On Hellenism, Judaism, Individualism, and Early Christian Theories of the Subject

Description

This first of a two-volume work provides a new understanding of Western subjectivity as theorized in the Augustinian Rule. A theopolitical synthesis of Antiquity, the Rule is a humble, yet extremely influential example of subjectivity production. In these volumes, Jodra argues that the Classical and Late-Ancient communitarian practices along the Mediterranean provide historical proof of a worldview in which the self and the other are not disjunctive components, but mutually inclusive forces. The Augustinian Rule is a culmination of this process and also the beginning of something new: the paradigm of the monastic self as protagonist of the new, medieval worldview. In this volume, Jodra takes one of the most influential and pervasive commons experiments-Augustine's Rule-and gives us its Mediterranean backstory, with an eye to solving at last the riddle of socialism. In volume two, he will present his solution in full, as a kind of Augustinian communitarianism for today. These volumes therefore restore the unity of the Hellenistic and Judaic world as found by the first Christians, proving that the self and the other are two essential pieces in the construction of our world.

Guillermo M. Jodra teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.

Augustine's radically subversive understanding of individuality and the experience of community is freshly significant in our times, as Pope Francis makes clear: "The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures." (LS 240). I am grateful for Guillermo M. Jodra's insights as he brings to the forefront the Augustinian contribution that "self-realization can only take place as we walk together, with others, toward the Other". -- Arthur Purcaro, Villanova University, USA