{"title":"Reading Augustine","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the profound spiritual and philosophical explorations of Augustine with the 'Reading Augustine' collection. Discover insightful analyses and interpretations, guiding you through his timeless works and influential ideas.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"on-consumer-culture-identity-the-church-and-the-rhetorics-of-delight-book-mark-clavier-9781501330919","title":"On Consumer Culture, Identity, the Church and the Rhetorics of Delight","description":"The Reading Augustine series presents short, engaging books offering personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo's contributions to western philosophical, literary, and religious life.    Mark Clavier’s On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight draws on Augustine of Hippo to provide a theological explanation for the success of marketing and consumer culture. Augustine’s thought, rooted in rhetorical theory, presents a brilliant understanding of the experiences of damnation and salvation that takes seriously the often hidden psychology of human motivation. Clavier examines how Augustine’s keen insight into the power of delight over personal notions of freedom and self-identity can be used to shed light on how the constant lure of promised happiness shapes our identities as consumers. From Augustine’s perspective, it is only by addressing the sources of delight within consumerism and by rediscovering the wellsprings of God’s delight that we can effectively challenge consumer culture. 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Augustine discovered that the disorientation we feel in the face of change is a symptom of a deeper problem: namely, that we cannot truly comprehend time, even while it conditions every facet of our lives. This book puts Augustine into creative conversation with contemporary thinkers, from Pierre Hadot and Giorgio Agamben to Steven Pinker and Stephen Hawking, on questions such as the definition of time, the metaphysics of transformation, and the shape of history. 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Why did the ancients come to adopt monotheism and Christianity? On God, The Soul, Evil and the Rise of Christianity introduces possible answers to that question by looking closely at the development of the thought of Augustine of Hippo, whose complex spiritual trajectory included Gnosticism, academic skepticism, pagan Platonism, and orthodox Christianity. What was so compelling about Christianity and how did Augustine become convinced that his soul could enter into communion with a transcendent God?   The apparently sudden shift of ancient culture to monotheism and Christianity was momentous, defining the subsequent nature of Western religion and thought. 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