Augustine’s Apocalyptic Political Theology in the Evil Saeculum
Ebook
Augustine’s Apocalyptic Political Theology in the Evil Saeculum investigates Augustine’s apocalyptic political theology under the premise that he perceived the saeculum, or this age, as evil. Augustine views the saeculum as wicked because of the activity of the devil and demons. For Augustine, the devil perverted our social life and politics by mediating the false collective memory of the created world, social life, and politics through media, such as various religio-cultural liturgies and literary works. In particular, the demons reinforced Roman citizens’ amor sui, amor laudis, and libido dominandi by employing pagan rituals and literature that mediated the collective memory of the imperial period, justifying the existence and expansion of the empire. As such, this book explores the socio-political implications of Augustine’s demonology.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations of the Works of Augustine
Introduction
Chapter 1: Augustinian Politics as Too Meek in the Evil Saeculum
Chapter 2: Hoping in Despair: The Saeculum in the Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Imagination
Chapter 3: Demonic Forces and Human Agency in the Saeculum: Demons and Imperial Collective Memory
Chapter 4: Apocalyptic Christ and the Politics of Will
Chapter 5: The Politics of the Earthly City and Pilgrim Church
Chapter 6: Interrogating Mathewes and Gregory
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Author
The decolonial moment has underlined the importance of Western theologians hearing what non-Western readers hear in their canonical texts. Pung Ryong Kim insightfully draws out what is lost from when contemporary readers marry Augustine to democratic liberal politics, betraying the radicality of his own politics and depriving Christians of the resources needed to think beyond the tired ruts of partisan politics. This volume is essential reading for political theologians in times which the political lives of Western democracies are so starkly dysfunctional in their inability to transcend what divides them.
Pung Ryong Kim represents a fresh take on that great writer about the earthly city and the heavenly city, love and the will, and Christ and the devil. To include Christ and the devil in that list is already to recognize the bold reinterpretation of Augustine that Kim brings to the table. Kim draws out something that many interpreters of Augustine do not: the devil and his angels mediate distorted ways of remembering and imagining political life that are healed by Christ and the church. This work represents an important contribution not only to discussions about this North African bishop living during the eclipse of the Roman Empire but also to discussions of living in an age where evil is alive.
- Title: Augustine’s Apocalyptic Political Theology in the Evil Saeculum
- Author: Pung Ryong Kim
- Publisher: Fortress Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781978716001, 9781978715998, 1978715994, 1978716001
- Resource ID: LLS:9781978716001
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-17T04:43:32Z
Pung Ryong Kim teaches historical theology at Sudo International University in Seoul.