Phenomenology of pain and suffering in Saint Augustin’s Confessions

Abstract

Following the Heideggerian hermeneutic-phenomenological method as a foundation, primarily based on his analytics of worldliness (weltlichkeit) and being-in-the-world, this study aims to analyze the sui generis role that pain and suffering play in the philosophy and theology of Saint Augustine. It will attempt to explain how the biographical section of his Confessions has equal philosophical weight to the limits established by the speculative sections on memory and time, and how the character of pain and suffering as an interruption of everyday life plays a determining role in this weight.

KEYWORDS: Phenomenology. Hermeneutics. Saint Augustine. Suffering.