Wisdom’s Friendly Heart

“What might Augustine’s profound love of truth look like in our contemporary setting—with its postmodern skepticism, post-truth cynicism, elitist power games, and belligerent conspiracy theorists? Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth’s book gives us a way to answer this question, aiming to reinvigorate the hope that truth itself actively enters into relationship with us, having a friendly heart that wants to be found.”


—Phillip Cary, Eastern University





“Wisdom’s Friendly Heart tracks St. Augustine’s response to the skepticism and conspiracy theories of his time through 1,500 years and from North Africa to North America. His emphasis on truth-seeking as embodied friendly relationship with others and with truth can also address the urgent questions and concerns of our time. This brilliant and well-researched book will be useful to scholars and to anyone who has been intrigued, puzzled, and stirred by reading Augustine.”


—Margaret Miles, Graduate Theological Union





“Augustine, an old pessimistic curmudgeon? Wrong. By the way, does our own time fare better? Among us, a deep mistrust about the truth, smeared by fake news of all ilk, despair of the future, a hidden hatred of the body are rampant. In her short, fresh, crisply written, reader-friendly book, Prof. Hockenbery Dragseth prescribes a cure. She convincingly shows that Augustine’s passionate quest for wisdom as the source of joy can adequately meet our predicament.”


—Rémi Brague, Pantheon-Sorbonne University and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich





“A meticulously re-lecture of Augustine from a philosophical viewpoint. It avoids confessional commitments and gives a fresh interpretation with regard to Augustine’s search for truth. In particular this interpretation faces postmodern and post-Christendom challenges and makes a vital contribution to contemporary searches for intellectual security. The study reintegrates Augustine into actual debates and votes for Christian hope as a model for overcoming the plurality of solutions to current problems with a rational as much as spiritual way of religious thought.”


—Markus Wriedt, Goethe University Frankfurt