Augustine's Literary Legacy as Research Focus in Contemporary Scholarship

Abstract

The views on the soul in the philosophical-theological thought of Au-relius Augustine (354–430 AD) hold a special place. When considering practically any of his teachings—whether it be his doctrine on the cosmos, time, memory, the relationship between free will and divine predestination, or his philosophy of history and pedagogy—we are inevitably compelled to take them into account or directly engage with them. His works are also associated with the so-called "psychologism" of Augustine, a concept high-lighted by numerous scholars delving into his truly vast creative heritage. The purpose of this paper is to explore the research devoted to the concepts of the soul (both individual and cosmic) in the works of Augustine or related to them. Additionally, it aims to identify works that address the issue of how Augustine's ideas about the soul were perceived in the early Middle Ages, using Cassiodorus [c. 487 – c. 578 AD] as an example. The studies, which encompass the aspects of Augustine’s psychological conception, are examined according to thematic principles, and divided into the following groups: (I) Studies dedicated to the exploration of Augustine’s cosmology, human existence, and soul (Among them: “Augustine’s Philosophy of Mind” by Gerard O’Daly [1987]; “Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized” by J. Rist [1994]; “The World-Soul and Time in St. Augustine” [1983] and “Augus-tine’s Theory of Soul” [2003] by Roland Teske, and others). (II) Works demonstrating the influence of early teachings, traditions, and texts on Augustine (for example, “The Divine Sense: The Intellect in Patris-tic Theology” [2007] by Anna Williams and “Memory in Plotinus and Two Early Texts of St. Augustine” [1976] by Gerard O’Daly, among others). (III) Studies focused on the examination of individual works of Augustine with regard to their psychological aspects (Including: “An Analysis of Saint Augustine’s De immortalitate animae” [1980] and “The Fall of the Soul in Saint Augustine: A Quaestio Disputata” [1986] by Richard Penaskovic; “Augustine, Conf. IX, 10, 24” [1958] by John Taylor, and others). (IV) Papers indicating Cassiodorus’s reception and assimilation of Au-gustine’s teachings on the soul (e.g., e.g. “The Manuscripts of Cassiodorus’ De anima” [1959] by J.W. Halporn; “Cassiodoro e la grecità” [1986] by A. Garzya, “Il sottofondo culturale del De anima di Cassiodoro” [1995] by R. Masulo, etc.).