Western theology and philosophy without Augustine is almost inconceivable. He turned Pauline eschatology into a psychology of redemption and bequeathed to the Christianity of his day its profoundest sense of the adventure of soul. His offerings to philosophy included a staggeringly important but highly problematic conception of will, a new kind of introspection, and a sense of providential order that seemed paradoxically to demand a secular politics.

Augustine: A Guide for the Perplexed takes up the major concerns of Augustine’s complex and evolving thought and accords them a form that allows readers to think with Augustine as well as about him. Aimed at students whose prior acquaintance with Augustine may be minimal or nonexistent, this book follows a guiding thread or two through the labyrinth of his polemical, exegetical, dogmatic and speculative writings. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of thinkers.

Introduction: A Life Confessed

1. Death and the Delineation of Soul
2. Sin and the Invention of Will
3. Sex and the Infancy of Desire
4. Politics and the Mystery of Others
   Conclusion: Fundamental Desire

James Wetzel is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, USA and holder of the Augustinian Endowed Chair in the Thought of Saint Augustine.