Beschreibung
The recurring theme, Augustine and Time, holds sway in both academic and popular works. However, most of the efforts focus on his Confessions XI, unfortunately, neglecting the rest of his corpus. Even in a cursory reading of it, a twin factor stands out and it permeates the entire corpus: The cluster of temporal notions he uses holds many more beyond the concepts of time and eternity and, its being posited in the cognition of the human mind. This serendipitous observation necessitates a hermeneutical probe into the inextricable link between temporal notions and human cognition. Taking the untrodden path, this probe begins with an analysis of Augustine’s conversion narrative, since the inseparable intertwining of temporality and human cognition is first observable in the philosophical and theological matters he experienced then. The cognitive capabilities for perception, belief and language, and the mind’s concern with reality, rationality and relationality are examined to show the way human cognition gives rise to complex temporality rather than just the notions of time and eternity. The Appendix argues Augustine and Neuroscience could dialogue on temporality in human cognition.
Johnson Srigiri holds a PhD (magna cum laude) from the department of systematic theology of the Faculty of Evangelical Theology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. He is an ordained minister of Samavesam of Telugu Baptist Churches, now living in Heidelberg, Germany.
