The problem of self-love in St. Augustine

by Oliver O'Donovan

Hardcover, no dust jacket. Good. Sound binding, clean text. Cream colored boards show light soiling.

221 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Oliver O'Donovan FBA FRSE (born 1945) is a scholar known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thesis: Self-love is notorious to define, be it pagan or Christian. And it isn’t always clear what Augustine means by it. O’Donovan, however, does point the way through the morass and gives us something like the following: Augustine takes classical eudaimonianism and gives a “communal” and eschatological cast to it: self-love finds its true expression in love to God, which orders my love to others (138).

O’Donovan ends with an outstanding presentation of Christian Eudaimonism. Such a view will have to take a positivist view of the finis bonum.

But in some ways more important than the above is O’Donovan’s wise, judicious handling of the history of ethics in the ancient world. Among other things, he gives us an outstanding commentary on the latter half of De Trinitate.

[I-kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author clearly has mastery of Augustine's writings but does not overburden the reader with scholarship; instead he keeps it succinct even though many of the points are quite subtle and require patience to think through. I found his discussions of why the Neoplatonist picture of ascent sits uneasily with the command to love one's neighbor (first chapter), why the principle of self-love and the eudaemonistic principle are easily confused but ought to be distinguished in Augustine (chapter 2), and whether the eudaemonistic "assumption" ended up compromising Augustine's understanding of Christian ethics (last chapter), very helpful and clarifying. I think I'm now ready for Arendt's dissertation, which I have yet to encounter an Augustine scholar mention with approval...