On Interrogation, Introspection, Dialectic and the Ineluctable Polarity of Being and Knowing - (Reading Augustine) by Matthew W Knotts (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In realising the abyssal peril facing one's being, one is called into a dynamic method of exploration, dialectic, which is significant in terms of both substantive philosophical content and method. This work considers the fundamentally "oppositional" structure of reality, viewing Augustine as a "Christian Heraclitus" and focusing on his conception of dialectic"--

Book Synopsis

This work considers the fundamentally "oppositional" structure of reality, viewing Augustine as a "Christian Heraclitus" and focusing on his conception of dialectic.

Matthew W. Knotts situates Augustine's anthropology within a classical Roman philosophical context, while characterizing his intellect by continuous questioning. In this way, the book grounds a constructive philosophical-theological enquiry in an historical-critical study of the sources and their context.

Review Quotes

Confronting the deep division between the self and the exterior world, this work focuses on the therapeutic and psychological aspects of philosophy and theology. This challenging undertaking opens a dialogue with a surprising pair of thinkers, Heraclitus and Augustine, on what it means to be human, as revealed by the pandemic.
Naoki Kamimura, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan

Matthew Knotts alerts the reader to challenging aspects of being human in Augustine's dialectical approach to the pursuit of self-knowledge within God. He engages in a dialogue between Augustine, himself, and Heraclitus' openness for contradicting phenomena within the universe. In discussion with 'the complete Augustinian overdetermined portrait of the self', he explores in imaginative prose the bishop's efforts to examine the abyss of the self and being human.
Martin Claes, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

This book stages an encounter between two thinkers too seldom put into conversation. Far from merely juxtaposing Augustine and Heraclitus, though, Knotts make them his pole stars as he charts a fresh course through the philosophical and theological problems posed by the dialectical constitution of selfhood. His destination is an account of the psyche that is no longer beholden to old Cartesian dichotomies, but instead opens out onto the possibility that Augustinian theology might still have something to teach twenty-first-century psychology.
Sean Hannan, MacEwan University, Canada

About the Author

Matthew W. Knotts teaches Theology at Loyola Academy, USA.