Outward signs [electronic resource] : the powerlessness of external things in Augustine's thought / Phillip Cary.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [323]-333) and index.

Introduction: Expressionist semiotics and the powerlessness of the external -- Inadequate platonist signs -- Downward causality -- Mother and child -- Why lectures get boring -- Shared vision -- Words from which we learn nothing -- Before words were signs : semiotics in Greek philosophy -- Semiotics and semantics -- Words written on platonic souls -- The logic of Aristotle's signs -- Physiognomic inferences -- Body affecting soul -- The semiotics of On interpretation -- Stoic semiotics without depth -- Empirical inference and "common signs" -- The sceptics' reminding signs -- Reminders of deeper things -- From scepticism to platonism : the concept of sign in Augustine's earliest writings -- Plato's sceptical successors -- The grasping appearance -- Zeno's definition -- The point of academic scepticism -- The wise man needs depth -- The status of the truthlike -- The two kinds of similarity -- How words became signs : the development of Augustine's expressionist semiotics -- Signifying reason -- Words that signify -- A Latin orator's signs -- Giving signs -- The ontological ground of convention -- Fallen language -- Signs moving souls -- Why we learn nothing from words : the epistemology of Augustine's semiotics -- A socratic dialogue about teaching -- The on the teacher thesis -- Christ the inner teacher -- Learning nothing from Scripture and proof -- Admonitions to look inside -- Authority and reason -- Christian mysteries and platonist philosophy -- The great shift in Augustine's teaching -- Believing persons : theological implications of Augustine's semiotics -- Secondhand knowledge -- Belief in things not seen -- Testimony about temporal things -- Witnesses to Christ -- Moses and truth -- Seeing trinitarian love -- Outward voice and inner word -- Words forming persons? -- Powerless sacraments -- Sacred signs of inner unity : Augustine and medieval sacramental theology -- Election and sacraments -- The meaning of "Sacrament" -- Signs of grace? -- The invisible sacrifice -- Taking victorinus to heart -- Puzzles in confessions -- Public inner wisdom -- Shared insight and love's union -- Words and common inquiry -- The efficacy of the church's baptism : against donatists and pelagians -- Validity without efficacy -- The efficacy of unity -- The immediate return of sins -- Unity in adam -- Unity in Christ -- Conversion and perseverance -- The soul of Christ -- New Testament sacraments and the flesh of Christ -- Sacraments old and new -- When promising is giving -- The education of the human race -- Fewer and less burdensome -- The virtue of the sacraments -- Sacraments promising Christ -- Powerless blood -- Spiritual eating.

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