On Memory, Marriage, Tears and Meditation

Download or read book On Memory, Marriage, Tears and Meditation written by Margaret R. Miles and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-14 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Memory, Marriage, Tears, and Meditation offers readers the tools for reading Augustine's journey to human emotions through his writings on feeling, marriage, conversion, and meditation. Augustine understood that feeling, not rationality, gathers and reveals the deep longing of the whole person. Throughout his ecclesiastical career, he discussed marriage in sermons, letters, and treatises from the perspective of his own experience. Miles examines Augustine's prototypes for conversion – reading and conversion; sacrifice and conversion; and the importance of friends in what might be considered a subjective and private process. Meditation was central to Augustine's Christian life and Miles argues that his practice of meditation suggests that penitence included a rich range of feeling leading to gratitude, peace, wonder, and love.