Augustine and the Disciplines

Abstract

This book 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. One of the topics investigated here is Augustine's changing relationship with the ‘disciplines’ as he moved from an attempt at their Christianisation (in the philosophical dialogues of Cassiciacum) to a radical reshaping of them within a Christian world-view (in the De Doctrina Christiana and Confessions). The book also considers 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.

Psallite sapienter: Augustine on Psalmody

“…9 Augustine followed philosophical tradition when he sought to show, in his early work de musica, that the ratios which governed rhythm also governed the order of the universe. 9 Pollmann and Vessey (2005). His contemporary Jerome warned the widow Furia not to have psaltriae in her house at rome, and urged laeta to bring up 6 Cod.…”