Excerpt: Today I will be zeroing in on the question of the status of politics in Augustine’s sacramental worldview. Let me just say two words about what I mean when I say that Augustine looks the world sacramentally: usually when we hear the word sacrament we think of Christian sacrament, like baptism or the eucharist. However, the term has a broader meaning, which is something akin to mystery. In other words, something can be called sacramental whenever it points beyond itself to a higher reality. For Augustine the whole world points above itself to the God who created it.
A World Besieged: The Status of Politics in Augustine’s Sacramental Worldview
Lecture by Veronica Ogle
Given at Assumption College on October 24, 2019
MEMS Fall Faculty Lecture – October 24, 2019 from Assumption College on Vimeo.
Excerpt: Today I will be zeroing in on the question of the status of politics in Augustine’s sacramental worldview. Let me just say two words about what I mean when I say that Augustine looks the world sacramentally: usually when we hear the word sacrament we think of Christian sacrament, like baptism or the eucharist. However, the term has a broader meaning, which is something akin to mystery. In other words, something can be called sacramental whenever it points beyond itself to a higher reality. For Augustine the whole world points above itself to the God who created it.
Click here to view Veronica Roberts Ogle’s webpage at Assumption College
Top Image: The Four Doctors of the Western Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Gerard Seghers
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