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Lecture by Dr. Matthias Smalbrugge

 

Lecture by Dr. Matthias Smalbrugge

DATE: Friday September 20th, 19:00-22:00

TITLE: The Confessions, mastering the past, present, and future

VENUE: Rapenburg 6, Leiden


Topic About the speaker Pascal Lecture Series Sign Up

Topic

The topic for this Lecture Series is "The Confessions, mastering the past, present, and future".

Augustine wrote several autobiographical works, of which The Confessions is of course the most famous. It was, for a long time, principally considered as a confession of Augustine’s personal faith and a recounting of his conversion to Christianity. Modern interpreters, however, have convincingly argued that the Confessions are not only a telling of his private experience of the faith, but also a great work of public rhetoric, a "marketing tool", perhaps even patterned as a new version of Virgil’s Aeneid. Moreover, a book meant to convince readers of Augustine’s integrity and the sincerity of his conversion; after all, didn't Augustine's rise to the episcopacy happen rather shortly after his baptism?

1600 years after this most curious autobiography, what can we say about the book and its author?

About the speaker

The third lecture of the Pascal Lecture Series will be held by Dr. Matthias Smalbrugge.

Matthias Smalbrugge is a full professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a part of the Faculty of Religion and Theology, Texts and Traditions. His academic interests include historical theology, patristics, St. Augustine’s philosophy, mnemonic structures and visual culture. With more than 130 research outputs to his name, Matthias Smalbrugge is an expert in his research field.

Pascal Lecture Series

Reading the works of Plato, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Montesquieu and other Great Books teaches us better thinking and gives perspective on our times. Who can match their search for the Good, the Beautiful and the True? But we also live in the here and now, and in a world full of challenges and problems and opportunities to explore. We must constantly apply old insights to new realities. That's what the Pascal Lecture Series is for.

Five times a year a renowned thinker, writer, poet or doer from home and abroad holds a lecture, followed by discussion with Pascal professors, students and others. The lectures always have a different topic: current (geo)politics, war and peace, art, literature, natural science, theology, law or economics, or something else. It can be about acute and urgent issues, but also about the age-old, biggest questions, and relates them to each other.

The evening proceeds as follows. The speaker delivers his lecture for about sixty minutes. After a thirty minutes break, there will be a conversation about the lecture. Students, faculty and other interested attendees can choose whether to sit in the first ring and then participate in the conversation, or sit or stand around it to watch the conversation.

With this model we follow the model developed at the American St. John's College in Annapolis - one of the oldest Great Books programs. In this form, they have had lively, enriching and enjoyable evenings for years.

Sign Up

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Date: Friday September 20th

Arrival: 19:00 - 19:15

End: 22:00

Title: The Confessions, mastering the past, present, and future

Venue: Rapenburg 6, Leiden

Entrance fee:
Student : EUR 25
Non-student: EUR 35