Confessions by Augustine is a theological autobiography about confessions. What did it mean to confess? To confess in Augustine’s time was meant both to give an account of fault to God and to praise God. Augustine talks about his sinfulness and his faithfulness to his God. Confessions is a story of Augustine’s life, starting from his birth to his mothers death. “You have made us for yourselves, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”(Confessions, 1.1.1) One important influence on the book Confessions, besides the Bible was Neoplatonism. Neoplantonism is a philosophical system, originated in the 3rd century A.D by Plotinus, founded chiefly on Platonic doctrine and Oriental mysticism, with later influences from Christianity. It holds that all existence consists of emanations from the One with whom the …show more content…
soul may be reunited. (dictionary.com) By this definition Augustine says that things could never be bad or evil, everything is good and exist. Augustine said that God, who is eternal, a perfect being, and unchanging is the universe. That the universe is made of matter and is eternal. He combined the Neoplantonic worldview with the Christian worldview. The idea that all creation is good, because it exist in the creation of God. We know that the Christian worldview is more of a religious belief system. It has a frame work that is followed. It is conceptions of the world from a Christian standpoint. Confessions was devoted to how the relationship between eternal God and temporal creation could coexist. As we know eternal god is “everlasting” Psalms 90:2 says “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” It is hard to explain to humans that something has a beginning and will go on forever. The Bible doesn’t try to prove Gods eternity but simply says in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” When reading Confessions I have come to learn that Augustine is very insecure and has a lot of pride. Augustine sees God as eternal and unchangeable. “Already you have said to me with a strong voice into my interior ear that you are eternal, you who alone have immortality, since you can be changed by no kind of motion and your will is not varied with time.” (Book 12.11) Augustine hears God say, “So also it is that when you see those things in time, I do not see them in time, even as when you say those thins in time, I do not say them in time.” (Book 13. 29). This mean that God knows and understands everything perfectly and nothing can escape him. He brings everything to his existence. Augustine is talking to God through out most of the pages in Confessions, that makes me feel like is a leader, and a strong, powerful, spiritual leader at that. The theme of Gods sovereignty and faith is seen thought out the book.
Augustine addressed God as the fountain of life. He writes, “I fell away to those material things…I heard your voice behind me calling me to return, but because of the tumult of men hostile to peace, I scarcely heard it. But now, see, I return, burning and yearning for your fountain. Let no man forbid me! I will drink at this fountain, and I will live by it. Let me not be my own life: badly have I lived from myself. I was death to myself, in you I live again”. (Book 12.10). Here it is now when Augustine throws away all the ideas of disobedience and follows after God. He came to the conclusion that Gods word was unique. He wrote “I do not know, O Lord, I do not know any such pure words, which so persuade me to make confession and make my neck meek to your yoke, and invite me to serve you without complaint.” (Book 13.15). He was pleading for Gods word and reading gods word constantly after this happened. This is the same for us when we are reading scripture. It makes us ask questions, and let us use our thoughts. Scripture leads us to the fountain of life, as it did with
Augustine. Augustine was brought to the word and was transformed from an immortal lawyer to a Shepard of Gods flock. He shared his sin and opened up to God. He let Gods word take him through his spiritual journey. Gods word, his questions of life and his decisions he had made in the past help him convert to Christianity.
From the beginning of creation to the fictitious lands created by J. R. R. Tolkien himself, the distinctions between good and evil rise from the shadows and into the light. Specifically, in the Confessions of St. Augustine all things created through the light of God are seen as wholly good, while the absence of such light and goodness is considered evil. Tolkien’s novel elaborates on the work of Augustine and establishes the differences between forces of good and evil in the land of Middle Earth. Augustine and Tolkien in their works Saint. Augustine Confessions and The Fellowship of the Ring address the issues that arise from an individual 's struggle to escape the temptations of evil and succumbing to their lust for power rather than asserting
St. Augustine’s Confessions is written through the Christian perspective of religion. Christianity is founded on the idea that there is one God who oversees all actions. Though all actions are observed by a higher power, God instills in us a free will. As Christians we are free to make our own decisions whether right or wrong. In his Biography St Augustine expresses that he feels like a sinner. He struggles with the fact that he is a thrill seeker. He loves to watch blood sports. He watches gladiators fight to the death and commit murder. Not only does he watch, but he enjoys observing these acts. He is also expressing his sins in his biography when he writes about stealing, which is another sin. He steals pears for fun. St Augustine doesn’t even eat the pears he steals, but throws them to the pigs to eat. Through the story St Augustine struggles interna...
7-12- Again Augustines thoughts on God reflect that of the religious teachings of his day, namely those of the Neoplatonists. For example he refuses to speculate on how the soul joins the body to become an infant and even follows Plato when he suggests that this life could possibly be some kind of “living death”. He then goes into an examination of his infancy, which he depicts as a quite pitiful state. He described himself as a sinful and thoughtless creature who made demands on everyone, wept unceasingly, and gave everyone a hard time that took care of him. Though very brutal in his self examination, he later states that he does not hold himself accountable for any of these sinful acts because he simply can’t remember them.
Augustine begins by debating whether baptized believers of God are indeed sinful or sinless. He says that when one is living in the world they are sinful but if one is baptized into the faith of Christ then their sins are washed clean. Augustine says that once one is born of God they begin to not have sin in their life. But they would have had sin from their past life because a new life begins at baptism. So if one was to say they did not say that they had sin they would be lying and not telling the truth. Therefore here lies the conundrum, Augustine faced.
In his Confessions, Augustine relates that, in his school years, he was required to read Virgil’s Aeneid. The ill-fated romance of Aeneas and Dido produced such an emotional effect on him. Augustine says that Virgil’s epic caused him to forget his own “wanderings” (Augustine 1116). He wept over Dido’s death, but remained “dry-eyed to [his] own pitiful state” (Augustine 1116 – 7). Augustine later rejects literature and theater because he believes that they distract the soul from God. Nonetheless, Augustine shares many of the same experience as the characters in the Aeneid. Augustine discovers that love can be destructive, just as it was for Dido. Both Aeneas and Augustine of them give up love for the sake of duty. Aeneas leaves Dido to fulfill his calling given by the gods. Augustine ends his lustful affairs in order that he may devote himself to his God.
”1 He was already a steady believer in God and was ready to be baptized however he was kept from it and was influenced by the other people as they said “Let him be, let him do as he likes, he is not baptized yet.” Without the proper reinforcement and teaching he progressively strayed away from his beliefs and eventually lost himself in sin. This led to one of the most important incidents in Augustine’s childhood. Augustine spends more time lamenting on the time he had stolen the pears than he does with many of the other sins.... ...
Petrarch is modern because he says he climbed it for his own personal enjoyment and for god. In the reading it states “I admired every detail, now relishing earthly enjoyment, now lifting up my mind to higher spheres…” This is an example of where Petrarch talks about how he climbed ‘the windy peak’ for self fulfillment and to admire the sights all around. The line continues to say “...after the example of my body, and I thought it fit to look in the volume of Augustine's Confessions…” The quote shows how he sees that religion is also important for him. He also talks about all the things he sees at the top and how he enjoys to look at them. He talks about the rivers and the sea and how beautiful they look from the top.
From Augustine’s experience we can see that knowledge is critical, and sometimes even more important than correct opinion. Although both of them could lead people to success, knowledge is more reliable and long-standing. God prompted Augustine to transform from a Manichee to a Christian. Such transformation requires Augustine to have deeper understanding from the soul, is not what merely correct opinion could bring about. Augustine once feared that he would not manage to find the truth, but his faith in God enables him to acquire knowledge and approach the truth. Augustine’s reflection made him a person closer to God.
The relationship between entertainment and violence has always been rife with controversy. Today’s debate over violent video games, movies, and television shows is yet another manifestation of this timeless issue. In Confessions, Augustine addresses how humans consume violence as entertainment and proposes two reasons for why they do so. One is an act of pleasure seeking that uses the sight of tragedy or violence to bask in the feeling of false pity. The other is a carnal desire for excitement and adrenaline fueled by primal instincts. According to Augustine, both motivations degrade and dehumanize the viewer of violence. However, Augustine deeply valued the importance of learning from any viable source; Cicero’s Hortensius convinces him “that
When it comes to renunciation, "no pain, no gain" is what I've slowly, reluctantly, inexorably come to believe. And when Pete opted for scholarly monkhood, I think he was just trying to outsmart his pain. . . . He'd calculated that by considering the physical world "illusory" and burying his nose in metaphysical texts he could go on doing something comfortable--while his ignorance and sufferings and hometown and troublesome family just fell away like so much excess poundage. Obviously l question his calculations: to slough off half a self in hopes of finding a whole one is not my idea of good math.
Throughout the Confessions, Augustine provides a journal of his life. Education played a major role in his development. Augustine the character’s education began from the moment he started to communicate. He later went on to be formally educated before being removed from school for financial difficulties. Augustine the narrator believes his education a granted will from God; however, at times, Augustine the character seemed to take advantage of this will. Through this ability, granted by God’s will, Augustine the character was able to become literate.
Saint Augustine’s On Faith and the Creed breaks down the Apostles Creed and expresses the essence of the Christian faith. The 11 chapters within On Faith and The Creed express many truths of the faith. Chapter one explains the origin of the creed and object of its composition. The Apostles Creed is a sufficient summary of the faith for beginners and those who who are more diligent in their faith. Many heretics have tried to corrupt the interpretation of the Apostles Creed. Yet, since it is written according to the scripture, the Apostles Creed is based on complete truth. Chapter two expresses the fact that eternity is exclusive. Saint Augustine talks about how the Apostles Creed will not truly be understood or impact a person if they are not
Augustine in Confessions. His thoughts about wisdom are comparable to Plato’s idea of true knowledge, stating that “wisdom is not made, but is as she has been and forever shall be […] because she is eternal” (Book IX, Chapter X). St. Augustine esteemed wisdom to be one of greatest qualities for an individual to gain during his or her time on earth, and asserted that one comes to be wise through the trials which we face “against an enemy or temptations.” This wisdom will allow a person to reach a point “where the very highest of physical sense and the most intense illumination of physical light seem […] not worthy of comparison” (Book IX, Chapter X); just as Plato believed in a perfect world greater than our physical one, St. Augustine believes in a place which exists outside the realm of corporeal objects. Moreover, given that an individual will garner knowledge by overcoming temptations, presumably transforming them further into a moral being, St Augustine appears to view a wise and well-educated man to also be a good and virtuous man, an idea shared by
..., the closer he was really moving toward God. He began to realize that God is all good, so nothing he creates will be of evil. “God does not create evil but it is of the world” (Augustine 230-31). Once he took responsibility for his personal life and spiritual walk, Augustine began to uncover the truths to his life. He reveals one must take responsibility for their actions and confess to develop a stronger connection with God. He then comprehends; God allows bad things to happen in your life to show you that you need him. Evil is not a lesser good, but it is a reflection of ones moral well-being. In order for one’s well being to be saved one must confess their sins to Christ.
Theologians, Biblical scholars and Christians all over the world often wrestle with two extremely important questions about their faith. These questions are, "What is God like?" and "How should we live in response to God?" Some feel that we need others to direct us, some feel we need them to challenge us, but everyone agrees that we need others. That is exactly how Saint Augustine struggles to find his faith and beliefs. He found it extremely difficult to come with a conclusion when it was staring at him straight in the face, but just as he did, we draw up our own conclusions with the guidance of others.