Catherine Conybeare

The aristocratic convert, Paulinus of Nola, was revered by contemporaries and correspondents, like Augustine of Hippo and Sulpicius Severus, as Paulinus noster - 'our Paulinus'. But his role as a shaper of, and exemplar to, the early Christian Church has, until recently, been often overlooked. This literate and accessible study examines the profound impact Paulinus had on Christian thought during a crucial period of its development. His ideas on friendship, Christian symbolism, and the nature of personal identity were produced on the cusp of the transition from the classical world to the burgeoning Western Christian civilization by a thinker with strong links to both. Paulinus' letters and other writings reveal the roots of many important strands of Christian thought; the works of Augustine and others attest to this influence. The letters of Paulinus and his correspondents portray an early Christian 'web' of shared concepts, intellectual discussion, and group development. Catherine Conybeare examines how the very process of writing and transmitting letters between members of a far-flung community helped to bind that community together and to aid the creation of ideas which would continue to reverberate for centuries after. 'Our Paulinus' was key to that group iconic as a model of behaviour, as a conversion success story, and as a intellectual contributor able to bridge the old world and the new.

Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola

Paulinus Noster

Kate Barnes

Catalogue for an exhibition at the Bryn Mawr College Library, Fall 2021.

Recovering Personal Histories from Early Books of Latin

Private Lives of Old Books

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so. The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is an engaging introduction to this spiritually creative and intellectually original work. This guidebook is organized by themes: the importance of language creation and the sensible world memory, time and the self the afterlife of the Confessions. Written for readers approaching the Confessions for the first time, this guidebook addresses the literary, philosophical, historical and theological complexities of the work in a clear and accessible way. Excerpts in both Latin and English from this seminal work are included throughout the book to provide a close examination of both the autobiographical and theoretical content within the Confessions.

The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine's Confessions

Simon Goldhill

Explores for the first time the deep and significant interactions between classical philology and theology.

Catherine Conybeare

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