Renee Kohler-Ryan: Embracing Complexities: Retrieving order In Interiore Homine

This paper seeks to address problems that arise from interpreting Augustine’s inner self via Cartesian notions of subjectivity. Avoiding the exaggerated senses of dualism that thereby arise, it seeks to retrieve Augustine’s pre-modern, biblical interpretation of what it means to be human. It does so by focusing on discovering the possibilities for an ordered relationship between the inner and the outer man. The paper discusses the prevalent contemporary models for understanding Augustine’s inner self, before proposing how scholars might embrace Augustine’s more complex vision of what it means to be fully human in relationship to God, self, others, and world.