Augustine Confessions

In Saint Augustine Confessions, Augustine talks about his conversion from Manichaeism to Christianity. He believes in order to become a wise individual; one must have a transformation of his mind inward and upward towards God. Augustine’s intellectual conversions that preceded his conversion to Christianity, made him recognize that the Manicheans were wrong. Manichees viewed God as a material thing, which is something that passes and is destroyed, but God cannot be viewed this way because God created materiality. They also thought there were two forces good and evil, which were constantly battling one another. Augustine soon realized this was wrong because God would not allow evil to exist substantially; evil is the lack of good, or, in other words, the good that should be there is not. That is, evil is not something that is there before the good, because God created everything good and humans with free will have chosen to act with evil. In Nathaniel Rich’s article, The Man Who Saves You from Yourself, he talks about the authoritative influence of cult leaders. Cult leaders are very persuasive with their approach, which allows them to recruit people. Cult leaders infiltrate there recruits and make it their focal point to monopolize their recruits time in order to brainwash them into the cults beliefs, before family and other people interfere with this process. Therefore, if an individual does not experience a major intellectual conversion, she will be at serious risk of a relapse and be stuck in the cult.

Cult Leaders In Nathaniel Rich’s article, The Man Who Saves You from Yourself, talks about the tactics cult leaders use to infiltrate their recruits. Rich says, “the cult must monopolize the recruits time”(Harpers Magazine, ...

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...umans took it upon themselves to act evil. It was in reason that kept Augustine from committing to Manicheans fully and led to his conversion to Christianity.

Augustine was physically deprogramed because he was isolated from the Manicheans and he was in Rome but I do not believe he was completely separated from the Manicheans all together. The fact that Augustine’s name is on the list of Manichees shows that there is still an attachment to the cult. Augustine also kept the apology letter the Manicheans sent him, where they asked him to come back and “be a new Paul for our time”, which would make him the leading Manichean apostle. Augustine is holding on to the past, which shows he still has an attachment to the Manichees. Although Augustine had an intellectual conversion that led him to Christianity he is still not entirely detached from the Manichees in my eyes.