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Document Details :

Title: Augustine and Religious Experience
Author(s): HARRISON, Carol
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 27    Issue: 2   Date: summer 2002   
Pages: 99-118
DOI: 10.2143/LS.27.2.930

Abstract :
Augustine of Hippo, one of the dominating figures of Western Theology, lived almost 1,600 years ago in an historical and cultural context very different from our own. What he and his contemporaries would have made of the term ‘religious experience’ one might well suppose would be rather different from what we, in our twenty-first century, postmodern, context understand by it. In fact, I wonder whether we can generalise, either about Augustine’s age, or our own, in this respect. The difficulty of defining so elusive a term as ‘experience’ and the questions raised by context, not least in respect to cultural, philosophical and theological matters, are felt acutely by anyone working in this field.

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