All of a Piece

What connects a small boy, his mouth taped shut in kindergarten for supposedly having bitten another child, with a world-renowned expert in neo-Platonism, shut out of his own teaching institute’s car park in Rome? Is there a special providence in the fall of a crane’s hook only a foot in front of a young scholar’s walk outside Trinity College, Cambridge? In All of a Piece, John Rist asks what makes a human life a single, meaningful whole, rather than a disconnected collection of episodes. Answering this question takes him and his readers on an often hilarious, and sometimes moving, international journey-one with its own, hidden, coherence. His life story, interwoven with intellectual passion and rich personal experience, is a compelling narrative offering insight and inspiration that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

Author Biography

John Rist, an “Essex man” born in 1936 and educated at Brentwood School and Trinity College, Cambridge, has taught Classics and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, the University of Aberdeen, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Istituto Patristico Augustinianum in Rome, and the Catholic University of America. He has published 20 books and more than 100 articles, mainly on Ancient Philosophy, Patristics, and Ethics, the most recent being What is a Person? and Infallibility, Integrity and Obedience. He has been married to Anna for 65 years and has four children. He became a Catholic in 1980.