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Intimacy and Intelligibility is a paradigm-shifting exploration of De magistro, Augustine’s overlooked and misunderstood dialogue about words and signs.
Erika Kidd's fresh approach to Augustine’s De magistro (On the Teacher) fills a gap in the emerging conversation about Augustine’s early dialogues, while avoiding the disincarnate bias of existing interpretations of this essential work. Kidd’s reading situates the dialogue within a broadly Augustinian tradition of reflection on language and intimacy. Drawing on the work of feminist philosopher and linguist Luce Irigaray, Intimacy and Intelligibility unpacks the literary form and the relational context of De magistro, including the women who lurk in the dialogue’s shadows. Kidd likewise reimagines the place of Christ, the inner teacher, in the dialogue. Though the inner teacher is often cast as a mere guarantor of meaning, she argues that the inner teacher summons Augustine and his son, Adeodatus, to an intimate space of meaning, rooted in the life they share.
Kidd reveals that De magistro is not a text about informing but a text about intimacy. It is a rich meditation on the blessed life and a worthy memorial to Augustine’s beloved son.
“It is almost miraculous that a work as well-known as Augustine’s De magistro should successfully undergo a fresh and radical reinterpretation, yet Erika Kidd has done precisely that. She has single-handedly changed the conversation about this dialogue; scholars will be coming to terms with her thesis for generations.” —Michael P. Foley, editor of Ever Ancient, Ever New
“Intimacy and Intelligibility offers an original and persuasive reading of Augustine’s De magistro, one that I find exciting and valuable.” —Karmen MacKendrick, author of Material Mystery
"Philosopher Erika Kidd’s slender but brilliant new book, Intimacy and Intelligibility, points us back to Augustine’s own attraction towards abstraction and away from incarnation. What Kidd offers is a better vision of human communication—one that Augustine discovered 1600 years ago, in conversation with his son. Moving through the errors that Augustine highlighted then, she sheds light on the distinctive problems of our own time and shows how to inhabit a better discourse." —Fairer Disputations
Erika Kidd is an associate professor of Catholic studies at the University of St. Thomas.
Introduction
Part 1. Informers
1. Informing
2. Prelude
3. Gods
Part 2. Intimates
4. Deliverance
5. Mother of the Word
6. Christ’s Life
7. Words, Afterwards
Bibliography