Remythologizing Augustine: History and Politics at the Edge of Time 2023 St. Augustine Lecture

This lecture seeks to resurrect the difficult project of a theology of history as a necessary correlate of renewed interest in political theology. The theme of history and politics is both ambitious and familiar, admitting a vast literature just within Augustine studies given his efforts to understand time, creation, and the historical careers of the ciuitas permixta and the "most glorious" ciuitas dei. That literature is usually focused on the much-debated saeculum and Augustine's rejection of cyclical history through a linear, universal history that admits apocalyptic discourse. My overarching goal is to inspire a contemporary Augustinian political theology that is more theological, more biblical, and more political, retrieving a contested category in the field: myth.