Rhetoric and the Virtues of the Heart: On Augustine's Political Thought

Join us for a talk by Mary Keys, Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. . This COLLIS Institute lecture will take place at the A.D. White House, and is also accessible by Zoom. A reception will follow. For questions, contact ell67@cornell.edu Cosponsored by the Department of Government. Abstract Augustine of Hippo’s work has proven indispensable in the history of political thought, ever since he wrote in the late fourth and early fifth centuries through to our own times—and this despite the fact he was not primarily a political theorist, and in increasingly secularized eras and polities. Why might this be so? Drawing on Augustine’s masterwork The City of God and his scriptural commentaries, this lecture explores Augustine’s social and civic thought, giving special attention to the themes of rhetoric—persuasion and its power and perils, and the heart—the great enigma of its loves, virtues, and vices. About the Speaker Mary M. Keys holds a BA from Boston College and a MA and PhD from the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching interests span a broad spectrum of political theory, with a special focus in Christianity, ethics, and political thought. She is the author of Pride, Politics, and Humility in Augustine's City of God (Cambridge) and Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good (Cambridge). Her work includes articles and chapters in the American Journal of Political Science, History of Political Thought, Perspectives on Political Science, the Political Science Reviewer, the Oxford Handbook of Rhetoric and Political Theory, the Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights and the Cambridge Companion to Augustine's "City of God." She has held various fellowships, including a NEH Fellowship supporting her ongoing research project on Humility, Modernity, and the Science of Politics, and she has been a visiting scholar or fellow at Princeton University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago. She also offers political theory courses for credit in Holy Cross College’s Moreau College Initiative, Westville Correctional Facility, Westville, Indiana.