Why This Text Matters | Augustine's Confessions | Richard Miller

The Confessions of St. Augustine is a literary classic, a theological landmark, and a glimpse into the life of one of the Latin West’s most brilliant philosophers. An autobiography written in the form of a prayer, Confessions recounts Augustine’s early life, his conversion to Christianity, and the relationships that formed his character. As the book goes on, Augustine reflects on the nature of memory and interpretation, inviting readers to make sense of their own lives in light of the Christian gospel. Richard B. Miller is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Emeritus Professor of Religion, Politics, and Ethics at the University of Chicago. He examines the relationship between religion, politics, and ethics in a comparative, critical, and constructive way. His research interests include religion and public life, political and social ethics, theory and method in religious thought and ethics, and practical ethics. He also examines the social contexts and assumptions that organize the study of religion and religious ethics, meta-critically. Given the breadth of possibilities made available by the study of religion, ethics, and politics, Miller’s work does not focus on a single problem, theme, text, author, period, or topic. He is rather drawn to different issues and overlapping domains of inquiry that enlist a range of theoretical vocabularies. Specific topics include the ethics of war and peace, practical reasoning in ethics, bioethics, theories of justice, comparison in religious ethics, ethics and cultural studies, human rights, and moral luck.