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St. Paul Center Course
Return to the Heart: St. Augustine's Confessions
Presented by
Dr. Shane Owens
About the course
St. Augustine’s Confessions is the first autobiography in Western literature and remains a perennial classic of rhetoric, philosophy, and theology. It is also an intimate invitation into the inner life of one man’s journey away from and back to God and self. With particular attention to Augustine’s theology of the heart, the Confessions is revealed as an “omnibiography.” Augustine’s experiences of sin and his desire for love, happiness, and peace are his own but they are unveiled in such a way that we can recognize God and ourselves in the events narrated. We are trained in the recollection, prayer, and study that leads to true knowledge of and burning charity for the God who alone is our sweetness and rest.
About the presenter
Shane Owens is assistant professor of theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville where he teaches Scripture and historical theology. After attending Franciscan, where Dr. Owens met his wife, Esther, and earned a masters in theology, he completed his PhD at the Catholic University of America. His scholarship focuses on St. Augustine of Hippo, especially his exegesis and ecclesiology as well as the Franciscan intellectual tradition. He has previously taught at Catholic University, the Dominican House of Studies (DC), and Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University in Baton Rouge. A longtime friend and collaborator of the St. Paul Center and Dr. Scott Hahn, Owens has a book forthcoming with Emmaus Road Publishing entitled, Return to the Heart, addressing St. Augustine's spirituality in his Confessions. The Owens family, currently numbering four, resides in Steubenville, Ohio.
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