2023-10-17
19 分钟This is philosophy bites with me, Nigel.
Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
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St.
Augustine, a christian bishop and theologian who lived between the fourth and fifth century, is well known as a pessimistic.
Michael Lamb is the author of a book on Augustine's political thought.
He says that there's a much more positive side to Augustine.
What's often missed in Augustine is his strongly developed ideas about hope.
Michael Lamb, welcome to philosophy bites.
Thanks for having me.
The topic we're going to focus on today is Augustine on hope.
Before we get into the hope, could you just briefly say who Augustine was?
So Augustine Hippo was a famous christian bishop and theologian who lived in North Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Roman Empire.
He was an active citizen, a leader in the christian church, but also a profound and prolific author.
He wrote 100 books, including his famous book, the Confessions in the City of God.
And his influence really expanded across political thought from the medieval ages onto our contemporary moment.
I think it's fair to say that the flavor that people are left with from his writing is one of a kind of corrupted humanity, a dark vision of what people do to one another.
He's often known as one of the great pessimists of the west.