In Augustines Confessions, the saint famously uncovers timethat most familiar experienceas a rich vein of inquiry. The chapters in this volume mine that vein, showing anew its depth and breadth, through engagement with an unusually broad group of thinkers and themes. Materialist, Buddhist, and Reformation texts refract Augustines thought in illuminating new directions, while conventional Augustinian themes like sin, grace, creation, and eschatology are productively reexamined. Above all, these chapters remind us that an investigation of time is, at bedrock, always an investigation of ourselves. -- Erika Kidd, University of St. Thomas Drawing on an array of disciplinary perspectives, Augustine and Time offers a wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and ambitious collection of essays that brings together historical and thematic approaches to examine Augustine's views on time, the Medieval reception history of his views, and possibilities for inter-religious dialogue. -- Matthew Drever, University of Tulsa This fine essay collection offers something rare. An international team of established and emerging scholars write from multiple perspectives, offer close readings of Augustine, fan out into reception history, and bring different disciplines and religious traditions into conversation. That breadth combines with the depth of focusing upon a single topic (time) while diving especially into one famous text (Book 11 of Confessions). The result is at once a dimensional and fine-grained take on Augustines thought. Augustine and Time is a suggestive, absorbing group of essays. -- Michael Cameron, University of Portland It is difficult to think of a more Augustinian problem than that of time and temporality. Whereas in previous generations Augustine was defined by his attention to scripture, selfhood and sinfulness, our current era draws us to his sense of temporality, which comprises all three themes but does so outside of any confessional order or pre-established philosophical hierarchy. The attempt to seize Augustinian temporality in all its many-faceted aspects is what makes this volume on time in Augustine both rich and indispensable. -- Willemien Otten, University of Chicago "Augustine and Time is about Augustinian temporality - how we live in the face of our finite lifespan, one day or week or month or year after the next, from our hazily remembered infancy through childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. Augustine's conception of our all-too-human `temporality' is explored not only in Augustine and in the world of his time, but brought into dialogue with other ages and other traditions in a way that shows its power and flexibility. It's a fascinating idea for a book, and it is carried out with flying colors. It will change the way you think about this enterprise of living that we all are engaged in." -- Peter King, University of Toronto Augustine was famously perplexed by time: as the condition of our very existence, perhaps nothing is more familiar to us; as the encompassing horizon of our finitude, perhaps nothing in the created order is more difficult to think. Readers who share Augustines perplexity will find in this admirable collection not an easy answer to a difficult question (Who can explain time easily and briefly? asks Augustine), but rather a deepening of perplexity into wonder. Hannan, Paffenroth, and Doody have done us a great service by gathering here such varied meditations on the common theme of time. The result is a rich invitation to think time anew: from within and without Christianity; in Augustines historical context and in the received tradition; in light of more contemporary philosophical theories of time; in relationship to language and to melody; and as embodied both now and in the hereafter (the time after time). Augustines spiritual genius consists in his willingness to tarry with mystery until perplexity blossoms into praise. This volume is an invitation to journey into time with Augustine, and to find wonder redoubled along the way. -- Paul Camacho, Villanova University
