Any one know of this book?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CEM5
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CEM5

Guest
There is a fellow at work who is reading a book (I think it is anti-Christian and possibly anti-Catholic).

The cover has an illustration of St Augustine stepping on a philosopher.

Any one know of this book? And what its title is?

The co-worker periodically approaches me and asks me questions about my faith, but it is not really an interest so much as what he wants to tell me what’s “wrong” with it and he’s getting this controversial information from this book. I’m curious as to who the author is.

Thanks for any information,

CEM
 
CEM5 said:
The cover has an illustration of St Augustine stepping on a philosopher.

Any one know of this book? And what its title is?
Click to expand...
What leads you to believe that St. Augustine is stepping on a philosopher (or that it is even St. Augustine who is doing the stepping?).

I think it is unlikely that I would recognize St. Augustine in typical Catholic artwork, but even less likely that I would recognize a “philosopher” whom he was assaulting (I cannot imagine how an artist might distinctly depict a “philosopher,” especially since Augustine himself is also regarded as a philosopher).

It seems that I would more readily read the title of the book or the author’s name than discern such details from the cover’s artwork.

The next time you get a peek at the book, try to read the title or author.
 
DavidFilmer said:
What leads you to believe that St. Augustine is stepping on a philosopher (or that it is even St. Augustine who is doing the stepping?).

I think it is unlikely that I would recognize St. Augustine in typical Catholic artwork, but even less likely that I would recognize a “philosopher” whom he was assaulting (I cannot imagine how an artist might distinctly depict a “philosopher,” especially since Augustine himself is also regarded as a philosopher).

It seems that I would more readily read the title of the book or the author’s name than discern such details from the cover’s artwork.

The next time you get a peek at the book, try to read the title or author.
Click to expand...
what he said ^^^^^^^
 
CEM5 said:
There is a fellow at work who is reading a book (I think it is anti-Christian and possibly anti-Catholic).

The cover has an illustration of St Augustine stepping on a philosopher.

Any one know of this book? And what its title is?

The co-worker periodically approaches me and asks me questions about my faith, but it is not really an interest so much as what he wants to tell me what’s “wrong” with it and he’s getting this controversial information from this book. I’m curious as to who the author is.

Thanks for any information,

CEM
Click to expand...
Going just by the cover illustration is very difficult. 😃 Why don’t you ask your co-worker the title of the book? And then perhaps we can help.
 
CEM5 said:
There is a fellow at work who is reading a book (I think it is anti-Christian and possibly anti-Catholic).

The cover has an illustration of St Augustine stepping on a philosopher.

Any one know of this book? And what its title is?

The co-worker periodically approaches me and asks me questions about my faith, but it is not really an interest so much as what he wants to tell me what’s “wrong” with it and he’s getting this controversial information from this book. I’m curious as to who the author is.

Thanks for any information,

CEM
Click to expand...
Well, he pointed out that this illustration was of St Augustine and that St Augustine had said he would crush all knowledge. 🤷 I wanted to go home and research this, and the book.

Thanks for the reply, 🙂

God bless,
CEM
 
patrick457 said:
Going just by the cover illustration is very difficult. 😃 Why don’t you ask your co-worker the title of the book? And then perhaps we can help.
Click to expand...
I had asked the title of the book, and wanted to write it down when I went back to my computer at work, however, it was so busy with patients, that when I had the time, I had forgotten 😦 and he had already left for home (his shift ended). And now its the weekend…

Thank you, and everyone, for replying,

CEM
 
I haven’t found any St. Augustine quotes about crushing knowledge.

I did find a quote about it from a translation of The Cloud of Unknowing, a medieval mystical book. The author was basically telling people to stop being know-it-alls and trust God instead – ie, crush their own “knowledge” of what they thought they knew.

St. Augustine, having been himself a terrible know-it-all as a rhetoric teacher, Platonist, and Manichean, probably does have a few things to say about the uselessness of fake knowledge, gnostic “secret” knowledge, and pride. But given that he reveres Jesus as Truth Himself, it’s unlikely that he would say such a thing outside of the context of knowledge that is false or insufficient.

St. Augustine found the philosophers insufficient, but indeed is usually criticized for putting too much of Platonism into Christianity, not the other way around.

Also, any illustration of St. Augustine treading on somebody is probably a picture of him treading down a heretic (figuratively, as pictures of “our guy kicked butt in arguments” were very popular in the Middle Ages and Renaissance), not a philosopher.

Probably it’s supposed to be Mani, who was before St. Aug’s time although his heresy was still around to mislead St. Aug. If there’s a book around that defends as a defender of reason a guy like Mani, who hated matter and sex as intrinsically dirty, and called for magical mystical solutions to everything, it’s a bit confused about philosophy vs. Greco-Romano-Persian occult religions.
 
Mintaka said:
I haven’t found any St. Augustine quotes about crushing knowledge.

I did find a quote about it from a translation of The Cloud of Unknowing, a medieval mystical book. The author was basically telling people to stop being know-it-alls and trust God instead – ie, crush their own “knowledge” of what they thought they knew.

St. Augustine, having been himself a terrible know-it-all as a rhetoric teacher, Platonist, and Manichean, probably does have a few things to say about the uselessness of fake knowledge, gnostic “secret” knowledge, and pride. But given that he reveres Jesus as Truth Himself, it’s unlikely that he would say such a thing outside of the context of knowledge that is false or insufficient.

St. Augustine found the philosophers insufficient, but indeed is usually criticized for putting too much of Platonism into Christianity, not the other way around.

Also, any illustration of St. Augustine treading on somebody is probably a picture of him treading down a heretic (figuratively, as pictures of “our guy kicked butt in arguments” were very popular in the Middle Ages and Renaissance), not a philosopher.

Probably it’s supposed to be Mani, who was before St. Aug’s time although his heresy was still around to mislead St. Aug. If there’s a book around that defends as a defender of reason a guy like Mani, who hated matter and sex as intrinsically dirty, and called for magical mystical solutions to everything, it’s a bit confused about philosophy vs. Greco-Romano-Persian occult religions.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply. I learned from this and really appreciate it.

I did find out the title of the book:

The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman

and I found that this author is deceitful and anti-Christian. His so-called quote attributed to St. Augustine is not a quote at all but a very dishonest mismash of a few lines from about a 52 sentence St Augustine had written.

After finding the title and doing a little research,

(I came across this site blog.drwile.com/?p=7590 )

this site provides the whole quote.

Thank you to everyone for all your answers, and God bless,

CEM
 
CEM5 said:
Thank you for the reply. I learned from this and really appreciate it.

I did find out the title of the book:

The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman

and I found that this author is deceitful and anti-Christian. His so-called quote attributed to St. Augustine is not a quote at all but a very dishonest mismash of a few lines from about a 52 sentence St Augustine had written.

After finding the title and doing a little research,

(I came across this site blog.drwile.com/?p=7590 )

this site provides the whole quote.

Thank you to everyone for all your answers, and God bless,

CEM
Click to expand...
And now I know what the illustration on the cover was. 😃 It is St. Thomas confounds the Heretics by Filippino Lippi. It shows St. Thomas Aquinas and an old man (a personification of evil) underneath his feet.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/images/rome/maria-sopra-minerva/resized/eos2_257.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top