Turning to Augustine, this chapter explores how Christian theology absorbs and transforms the tragic. Augustine’s Confessions reveal the struggle with sin, desire, and the will, depicting human existence as caught between divine grace and finite limitation. While Augustine insists that grace redeems the tragic through conversion and rebirth, his theology also acknowledges the persistence of conflict, temptation, and the fragility of freedom. The chapter examines Augustine’s suspicion of the natural desire for knowledge (curiosity), his confrontation with identity and individuality, and his distance from Platonic rationalism. Augustine’s theology does not erase tragedy but reconfigures it within the drama of salvation, where guilt becomes the precondition of grace. This interpretation highlights how theology seeks to transfigure tragedy without fully overcoming it. Law and philosophy, in dialogue with Augustine, are reminded of their limits: justice is never self-sufficient but remains bound to contingency, failure, and the possibility of renewal through forgiveness and transformation.

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Augustine’s Theology of Grace

  • Timo Slootweg

摘要

Turning to Augustine, this chapter explores how Christian theology absorbs and transforms the tragic. Augustine’s Confessions reveal the struggle with sin, desire, and the will, depicting human existence as caught between divine grace and finite limitation. While Augustine insists that grace redeems the tragic through conversion and rebirth, his theology also acknowledges the persistence of conflict, temptation, and the fragility of freedom. The chapter examines Augustine’s suspicion of the natural desire for knowledge (curiosity), his confrontation with identity and individuality, and his distance from Platonic rationalism. Augustine’s theology does not erase tragedy but reconfigures it within the drama of salvation, where guilt becomes the precondition of grace. This interpretation highlights how theology seeks to transfigure tragedy without fully overcoming it. Law and philosophy, in dialogue with Augustine, are reminded of their limits: justice is never self-sufficient but remains bound to contingency, failure, and the possibility of renewal through forgiveness and transformation.