An Augustinian Theology of the Heart’s Privacy
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Authors
Kolbet, Paul R.
Issue Date
2018
Volume
15
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Type
Journal Article
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Abstract
A contested line between the public and the private is well attested in Augustine’s writings and runs through every human society and individual human heart. What Augustine calls “privacy” involves a movement where the human heart resists observation, turns away from the shared and given, and toward the individual and owned. Despite the enormous cost of what turns out to be a failed protective strategy and the manner in which it inevitably becomes entwined with ignorance, fear, and sin, Augustine maintained a policy of respecting the secrets of others, and he articulated a theology in which privacy becomes the very space in which the sinful heart is lured out of its self-containment by divine grace present in the bodily acts of Christ’s followers. Augustine’s highly nuanced and practical position supplies resources for those concerned about the controlling effects of the growing surveillance powers of contemporary state and corporate actors.|Keywords: Augustine of Hippo, confession, early Christianity, privacy, secrets, torture
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Citation
Kolbet, P. R. (2018). An Augustinian Theology of the Heart’s Privacy. Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series, 15, 1-20.
Publisher
Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University
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ISSN
1941-8450