“Socii ad participationem boni.” De Civitate Dei 19: the way of Augustine towards peace

Passionate Mind: Essays in Honor of John M. Rist pays tribute to the academic work of a prolific and distinguished scholar in Classics and Philosophy who has authored some 18 books and over 200 scholarly articles and reviews. After graduating from Cambridge University in 1959, Professor Rist began his professional career immediately thereafter at the University of Toronto, where he was appointed Professor Emeritus in 1997. Before finishing his career in 2017, he also held appointments at the University of Aberdeen, Cambridge University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, and the Catholic University of America. This Festschrift, containing entries from an international team of scholars who are Professor Rist’s friends and/or former colleagues (including many senior scholars) and students, celebrates his academic work with freshly written, insightful and, in some instances, ground-breaking essays representing three of the fields in which he has made significant and enduring contributions. Therefore, after an introduction featuring Professor Rist’s perceptive and entertaining retrospective on his service to academia, Passionate Mind includes sections on Ancient Philosophy, Patristics and Biblical Criticism, and Ethics. While the essays in the Ancient Philosophy section consider topics in Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, and Plotinus, those in the Patristics and Biblical Criticism segment study subjects found mostly in the works of Augustine of Hippo, but also in Gregory of Nyssa and the Bible. Lastly, the Ethics section includes essays analyzing key matters in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the relationship between Rist’s and MacIntryre’s approaches to ethics, and the dynamics of a broadly Augustinian approach to sexual mores. Following in Professor Rist’s footsteps, the essays in this volume are insightful, provocative, and promise to make contributions in their fields.