Confessions by Augustine

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Confessions by Augustine

Truth and piety are two terms Augustine illustrates throughout his book Confessions. There are two types of truth: the truth found in God, but also the truth found in oneself. The truth found in and through God is quite obvious throughout the whole book. The other requires the reader to search deeply in the text. Augustine feels that if you develop self knowledge, then you can find truth. You have to be true to yourself and God. With self knowledge, you can reveal your true beliefs and pursuit in a religion that is fit for you. Augustine relates truth, God, and self knowledge to each other and finds they are the path to life of contentment.

Confessions is the story of how Augustine finds God and since loving Him remarkably betters his life. Finding self knowledge is connected with finding God and truth. Augustine feels that if a person can live with god in his life, he will be content because God is "Lord God of Truth ( V, iv, 7). In the course of the book, ‘God’ and ‘truth’ quite frequently along with ‘good,’ ‘wise,’ and ‘right.’ Obviously, these words are strongly related according to Augustine. Augustine suggests he knows the relationship between God and truth. For example, he says " I don not with you in a court of law, for you are the truth. I do not deceive myself ‘lest my iniquity lie to itself" ( I, v, 6). He is being true his self. He knows that even though God is not able to be seen or touched, He is still all knowing and nothing can be hidden from Him.

Throughout the book, Augustine develops his knowledge and by the later books, he is happy. The early books of Confessions show Augustines confusions. Each of his sins are being explained as well as being confessed. ...

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...d he will carry you to truth. Before, Augustine was living the life of thievery and sexual pleasures, but then stops living the life and is happy without those carnal pleasures. This is the point at which truth is split. The truth in oneself can can only take a person so far as being able to be a good person by not committing sin, or trying hard not to. The truth in God is a universal fact: God is good, therefore God is truth, because a lie is evil, and God cannot be evil. The step from simply being a good person to understanding and having faith in God makes the truth in God different from the truth in oneself. In other words, a person can be good without believing in God, except that in order to be forgiven and saved, a person must have God in his or her life. To do so requires that step of crossing over to the path of God and accepting Him and His truth.

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