Recollections and Reconsiderations

Auteur

Margaret R. Miles is Emerita Professor of Historical Theology, The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Her most recent books are Augustine and the Fundamentalist's Daughter (2011) and Getting Here from There: Conversations on Life and Work (with Hiroko Sakomura, 2011).

Texte du rabat

Several years before his death, Augustine of Hippo reviewed his published works, commenting on his purpose in writing each, and correcting, from his present perspective, the mistakes he noticed. Inspired by Augustine's Retractationes, Miles's Recollections and Reconsiderations undertakes a similar project, a critical review of almost fifty years of her publications. Rereading and rethinking in chronological order effectively bonds life and thought into a corpus, a body of work with consistent values and interests. Such a review would be an illuminating project for any longtime scholar/student--both rewarding and humbling, an exercise in self-knowledge. Informed by a lifetime of studying Christian traditions, Miles concludes by describing both endemic problems with Christianity, and what she sees is its essence and beauty.