Well before his entry into the religious life in the spring of 386 C.E.; Augustine had embarked on a lengthy comparison between teachings on the self in the philosophical traditions of Platonism and Neoplatonism and the treatment of the topic in the Psalms; the letters of St. Paul; and other books of the Bible. Brian Stock argues that Augustine; over the course of these reflections; gradually abandoned a dualistic view of the self; in which the mind and the body play different roles; and developed the notion of an integrated self; in which the mind and body function interdependently.Stock identifies two intellectual techniques through which Augustine effected this change in his thought. One; lectio divina; was an early Christian approach to reading that engaged both mind and body. The other was a method of self-examination that consisted of framing an interior Socratic dialogue between Reason and the individual self. Stock investigates practices of writing; reading; and thinking across a range of premodern texts to demonstrate how Augustine builds upon the rhetorical traditions of Cicero and the inner dialogue of Plutarch to create an introspective and autobiographical version of self-study that had little to no precedent.The Integrated Self situates these texts in a broad historical framework while being carefully attuned to what they can tell us about the intersections of mind; body; and medicine in contemporary thought and practice. It is a book in which Stock continues his project of reading Augustine; and one in which he moves forward in new and perhaps unexpected directions.
#3536400 in Books University of Pennsylvania Press 2011-06-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.30 x .80 x 6.30l; 1.15 #File Name: 0812243471256 pages
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