Our Deepest Desire

Prayer, Fasting & Almsgiving in the Writings of Augustine of Hippo

De: Sister Susan SLG

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

FAIRACRES PUBLICATIONS 193

This is a book about the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving as we meet them in the teaching of St Augustine of Hippo. He is generally acclaimed as someone who has had enormous influence on Christian theology and much has been written about him by scholars. However, apart from a number of translations of the Confessions, few of his writings are accessible to the ordinary reader, even though, as Bishop of Hippo, he constantly wrote and preached for his people.

The first part of this book presents Augustine’s teaching on three central practices of Christian living—prayer, fasting and almsgiving—with reference to his sermons and his commentaries on the Psalms. The second part places it alongside some recent authors who demonstrate how this triad continues to be of value to Christians today. Although it has been conceived as a Lent book, this text provides a reflective introduction to these ways of Christian living in whatever season of the Church’s year a reader picks it up.

Sister Susan SLG read Classics at Royal Holloway and taught for two years before joining the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God. In 2018 she was awarded an MA in Church History from the University of Nottingham. Her dissertation was the starting point for this book. She is at present Garden Sister and Librarian at Fairacres Convent in Oxford.