Table Of ContentTranscending subjecTs
Challenges in Contemporary Theology
series editors: gareth jones and Lewis ayres
Canterbury Christ Church University College, UK and University of Durham, UK
challenges in contemporary Theology is a series aimed at producing clear orientations in, and
research on, areas of ‘challenge’ in contemporary theology. These carefully co‐ordinated books
engage traditional theological concerns with mainstreams in modern thought and culture that
challenge those concerns. The ‘challenges’ implied are to be understood in two senses: those
presented by society to contemporary theology, and those posed by theology to society.
Published
These Three are One: Theology in the Public Square:
The Practice of Trinitarian Theology Church, Academy and Nation
david s. cunningham gavin d’costa
After Writing: Rewritten Theology:
On the Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy Aquinas After His Readers
catherine Pickstock Mark d. jordan
Mystical Theology: God’s Companions:
The Integrity of Spirituality and Theology Reimagining Christian Ethics
Mark a. Mcintosh samuel Wells
Engaging Scripture: The Trial of the Witnesses:
A Model for Theological Interpretation The Rise and Decline of Postliberal Theology
stephen e. Fowl Paul j. deHart
Torture and Eucharist: Theology and Families
Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ adrian Thatcher
William T. cavanaugh
The Shape of Theology
Sexuality and the Christian Body: david F. Ford
Their Way into the Triune God
eugene F. rogers, jr The Vietnam War and Theologies of Memory
jonathan Tran
On Christian Theology
rowan Williams In Adams Fall:
A Meditation on the Christian Doctrine
The Promised End: of Original Sin
Eschatology in Theology and Literature ian a. McFarland
Paul s. Fiddes
Divine Illumination:
Powers and Submissions: The History and Future of Augustine’s
Spirituality, Philosophy, and Gender Theory of Knowledge
sarah coakley Lydia schumacher
A Theology of Engagement Towards a Jewish‐Muslim‐Christian Theology
ian s. Markham david b. burrell
Alien Sex: Scriptural Interpretation
The Body and Desire in Cinema and Theology darren sarisky
gerard Loughlin
Rethinking Christian Identity:
Scripture and Metaphysics: Doctrine and Discipleship
Aquinas and the Renewal of Trinitarian Theology Medi ann Volpe
Matthew Levering
Aquinas and the Supreme Court:
Faith and Freedom: An Interfaith Perspective Race, Gender, and the Failure of Natural
david burrell Law in Thomas’s Biblical Commentaries
eugene F. rogers jr
Keeping God’s Silence
rachel Muers Transcending Subjects:
Augustine, Hegel, and Theology
Christ and Culture geoffrey Holsclaw
graham Ward
Transcending
subjecTs
augustine, Hegel, and Theology
geoffrey Holsclaw
This edition first published 2016
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cover image: Fra angelico, The conversion of saint augustine, oil on canvas.
© d. sohier / cherbourg-Octeville, Musée Thomas Henry
set in 11.5/13pt bembo by sPi global, Pondicherry, india
1 2016
To Cynthia
with whom I journey joyfully
“This book is a worthy effort to rethink a robust sense of divine
transcendence, which helpfully highlights important philosophical,
theological, ethical, and political dimensions relevant to contempo-
rary discussion. i particularly liked how it takes seriously a sense of
divine transcendence that is not reducible to the forms of immanent
transcendence currently more common, and that is also fully intimate
with the immanent world, in a way more dualistic conceptions often
failed to be in the past. The book importantly challenges a negative
view of augustine and a positive predilection for a non-metaphysical
version of Hegel among some contemporary thinkers. it is very well
versed in the works of Hegel and augustine, and informed by the
relevant scholarship. it is a readable and engaging book which insight-
fully and deftly unfolds a significant dialogue between augustine and
Hegel, as well as between the author and their significant contempo-
rary interpreters.”
William Desmond, Professor of Philosophy,
Katholieke Universiteit,
David Cook Chair in Philosophy,
Villanova University
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Citations and Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
Part I Hegel—Self‐Transcending Immanence 15
1 Hegel in Contemporary Political Philosophy 17
Introduction 17
Evolutionary Social Practices: Autonomy through Sociality 19
Revolutionary Radical Act: Autonomy against Sociality 27
Conclusion 38
2 Consciousness and Freedom: Logic and Phenomenology of Spirit 43
Introduction 43
Nothing Is Infinite: Science of Logic 45
Infinite Self‐Consciousness: Phenomenology of Spirit 62
Beyond Nothing and the Unfathomable 89
Conclusion 93
3 Society and Freedom: Philosophy of Right 103
Introduction 103
The Subject and Substance of Politics 104
The Institutions of Ethical Life: Family, Civil Society, and State 115
The Limits of Self‐Transcending Immanence 118
Conclusion 124
viii Contents
Part II Augustine—Self‐Immanenting Transcendence 129
4 Augustine in Contemporary Political Theology 131
Introduction 131
Ontological Peace: Transcendence against Liberalism 133
Ordered Love: Transcendence for Liberalism 144
Conclusion 151
5 Conversion and Freedom: Confessions 155
Introduction 155
Conversion of the Will: Conflict and Intervention 160
Conversion of the Will: Community and Intervention 169
Conversion of Creation: Christ as Intervention 178
Conclusion 185
6 Society and Freedom: City of God 192
Introduction 192
Earthly City and the Lust for Domination 198
Justice and Res Publica 205
Justice, Love, and Sacrifice 208
Love and the World 215
Conclusion 222
Conclusion 230
Index 239
