This thesis gives an account of Augustine’s understanding of demons, a full-length study of which has yet to be published. I argue that the scriptural assertion that pagan gods are demons fully encompasses what demons are for Augustine, and I proceed by elucidating the theology with which he contextualizes this assertion and makes it intelligible. Demons emerge as a highly integrated component of Augustine’s broader theology, having not a merely conceptual but a fully religious significance. The dissertation begins with the intellectual nature of the angels and their Christocentric mission to reveal God in creation. The second chapter considers the fall of the angels and Augustine’s questions about its cause and the timeline of its occurrence. These questions pertain to the matter of embodiment, which becomes the starting point for Chapter 3, where we discuss the demons’ putative aerial bodies, their appearance in bodily visions, and some of Augustine’s reports of wondrous demonic phenomena. These phenomena are identified together as demonic not by a common aerial nature but a common meaning. Chapter 4 begins our analysis of what is the most significant demonic phenomenon for Augustine, viz. pagan religion. There we give an account of Augustine’s notion of the devil’s body, which, like its counterpart in the body of Christ, is constituted by sacraments, whose production is best described in terms of Hermetic “god-making.” The last chapter examines Augustine’s account of pagan sacramental theology more specifically, in terms of both a more straightforward understanding of pagan religion, and the more philosophical one offered by the Platonists. The demons’ association with pagan religion represents the full inversion of the angels’ Christocentric ministry, such that the only true freedom from demons is found, according to Augustine, through incorporation into the sacramental life of the church. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis gives an account of Augustine’s understanding of demons. Christian Scriptures declare that pagan gods are demons, and I argue this fully encompasses what demons are for Augustine, as they have not a merely conceptual but a fully religious significance. This study explores the theology with which he contextualizes this assertion and makes it intelligible. Demons are a highly integrated component of Augustine’s broader theology, rooted in his conception of angels as the ministers of all creation under God. They take shape through Augustine’s doctrine of evil as privation and understanding of the fall, his thoughts on embodiment, desire, and visions, as well as his theology of sacraments and social bodies. The demons’ association with pagan religion represents the full inversion of the angels’ Christocentric ministry, such that, for Augustine, the only true freedom from demons is found through incorporation into the sacramental life of the church.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter traces the development in Augustine's thought up to the time of his conversion. In the second chapter the nature of Augustine's conversion is discussed. The last chapter deals with the final development of faith and reason in Augustine. The primary source for the first chapter is Augustine's Confessions. The purpose of the chapter is to examine the various influences in Augustine's life which played an important role in the formulation of his philosophy. For twelve years the greatest attraction for him was Manicheism. This movement appealed to him for two reasons. First was the appeal to reason. The Manicheans claimed that no one was forced to believe any doctrines which could not be proven by simple use of reason. This was their criticism of the Church, that she taught doctrines which were based on fables and not on reason. The second attraction of the movement was a strong influence to Augustine during this period. He was greatly concerned over the existence of evil. In order not to attribute its existence to God, he accepted the Manichean dualism that there were two substances which formed the beginning of the world, one light and the other darkness. To the latter was attributed the existence of evil. Manicheism, however, was not completely honest in its claim to appeal to reason only. The system was full of fables which could not be proven. This revelation led Augustine into a period of skepticism. This was soon broken by the very positive influence of Neoplatonism. He was particularly indebted to the Neoplatonists for their teaching on incorporeal substance inasmuch as this clarified the conception of God for him. Neoplatonism also solved the problem of evil for him, saying that evil was not a substance; it was not being, rather it was privation. [TRUNCATED] / 2999-01-01

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on February 1, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Jason T. Eberl, Brian C. McDonald, Kenneth W. Davis. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 49).

Thesis--Catholic University of America. / Bibliography: p. 316-327.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Christopher J. Kelly / Rousseau's Confessions is controversial and influential since its first publication. Besides the dispute over the relationship of Rousseau's autobiographical and philosophical works, by adopting the same title as the famous autobiography in the Christian tradition, Augustine's Confessions, the effect is striking. However, few scholars were interested in their relationship and they write only a few lines about them or do not focus upon the key idea of Rousseau's thought, the natural goodness of man, which contradicts the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. Rousseau promises to delineate his self-portrait as a man according to nature in his autobiography in contrast to the picture of a born sinner saved by God's mercy in Augustine's Confessions. By comparing with Augustine's Confessions, it is clear that Rousseau's understanding of human nature and the source of evil reject the traditional Christian view. It is Rousseau's ingenuity to compose his Confessions structurally and thematically analogous to Augustine's Confessions to refute Augustine's theology and convey his answer to the problem of secular society. I demonstrate their relationship by comparing them according to their structural and thematic similarities. This study will contribute to the study of the relationship between modernity and Christianity and that between secularization and religion. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Thesis advisor: Jane E. Regan / Employing a Christian practice approach to pastoral theology (one that is interdisciplinary in its scope), this dissertation argues that Augustine's mystagogical theology and catechesis provides the basis for a contemporary liturgical formation that transforms human experience into liturgical existence through the practice of worshipful wisdom. Chapter one considers the formative nature of liturgical worship. Both liturgical theologians and catechists view liturgical prayer as a privileged source for liturgical formation. That is, the liturgy mediates an experience and lived knowledge of the Christian message through its performance, one that forms the Christian in a way of life. The first chapter concludes by acknowledging recent scholarship in liturgical studies that has been critical of this approach to formation through liturgical prayer. Fruitful participation in this prayer, one that contributes to a way of life characterized by a life infused with liturgical meaning, requires the appropriation of specific theological and spiritual dispositions that are essential to any act of Christian worship. Yet, what are the theological and spiritual dispositions required for fruitful liturgical worship? Chapter two does not answer this question directly but rather offers a heuristic through the ritual models of Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, and Catherine Bell. This chapter suggests that for ritual prayer to function fruitfully, one must acquire specific dispositions, ways of knowing and practicing, necessary for any act of worship within a religion. In addition, ritual prayer presumes a specific telos, an end toward which the human person is directed and formed through ritual engagement. Finally, ritual prayer is formative when it leads to the acquisition of a certain habitus, a way of acting in which the ritual agent becomes capable of "ritualizing" in other areas of life. While these disciplines cannot provide a Christian specificity to liturgical worship, they can suggest the foundational questions that will guide liturgical theologians and catechists as they consider the theological and spiritual dispositions necessary for Christian liturgical prayer. Chapters three, four, and five, serve as an interruption to the more common approaches to liturgical theology and catechesis analyzed in the first chapter. In chapter three, I consider the mystagogical theology of Augustine of Hippo. For Augustine, Christian worship is intrinsic to the process of salvation in Christ, a renewal of human perception in which the signs of the created world are to be used to enjoy the reality of God. This renewal of human perception takes place through entrance into the school of Christ--the Church's reading of the Scriptures and its sacramental celebrations. To participate fruitfully in liturgical worship, thus requires the capacity to use the signs of the Scriptures and the liturgical rites to enjoy God through deeper understanding of the texts and practice under examination. This is what I will call practicing worshipful wisdom. In chapter four, I contemplate what the Christian becomes through this fruitful worship, particularly in the Eucharistic celebration. Through the Eucharistic pedagogy of faith, the Christian becomes a sacrifice of love offered to God. In this transformation of human identity, the renewal of the Christian made in the image and likeness of God, the Christian's memory, understanding and will grow into a site for divine sacrifice. Thus, the interior life of divine contemplation is more perfectly expressed in one's visible actions. The Christian, within the life of the Church, becomes a living Eucharistic sign. Finally in chapter five, I conclude with an analysis of Augustine's mystagogical pedagogy. I argue that Augustine's sermons are rhetorical performances, using the signs of Scripture, to form the imaginations of Christians, their way of thinking about God, and to lead the congregation to become what they received in the preaching event. One learns about the liturgical act in the context of the Christian narrative, as a cultivation of memory; thinks about the practice through a theological seeking that is oriented toward both conversion and prayer, cultivating understanding; and then performs the practice anew through the results of these exercises, cultivating love. In chapter six, this Augustinian mystagogical approach is interrupted by the contemporary context of the Catholic parish. This interruption first includes a diagnosis of the primary malaise effecting religious practice in the United States--secularization. American secularization consists of an attenuation of the religious imagination, a discomfort with theological thinking, and an emphasis upon individual flourishing. Then, this chapter turns to contemporary educational theory, including John Dewey and Etienne Wenger, as a way of discerning how to perform this Augustinian mystagogical approach in a secular age through the catechetical ministry of the parish. I conclude that an Augustinian mystagogical approach in the present context requires a de-habituation from previous ways of thinking, as well as an intelligent socialization into a mystagogical imagination within communities of practice. Finally, in chapter seven, I set forth a plan of formation in which the whole catechetical life of a parish becomes an initiation into the practice of worshipful wisdom through the four fundamental tasks of catechesis and an Augustinian mystagogical approach to catechetical pedagogy. By means of this Augustinian mystagogical formation, the Christian learns to offer all of one's existence as a sacrifice to God, the Eucharistic vocation of the Christian. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis (M. Th.(Theology))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-111)

Thesis (Ph. L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-74).

Thése--Faculté des lettres de Paris. / Includes bibliographical references.