Emeritus Professor of Latin
Email gerardjp.odaly@gmail.com
I was born in Dublin, and educated at Belvedere College S.J. and University College Dublin, where I read Classics (M.A., 1965). I did doctoral research on the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus at the University of Berne (Switzerland, Dr.Phil., 1968), and subsequently collaborated with my supervisor, Prof. Willy Theiler, in the preparation of the final volume of the German edition of Plotinus. I was a Humboldt Research Fellow at Heidelberg University a number of times in the 1980s, and was awarded the Habilitation at Heidelberg in 1984 for research on Augustine. For several years I was a member of the editorial board of the Augustinus-Lexikon. Between 1969 and 1991 I taught at the Universities of Lancaster, Nottingham, and Würzburg. I came to UCL in 1991 as Professor of Latin. While there I was at various times Head of the Department of Greek and Latin and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. I took early retirement in 2004, and since then my wife and I have been living in south-western France with our Siamese cats and salukis. I divide my time between reading and writing, travel, supporting Leinster Rugby, and canine sporting events.
My research has focussed on literature, religion, and intellectual life in the Roman Empire between 200 and 500 CE, with recurrent interest in Plotinus, and hitherto unsuccessful attempts to escape from Augustine. At present I am working on a critical study of the concept of belief, with essays planned on Augustine (who else?), Pascal, Kierkegaard, and J. H. Newman.
Chief Publications
Augustine's City of God: A Reader's Guide. Second edition. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Platonism Pagan and Christian: Studies in Plotinus and Augustine. Routledge, 2019 (includes Plotinus' Philosophy of the Self [see below] and 14 articles). Reprint of Ashgate Variorum edition, Aldershot, 2001.
Plotinus, Ennead I.1, What is the Living Thing? What is Man? Translation with an Introduction and Commentary. Parmenides Publishing, Las Vegas and Zurich, 2017.
Days Linked by Song: Prudentius' Cathemerinon. Oxford University Press, 2012.
(ed. with E. Bermon) Le De Trinitate de Saint Augustin: Exegèse, logique et noétique. Actes du colloque international de Bordeaux, 16-19 juin 2010. Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, Paris, 2012.
Augustine's City of God: A Reader's Guide. Oxford University Press, 2004 (revised paperback edn of the book first published in 1999).
The Poetry of Boethius. Duckworth, London, and University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1991.
Augustine's Philosophy of Mind. Duckworth, London and University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987 (Italian translation: La Filosofia della Mente in Agostino, Edizioni Augustinus, Palermo [Augustiniana, Testi i Studi, VI], 1988).
(ed. with C. Mayer et al.) Augustinus-Lexikon, vols. 1 and 2. Schwabe, Basle, 1986-2003 (the project will be completed with the publication in March 2024 of vol. 5, fascicles 5 and 6 : see www.schwabe.ch).
Plotinus' Philosophy of the Self. Irish University Press, Shannon, and Barnes and Noble, New York, 1973.
(ed. with W. Theiler) Plotins Schriften VI: Indices. Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg, 1971.