Author: Professor Robert O'Connell
Series: The Giants of Philosophy Series
Narrator: Charlton Heston
Unabridged: 2 hr 8 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: 03/04/2006
Genre: Philosophy - Religious
Aurelius Augustinus was a key figure in the transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. He lived at a time when no distinction was made between philosophy and theology, and the purpose of both was to show the way to wisdom, happiness, and blessedness. Augustinian thought is perhaps best capsulated in Anselm's famous maxim: "I believe in order to understand." Augustine believed the principal business of life is to arrive at the blissful vision of God, but he came to see that this can be done only after death. Only eternal and unchangeable goods are worth enjoying, and all other joys or pleasures are mere stops along the way. Temporal life is a "living death, a dying life"; its primary characteristic is the dizzying flux of time and change. Evil is not an active, threatening force; it is a lack, a privation, a corruption. For Augustine, every time we make a judgment of relative value, we implicitly acknowledge an absolute standard of value; and this absolute is God. Our final end, the contemplation of God after death, is a blissful, changeless, restful, and peaceful stillness of vision.
When we enter through the Gate of Jesus – by repentance and faith - we enter into his eternal kingdom. In that moment, we become citizens of heaven. Yes, we still find ourselves here on earth, but everything has changed. Earth is no longer our...
Kierkegaard wasnt really a philosopher in the academic sense. Yet he produced what many people expect of philosophy. He didnt write about the world, he wrote about life, about how we live and how we choose to live. His subject was the individual and...
Leo Tolstoy's "A Confession" is a brutally sincere reflection on life, morality, and the nature of faith. Tolstoy describes in great detail the process by which he lost his faith in established Christian churches, the meaninglessness of wealth and f...
Twentiethcentury European philosophy has grown out of two movements: existentialism (emphasizing the everyday turmoil of living) and phenomenology (seeking the essential, indispensable core of things grasped by pure consciousness). These movements h...
Voltaire and Rousseau offered opposing viewpoints on the major intellectual movement of their time: the Enlightenment. Like most Enlightenment thinkers, Voltaire repudiated tradition and history, embracing reform based on individualism and intellect...
Does God exist? How do you justify your belief or unbelief to others? A delicate matter, you rarely have the occasion to fully explore these questions in daily life. Now, this special series invites you to join some of the world’s leading thin...
Dallas Willard was a personal mentor and inspiration to hundreds of pastors, philosophers, and average churchgoers. His presence and ideas rippled through the lives of many prominent leaders and authors, such as John Ortberg, Richard Foster, James B...
Remarkably relevant, beautifully written, and filled with wit and wisdom, these three essays by Bertrand Russell allow the listener to test the concepts of the good life, morality, the existence of God, Christianity, and human nature. "What I Believ...
Banned in Russia, Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You was deemed a threat to church and state. The culmination of a lifetime's thought, it espouses a commitment to Jesus's message of turning the other cheek. In a bold and original treatise, T...