Augustine interpreted by Romano Guardini

Abstract

Romano Guardini was interested in Augustine’s thought at various moments of his intellectual development, and, in particular, he deepened it with an original logic, driven both by personal concerns and by the provocations offered to him by the thinkers of his time. The German thinker presents in his texts an existential Augustine who seeks the answer to the realization of his own life and poses this question to God. The text is divided into three parts. The first part explains Guardini’s approach and his way of analyzing Augustinian texts. In particular, the link between this thinker and the reflections of Max Scheler, by assonance, and those of Nietzsche, by contrast, has been analyzed. The second part of the article is an explanation of religious experience, based on the text of The Confessions, on the one hand, and the work Anfang, on the other. Finally, the text closes with some critical remarks on Guardini’s reflection, particularly regarding his anthropology and considering the research of theologians and philosophers, Massimo Borghesi above all, who have already dealt with the same topic.