ONLINE FIRST
published on August 31, 2020
William Desmond
https://doi.org/10.5840/mpp20208238
Wording Time. On Augustine¡¯s Confessions XI: Transcriptions, Variations, Improvisations
Rather than abstracting Augustine¡¯s exploration of time from the whole of the Confessions, as philosophers have been tempted to do, I take up his exploration in terms of what I call a ¡®companioning relation¡¯ between philosophy and theology. There is a porosity between religion/theology and philosophy in Augustine that need not be taken as a philosophical or theological deficiency. This reflection speaks of Augustine¡¯s intentions and intuitions in terms of the theme: Wording Time. How might one word this wording, and how might Augustine¡¯s approach to time be thus illuminated? I approach the question in different stages, dealing first with theological, ontological, and psychological considerations. Then I follow the breadth of Augustine¡¯s concerns to a sense of sacred heterogeneities that yet are deeply intimate, and to a sense of time that is in communication with what is above time. In keeping with the musical motif that runs through this reflection, I offer some thoughts on agap¨¥ as not only an agap¨¥ sonans but an agap¨¥ personans. I will sometimes be transcribing Augustine¡¯s themes, sometimes offering variations on them, and sometimes composing improvisations in tune with Augustinian themes.