrea Nightingale

once out of nature

once out of nature
Augustine on Time and the Body
andrea nightingale
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
andrea nightingale is professor of classics and comparative literature at Stanford
University. She is the author of Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of
Philosophy (1995) and Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy (2004).
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2011 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2011
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-58575-8 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-58575-1 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nightingale, Andrea Wilson.
Once out of nature : Augustine on time and the body / Andrea Nightingale.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-58575-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-58575-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo.
2. Human body—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Time—Religious aspects—
Christianity. I. Title.
BR65 .A9N54 2011
[BT740]
233'.5—dc22
2010040231
a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.
for mark
with all my love

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
—William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”

contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. Edenic and Resurrected Transhumans 23
2. Scattered in Time 55
3. The Unsituated Self 105
4. Body and Book 132
5. Unearthly Bodies 164
Epilogue: “Mortal Interindebtedness” 197
Appendix: Augustine on Paul’s Conception
of the Flesh and the Body 211
References 219
Index 241
ix