In this conversation with Prof. Tom Harmon, a scholar of St. Augustine, we consider whether rhetoric should be considered the chief of the liberal arts (at least among the trivium), its status during Augustine’s time, and its relation to the other liberal arts.  In light of Augustine’s criticism of rhetoric—“telling lies to people who know you are lying, and who praise you for it”—we consider how Augustine might defend liberal learning in our own day. and how such learning remains essential to fields and disciplines we might not expect.  We also consider considering the links between the verbal arts of the trivium and the mathematical ones of the quadrivium, particularly the relation between poetry, arithmetic, and  metaphysics.

Links of Potential Interest:

Our first conversation on Augustine

Works by Augustine:

Confessions

City of God

Works by other authors

John Cavadini, Visioning Augustine

Pierre Manent, The Metamorphosis of the City

Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography

Rev. Ernest L. Fortin, A.A. "Political Idealism and Christianity in the Thought of St. Augustine" (See also the three volumes of essays edited by J. Brian Benestad.)

Joseph Ratzinger, Volk und Haus Gottes in Augustins Lehre von der Kirche (Munich: Karl Zink Verlag, 1954).