The Modernity of St. Augustine
Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1959. First edition. 12mo., original blue cloth, original dust jacket. Lower corners of book gently bumped, mild offsetting to gutters of blank endpapers. Near-fine. Item #288
"THROUGH ALL THESE THIRTY YEARS I HAVE REMAINED CONVINCED THAT ST. AUGUSTINE'S THOUGHT PROVIDES A COMMANDING POSITION FROM WHICH TO JUDGE MY OWN TIME, AND IS BECOMING CONSTANTLY MORE RELEVANT" First American edition of this long essay on Augustine's pervasive influence on the modern world. Written by Guitton after 30 years study of Augustine and coinciding with a new edition of the French priest's original thesis from the 1920s. A short Preface from February, 1955 introduces the text consisting of four short chapters: The Interior Man in History (with short sketches of Freud, Proust, Gide, Sartre), Social Man in History (Hegel), The Union of Internal and External History (Newman), and St. Augustine's Place in the History of Europe. The last chapter served as the new preface for the new edition of Guitton's thesis, "Existence and Destiny." Guitton looks back at Augustine's as the original modern man and he designates Newman as Augustine's natural successor, equating the Apologia Pro Vita Sua and the Confessions and comparing the Development of Christian Doctrine with the City of God. Translated from the French by A. V. Littledale and printed by the Ditchling Press for the publisher. Approbations.
Price: $50.00