Research
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
1) "Reconstructing the Demonology of St. Augustine"
Funded by the SSHRC Insight Development Program (2014-2017)
Description: Augustine never wrote an extended treatise on demonology; the closest he came to such was his De divinatione daemonum [On the Divination of Demons], and the De agone Christiano [On the Christian Combat]. Nevertheless, scattered throughout many of his works on sundry topics one finds many short discussions, brief descriptions, passing comments, and relatively longer excursuses concerning demons. Despite the lack of an extended treatment on the topic, the numerous places where Augustine writes on demonology attest to the importance that he placed on demonological concerns. How we understand Augustine’s demonology affects our interpretation of his ontology, his understanding of nature and creation, divine and human agency, miracles, the problem of evil, and divine/human mediation.
The project aims to reconstruct Augustine’s overall understanding of and position on the nature and role of demons as Augustine himself presents it, through a thorough examination of the the texts relating to demonology throughout Augustine’s works. The project also explores how Augustine’s Platonism affects his demonology by looking at how it influences and shapes this thought, and contributes to his understanding and explication of Christianity. This will shed further light on how we interpret the Platonic content of Augustine’s successors, who rely on Augustine as an authority for their own demonological questions. The final results will be published in a monograph on the topic.
PUBLICATIONS
Edited Volumes
1. 2018: Brisson, Luc, Seamus O’Neill, and Andrei Timotin, eds. Neoplatonic Demons and Angels. Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Refereed Journal Articles
9. 2018: "Why the Imago Dei is in the Intellect Alone: A Criticism of a Phenomenology of Sensible Experience for Attaining an Image of God." The Saint Anselm Journal 13. no 2 (Spring 2018): 19-41. Link to PDF
8. 2017: "Privation, parasite, et perversion de la volonté: Une étude ontologique et psychologique de la doctrine augustinienne du mal." Laval théologique et philosophique 73. no. 1 (février 2017): 31-52. Link to PDF
7. 2016: "Augustine and Aquinas on Demonic Possession: Theoria and Praxis.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 90 (2016): 133-147. Link to PDC
6. 2016: "'aequales angelis sunt': Demonology, Angelology, and the Resurrection of the Body in Augustine and Anselm." The Saint Anselm Journal 12, no. 1 (Fall 2016): 1-18. Link to PDF
5. 2014: "Augustine and Boethius, Memory and Eternity." Analecta Hermeneutica 6 (2014): 1-20. Link to PDF
4. 2014: "'How does the body depart?': A Neoplatonic Reading of Dante's Suicides." Dante Studies 132 (2014): 175-200. Link to JSTOR
3. 2012: "In Defense of Hierarchy: A Response to Levi Bryant's 'A Logic of Multiplicities: Deleuze, Immanence, and Onticology." Analecta Hermeneutica 4 (2012): 1-36. Link to PDF
2. 2011: "Porphyry the Apostate: Assessing Porphyry's Reaction to Plotinus's Doctrine of the One." The Heythrop Journal 52 (2011): 1-10. Link to PDF
1. 2011: " 'You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive': Demonic Agency in Augustine." Dionysius 29 (2011): 9-27. Link to PDF
Chapters in Books
4. 2018: “Evil Demons in the De Mysteriis: Assessing the Iamblichean Critique of Porphyry’s Demonology.” In Neoplatonic Demons and Angels, Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, edited by Luc Brisson, Seamus O’Neill, and Andrei Timotin, 160-189. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
3. 2018: “A Double-Edged Sword: Porphyry on the Perils and Profits of Demonological Inquiry.” In Platonic Pathways: Selected Papers from the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, edited by John F. Finamore and Danielle A. Layne, 93-123. Gloucestershire, UK: The Prometheus Trust, 2018.
2. 2017: “The Demonic Body: Demonic Ontology and the Domicile of the Demons in Apuleius and Augustine.” In Philosophical Approaches to Demonology, edited by Benjamin McCraw and Robert Arp, 39-58. New York and London: Routledge, 2017.
1. 2016: "The Church Fathers: Augustine." In The Finest Room in the Colony: The Library of John Thomas Mullock, edited by Ágnes Juhász-Ormsby and Nancy Earle, 66-67. St. John’s: Memorial University Libraries, 2016. Link to PDF
Book Reviews
6. 2016: "Well-Being: Happiness in a Worthwhile Life (review)." Philosophy in Review 36.2 (2016): 47-49. Link to PDF
5. 2014: "Free to Say No? Free Will and Augustine's Evolving Doctrines of Grace and Election (review)." Analecta Hermeneutica 6 (2014): 1-7. Link to PDF
4. 2013: "The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (review)." Philosophy in Review 33.1 (2013): 49-53. Link to PDF
3. 2011: "Plato: Ancient Philosophies, 8 (review)." Mouseion 11.1 (2011):122-126. Link to PDF
2. 2011: "Philosophy in the Middle Ages: the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions. 3rd ed. (review)." Teaching Philosophy 34.4 (2011): 439-44. Link to PDF
1. 2009: "Cynics: Ancient Philosophies, 3 (review)." Mouseion 9.3 (2009): 376-79. Link to PDF