| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 293 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Organization of the Book -- Part I The Problem of Greatness and the Great-Souled Man from Plato to Plutarch -- 1 Greatness of Soul: The Perfection of Classical Virtue -- Aristotle and the Heroic Virtue -- Homer's Externalized Honor -- The Rehabilitation of Heroes -- Self-Sufficiency and the Noble Soul -- The Platonic Critique -- Glaucon and the Restraint of Ambition -- From Great to Good: Odysseus' Choice -- Conclusion |
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2 The Roman Ideal of Great-Souled Men -- Cicero: Ambition Redeemed -- Seneca: Magnitudo Animi and the Restraint of Power -- Plutarch's Magnanimous Lives -- Conclusion -- Part II Ambrose's Great-Souled Christians -- 3 Ambrose: Law, Gospel, and Exemplary Patriarchs -- Law and Gospel: Degrees of Imperfection -- Law Fulfilled in Love -- Spiritual Law and Higher Virtue -- Restoring the Faith of the Patriarchs -- Conclusion -- 4 Toward a Higher Standard of Greatness: Renarrating Perfection -- Claiming a Higher Moral High Ground -- Seneca and the Ideal of Imperial Mercy |
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Justice, Compassion, and the Bonds of Fellowship -- The Magnanimous Compassion of Joseph -- Who Should Receive Mercy? -- Conclusion: Magnanimous Mercy Redefined -- 5 Humiliation without Shame or Resentment -- Phocion: Dishonoring a Great-Souled Man -- Toward a Psychology of Resentment -- David's Conscience -- Humility and Humiliation -- Great-Souled Humility: The Virtue of a Priest and Teacher -- Conclusion -- Part III Augustine and the Magnus Animus -- 6 Augustine: The ''Sublime Indifference'' of Greatness? -- Childhood Shame and Fears -- The Semantic Range of Magnus Animus |
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Language and the Aspiration for Greatness -- Magnitudo Animi as Attachment to God -- Greatness of the Small-Souls -- Magnanimous Mercy -- Conclusion -- 7 The Witness of Death and the Witness of Conscience: Augustine and the Shaming of Roman Virtue -- Whose Crime? Whose Shame? -- Lucretia and the Witness of Death -- Magnitudo Animi or Infirmitas Mentis? -- Conscience: The Arbiter of Christian Self-Knowledge -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: The End of Virtue -- Bibliography -- Primary Sources -- Ambrose of Milan -- Aristotle -- Augustine of Hippo -- Cicero -- Gregory of Nazianzus -- Homer -- Livy |
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Philo of Alexandria -- Plato -- Plutarch -- Seneca -- Tacitus -- Virgil -- Secondary Sources -- Index |
| Summary |
"Since Aristotle, the concept of the magnanimous or great-souled man was employed by philosophers of antiquity to describe individuals who attained the highest degree of virtue. Greatness of soul (magnitudo animi or magnanimitas) was part of the language of Classical and Hellenistic virtue theory central to the education of Ambrose and Augustine. Yet as bishops they were conscious of fundamental differences between Christian and pagan visions of virtue. Greatness of soul could not be appropriated whole cloth. Instead, the great-souled man had to be baptized to conform with Christian understandings of righteousness, compassion, and humility. In this book, J. Warren Smith traces the development of the ideal of the great-souled man from Plato and Aristotle to latter adaptions by Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch. He then examines how Ambrose's and Augustine's theological commitments influenced their different critiques, appropriations, and modifications of the language of magnanimity"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on December 04, 2020) |
| Subject |
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397.
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Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430
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Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397. |
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Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430. |
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Magnanimity.
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Magnanimity.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2020013862 |
| ISBN |
9781108854764 |
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1108854761 |
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9781108848282 |
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1108848281 |
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