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9780567712172

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Reviews

""At a time when an abstract and sentimental 'universalism' is disorienting and hollowing out Western societies, Thomas Harmon's book judiciously helps us to grasp anew the unique import of the Christian offer of salvation to all human beings. Through a sober, learned and refreshingly clear reading of Augustine, it explains how the mediation of Christ is uniquely able to overcome and cure the otherwise intractable divisions among human beings and within every human breast. For those who have not given up on asking how they should live, this is a courageous, encouraging and illuminating book."" --Pierre Manent, The School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, France ""The Universal Way of Salvation in the Thought of Augustine sheds new light on an old distinction, that between the few and the many or the wise and the unwise. Thomas Harmon masterfully explores the writings of St. Augustine and discovers that although Augustine was well aware of the distinction and even influenced by it in the way that he categorized people, his Christian faith sought ways to minimize or transcend the gulf between the elite and hoi polloi, all in imitation of the Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. This volume is well poised to become the definitive word on the subject."" --Michael P. Foley, Baylor University, USA ""In the preface to Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche famously quips that ""Christianity is Platonism for the people."" Thomas Harmon's Augustine gives the lie to that seductive simplification. Harmon shows us that in his deep engagement with the great scholastic Platonist, Porphyry of Tyre, Augustine chides Porphyry not simply for his metaphysical mischief-his tendency to pit intellect against affect-but also for his self-serving exultation of mental askesis. It is no liberation to exult your spirit to spite your flesh. Much of Harmon's intricate exegesis of Augustine's case for an incarnate, Christ-transfigured universalism centers on City of God. But the universalist thematic is not confined there, as Harmon also effectively shows. One of the many virtues of Universal Way is Harmon's deft ability to tease out the (body) politics of an essentially transpolitical faith."" --James Wetzel, Villanova University, USA

Author Information

Thomas P. Harmon is Professor & Scanlan Foundation Chair in Theology, Directory of the MA in Evangelization & Culture and Associate Director of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.

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