Christendom College welcomed Dr. Mary Keys for the College’s latest Collegiate Lecture Series event earlier this month, with Keys speaking on “Rhetoric and the Virtues of the Heart: On Augustine’s Political Thought.” In her lecture, Keys discussed the importance of St. Augustine’s understanding of rhetoric as it relates to humility and how it affects his political and philosophical thought.
Keys, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, started off her lecture by explaining the value of studying St. Augustine and his works, especially his City of God, outlining his mastery of rhetoric and his attention to the virtues and vices of the heart. She suggested that a close study of the saint’s writings can teach us a great deal about struggling to find the truth and supporting others who are seeking the truth.
Her talk was divided into three primary parts: an overview of the City of God in relation to Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, rhetoric, politics, and philosophy in City of God, and reflection on the mind and heart, and finally a comparison of Augustinian commentaries and their relation to Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.
In her first section, Keys explored St. Augustine’s impact by quoting various authors referencing Augustine and noting Aquinas’ increasing use of St. Augustine’s work throughout his Summa. She also highlighted shared themes between the two writers—namely humility and beatitude—and explained St. Augustine’s humanist approach to humility.
Next, Keys delved into what St. Augustine calls the “power, glory, and peril of names and speech,” noting the great significance of human speech in political and philosophical life.
“While speech generally and persuasive speech in particular are of critical importance to personal and social forms of existence and the search for happiness,” Keys explained, “Augustine is at pains to remind readers of their potential, the potential of rhetoric, rather to distort perceptions of reality, to cast magnificent veils over even ugly, harmful, unjust actions and attitudes, and to masquerade them as good and great accomplishments, even virtuous.”
Keys went on to detail St. Augustine’s defense of Christianity using his rhetoric, as well as his skill in using pagan sources to persuade his non-Christian audience, and noted how his warning against the false rhetoric of intellectuals and politicians still rings true today.
She then transitioned from her discussion of rhetoric in political life to rhetoric in philosophical life, highlighting how St. Augustine sees potential dangers in both.
“Just as Augustine uncovers the tension existing in politics between desire for glory and precedence for one’s own polity and people, and impartial concern for justice and the common good, a tension all too easily hidden from view by noble-sounding names,” Keys said, “so Augustine suggests a similar peril for philosophy, and in a college or university context, we might add academic life in general.”
She noted how St. Augustine advises those in political and philosophic life to be aware of their own pride and arrogant speech, followed by examples of St. Augustine’s rhetorical skill in his own work. Keys also pointed out the saint’s continual emphasis on humility throughout The City of God, citing the stories of Hannah and Horatia as ancient instances of lowly people who achieved great historical significance.
The professor explained that St. Augustine employed rhetoric with the goal of recovering right perception of the world and seeing beauty in the small and humble.
“What is most beautiful and glorious is often found in small things growing close to the ground, Augustine intimates, more so than in tall towers or magnificent buildings of state,” she said.
In closing, Keys spoke of St. Augustine’s writings about the virtues of the heart and drew parallels between St. Augustine’s perspective on rhetoric and humility with what has recently been taught in Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.
The evening concluded with a Q&A session, in which students, faculty, staff, and members of the local community asked questions based on Keys’ presentation.
This lecture joins Christendom’s other recent Collegiate Lecture Series events, including talks from well-known biologist Dr. Daniel Kuebler and acclaimed poet Dr. James Matthew Wilson, each of whom offered an evening of dynamic engagement with perennial truths—the very purpose of each Collegiate Lecture Series event.
Christendom’s Collegiate Lecture Series provides students, faculty, staff, and members of the community with an opportunity to hear from regional and national speakers on topics relevant to Christendom’s mission of “Restoring All Things in Christ.” For students, especially, these events allow them to connect classroom learning with the broader ideas and questions posed by the speakers. The series also honors those who have pursued wisdom in their lives and share it generously with the Christendom community.
Watch Keys’ full lecture below.
Contributed by Bridget Palm ’28.