Once Out of Nature

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"Once Out of Nature" offers an original interpretation of AugustineOCOs theory of time and embodiment. Andrea Nightingale draws on philosophy, sociology, literary theory, and social history to analyze AugustineOCOs conception of temporality, eternity, and the human and transhuman condition.aIn NightingaleOCOs view, the notion of embodiment illuminates a set of problems much larger than the body itself: it captures the human experience of being an embodied soul dwelling on earth. In AugustineOCOs writings, humans live both in and out of natureOCoexiled from Eden and punished by mortality, they are OC resident aliensOCO on earth. While the human body is subject to earthly time, the human mind is governed by what Nightingale calls psychic time. For the human psyche always stretches away from the present momentOCowhere the physical body persistsOCointo memories and expectations. As Nightingale explains, while the body is present in the here and now, the psyche cannot experience self-presence. Thus, for Augustine, the human being dwells in two distinct time zones, in earthly time and in psychic time. The human self, then, is a moving target.aAdam, Eve, and the resurrected saints, by contrast, live outside of time and nature: these transhumans dwell in an everlasting present.aNightingale connects AugustineOCOs views to contemporary debates about transhumans and suggests that AugustineOCOs thought reflects our own ambivalent relationship with our bodies and the earth. "Once Out of Nature" offers a compelling invitation to ponder the boundaries of the human.