The Integrated Self: Augustine, the Bible, and Ancient Thought

by Brian Stock

Well before his entry into the religious life in the spring of 386 C.E., Augustine had embarked on a lengthy comparison between teachings on the self in the philosophical traditions of Platonism and Neoplatonism and the treatment of the topic in the Psalms, the letters of St. Paul, and other books of the Bible. Brian Stock argues that Augustine, over the course of these reflections, gradually abandoned a dualistic view of the self, in which the mind and the body play different roles, and developed the notion of an integrated self, in which the mind and body function interdependently.Stock identifies two intellectual techniques through which Augustine effected this change in his thought. One, lectio divina, was an early Christian approach to reading that engaged both mind and body. The other was a method of self-examination that consisted of framing an interior Socratic dialogue between Reason and the individual self. Stock investigates practices of writing, reading, and thinking across a range of premodern texts to demonstrate how Augustine builds upon the rhetorical traditions of Cicero and the inner dialogue of Plutarch to create an introspective and autobiographical version of self-study that had little to no precedent.The Integrated Self situates these texts in a broad historical framework while being carefully attuned to what they can tell us about the intersections of mind, body, and medicine in contemporary thought and practice. It is a book in which Stock continues his project of reading Augustine, and one in which he moves forward in new and perhaps unexpected directions.

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 2, 2016

Reviews

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the whole, reading this book was an unpleasant experience. Much of it consisted of summary or paraphrase (some of the works I was not familiar with enough to judge which was which) of abstruse abstract patristic material. There's certainly scholarly service in summarising primary sources difficult to read or gain access to on their own, but I could've used much more frequent analytical signposting--what I was reading all this material FOR. The thesis--that Augustine conceived of the self as integrating soul and body much more thoroughly than his predecessors did or that rumour has had it he did--is wonderful. That that is true is now much clearer to me, but not how. I would have to do much of the analytical work translating the trees into the forest, the bird's-eye-view. Marcia Colish's The Mirror of Knowledge was a similar reading experience many years ago in grad school--long swathes of summary I wished I knew how to care about more. Four stars here because of Stock's erudition, and because if I gave any of his books fewer than four I feel as though I would be admitting defeat, that I missed something I should have been thankful to receive. Short shrift on the titular Bible, too, other than the first chapter, disappointing.