Ambrose, Augustine, and the Pursuit of Greatness

Examines how Ambrose's and Augustine's theological commitments influenced their different critiques, appropriations, and modifications of virtue and greatness.

J. Warren Smith (Author)

9781108490740, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 December 2020

350 pages
24 x 16 x 3 cm, 0.8 kg

'… Smith has made a useful contribution in a complex field. His book will be read with profit by students of Latin patristic ethics and its hinterlands.' Ivor J. Davidson, Scottish Journal of Theology

Since Aristotle, the concept of the magnanimous or great-souled man was employed by philosophers of antiquity to describe individuals who attained the highest degree of virtue. Greatness of soul (magnitudo animi or magnanimitas) was part of the language of Classical and Hellenistic virtue theory central to the education of Ambrose and Augustine. Yet as bishops they were conscious of fundamental differences between Christian and pagan visions of virtue. Greatness of soul could not be appropriated whole cloth. Instead, the great-souled man had to be baptized to conform with Christian understandings of righteousness, compassion, and humility. In this book, J. Warren Smith traces the development of the ideal of the great-souled man from Plato and Aristotle to latter adaptions by Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch. He then examines how Ambrose's and Augustine's theological commitments influenced their different critiques, appropriations, and modifications of the language of magnanimity.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Problem of Greatness and the Great-Souled Man from Plato to Plutarch: 1. greatness of soul: the perfection of classical virtue
2. The roman ideal of great-souled men
Part II. Ambrose's Great-Souled Christians: 3. Law, gospel, and exemplary patriarchs
4. Toward a higher greatness: re-narrating perfection
5. Beyond honor and shame
Part III. Augustine and the Magnus Animus: 6. The 'sublime indifference' of greatness?
7. The witness of death and the witness of conscience: Lucretia and the shaming of roman virtue
Epilogue: the end of virtue
Abbreviations
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB], Philosophy of religion [HRAB]