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Saint Augustine, a Christian bishop and theologian who lived between the 4th and 5th century,

is well known as a pessimist. Michael Lamb is the author of a book on Augustine's

political thought. He says that there's a much more positive side to Augustine.

What's often missed in Augustine is his strongly developed ideas about hope.

Michael Lamb, welcome to Philosophy Bites. Thanks for having me. The topic we're going to

focus on today is Augustine on hope. Before we get into the hope, could you just briefly say who

Augustine was? So Augustine Hippo was a famous Christian bishop and theologian who lived in North

Africa in the 4th and 5th centuries of Roman Empire. He was an active citizen, a leader in the

Christian Church, but also a profound and prolific author. He wrote 100 books including his famous

book The Confessions in the City of God and his influence really expanded across political thought

from the medieval ages onto our contemporary moment. I think it's fair to say that the flavor that

people are left with from his writing is one of a kind of corrupted humanity, a dark vision of

what people do to one another. He's often known as one of the great pessimists of the West.

John Rawls, a famous philosopher, said he was one of two dark minds in Western thought and so

much of his writing does suggest that human beings are naturally corrupt. We have a desire for

pride and self-gory that we pursue and often that desire for glory leads us to dominate other people

and so he's very attuned to the ways in which human beings, corrupted by pride, might seek power

over others and so he's known for giving a very acute analysis of social and political evils which

often leads people to think he's a pessimist about the world and about politics and what I really

...