Augustine and the Disciplines From Cassiciacum to Confessions

Augustine and the Disciplines takes its cue from Augustine's theory of the liberal arts to explore the larger question of how the Bible became the focus of medieval culture in the West. Augustine himself became increasingly aware that an ambivalent attitude towards knowledge and learning was inherent in Christianity. By facing the intellectual challenge posed by this tension he arrived at a new theory of how to interpret the Bible correctly. The topics investigated here include: Augustine's changing relationship with the 'disciplines', as he moved from an attempt at their Christianization (in the philosophical dialogues of Cassiciacum) to a radical reshaping of them within a Christian world-view (in the De Doctrina Christiana and Confessiones); the factors that prompted and facilitated his change of perspective; and the ways in which Augustine's evolving theory reflected contemporary trends in Christian pedagogy.

Karla Polmann is Professor of Classics, St Andrews University. Mark Vessey is Professor of English, University of British Columbia.

1. Introduction, Mark VesseyI. Honesta studia: classrooms without walls2. Disciplines of discipleship in late antique education: Augustine and Gregory Nazianzen, Neil McLynn3. The duty of a teacher: liminality and disciplina in Augustine's De Ordine, Catherine ConybeareII. Disciplinarum libri: the canon in question4. Augustine's disciplines: silent diutius Musae Varronis?, Danuta R. Shanzer5. Divination and the disciplines of knowledge according to Augustine, William E. Klingshirn6. The vocabulary of the liberal arts in Augustine's Confessions, Philip BurtonIII. Doctrina Christiana: beyond the disciplines7. The grammarian's spoils: De Doctrina Christiana and the contexts of literary education, Catherine M. Chin8. Augustine's critique of dialectic: between Ambrose and the Arians, Stefan Hessbruggen-Walter9. Augustine's hermeneutics as a universal discipline?, Karla Pollmann