How Does Augustine Relate To Evil

424 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Augustine on sin and moral evil

Augustine is one of those humans that most people, now and days, can relate too. He was born from a Pagan father and Christian mother. I feel like this is something that was very taboo, but is not that uncommon now. For example, I know a lot of people whom are Catholic/Jewish. I really like and sort of relate on how he wanted to find himself in the religion. I was raised by two Catholic parents, but since I was strictly raised with this religion, I feel like I still have yet to find myself within it. It amazed me how evil was such a huge role and study back then. I have always been taught about “Hell” and evil, but not in a very complex form. The religion he was very intrigued in was Manichaeism. “Mani had followed the Gnostics in speaking of two Gods- a good one who created the spiritual realm and an evil one who ruled over matter” (p. 100). Augustine believed that God …show more content…

He describes how attracting this spirit was and how it felt good to be evil. “The evil in me was foul, but I loved it”( p 103). He saw the will to sin as a characteristic of human being. I loved that he thought this. I agree with him on nobody being perfect. I feel like when we do something “evil” then realize, we have a new found feeling of good. I feel in a way, evil is a wakeup call to keep us on the “right” track. He also formulated the theory of predestination. I don't know how I feel about this. My brother and I have always had this discussion on why bad things, happen to good people. If someone is so religious and devoted to god, but can have such a difficult time. For example, my mom’s aunt. Her life story is so impactful and hard, yet she is a full devotee and won’t give up on her faith. Is this where the whole “things happen for a reason” or “it’s all in God’s plan” comes from? I am really interested in learning more about Augustine, as I feel like his teaching are some what relatable in todays

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Questions Of Augustine

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Augustine is fixated upon the idea of evil and its origins in Christian theology. He struggles to come to terms with the doctrine of sin. A popular counterargument to the belief in God is that a good, kind, and loving divine power would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. According to Christian belief, God created everything, and everything He created is good because He Himself is righteous. Augustine claims that God pervades the entirety of the universe and all it contains. So, how can things outside of God, such as evil, even exist? He asks this in various forms of rhetorical questions, such as, “Where then is evil? What is its origin? How did it steal into the world?...Where then does evil come from, if God made all things

    Read More

  • Knowledge Rather than Correct Opinion： Analyzing the Nature of Augustine’s Confession and Reflection

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...process of correct opinion being “tied down”, as I have illustrated previously in the essay. Clearly Augustine has had deeper understanding of evil and goodness, which ought to be knowledge since he builds up such understanding on his own explanation.

    Read More

  • Augustine And Christianity: The Story Of Saint Augustine's Confessions

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    Saint Augustine’s Confessions are a diverse mix of autobiography, philosophy, and interpretation of the Christian Bible. The first nine Books of the work follow the story of Augustine 's life, from his birth (354 A.D.) up to the events that took place just after his conversion to Catholicism (386 A.D.). Born and raised in Thagaste, in eastern Algeria, he has one brother named Navigius, and two sisters. His father, Patricus, a small landowner and an official of the local government is still a pagan. Monica, his mother is a devout Christian. Augustine starts off by praising to God and that it is the natural desire of all men. Yet Augustine does not have a lot of knowledge about God because he felt that he was powerless for God to come to him

    Read More

  • Misrepresentation of Love

    1879 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the main problems Augustine had as he began his examination of spiritual matters was the apparent existence of evil. Augustine was unable to reconcile the notion of God as unchanging and all-powerful with the evil that he saw in the world. If God was indeed omnipotent and the creator of all, how could evil exist if God did not have a hand in its making? Thus in his earlier years, Augustine fell in with the Manicheans, who held that God was not omnipotent, but rather in constant battle with evil and opposite force. Such ideas of evil and of God’s connection to the physical realm drove Augustine further from God. Fortunately, Augustine became dissatisfied with the Manicheans, whose flowery words proved to lack substance, and whose cosmological predictions proved less accurate than science and frequently a product of coincidence. Even after rejecting the dualism of Manichean thought, Augustine struggled to re...

    Read More

  • Analysis of St. Augustine’s Confessions

    1939 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...same time transferring the focus of his text to the glory and wonder of God, causing his readers to shift their focus as well. We don’t finish the Confessions and marvel at the depravity of the young St. Augustine, or even at the incredible mercy of God for taking in such a self-proclaimed sinner. The impression the text leaves us with is that of the immense benefits the Lord can bestow on man, and the great extent to which St. Augustine was able to profit from this. Therefore, what St. Augustine had sought in God, he has found. The inner void is filled, he has a loyal nonjudgmental companion and protector for this life and the next, and he has found a potential scapegoat for all of his possible future mistakes and flaws—as well as someone to pray to and unconditionally praise.

    Read More

  • Saint Augustine’s Confessions Outline

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Origin of Evil in The Confessions by Augustine

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through narration of his own life, Augustine successfully proved that evil is not an inherent human quality rather it is caused by free will and therefore the fault of humans.

    Read More

  • The Theodicies of Augustine and Boethius

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Augustine's Confessions, the early church father puts forth a complex theodicy in which he declares evil to be nonexistent. Such a leap may seem to be illogical, but this idea stems from the understanding of what is substance and what is not. According to Augustine, the duality of good and evil is false, because anything that is good is substance and what humans think of as evil is simply the absence of the good (Confessions, 126). Vices for example, are just the display of the absence of the good. Pride is the absence of humility, unrighteous anger the absence of temperance, and so on. This idea is evident as he writes that the ability to be corrupted is what makes something good, not i...

    Read More

  • Divine Comedy - St.Augustine in Dante’s Inferno

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    The second circle of hell, a realm for those who fell victim of their carnal desires, is another level at which to place Augustine’s soul for he was consumed by lust in his pre-conversion days. He was encouraged by his family to learn the art of persuasion and making of fine speech when he was only sixteen. He used these skills, which he developed very well, along with his good looks to seduce as many women as possible. It was “in that sixteenth year of my life in this world, when the madness of lust. . . took complete control of me, and I surrendered to it” (Confessions, 987). He was in love with being in love. Yet, he was unable to discern between love and lust.

    Read More

  • On Free Choice of the Will

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Please tell me: isn’t God the cause of evil?” (Augustine, 1). With this question to Augustine of Hippo, Evodius begins a philosophical inquiry into nature of evil. Augustine, recently baptized by Saint Ambrose in Milan, began writing his treatise On Free Choice of the Will in 387 C.E. This work laid down the foundation for the Christian doctrine regarding the will’s role in sinning and salvation. In it, Augustine and his interlocutor investigate God’s existence and his role in creating evil. They attempt not only to understand what evil is, and the possibility of doing evil, but also to ascertain why God would let humans cause evil. Central to the premise of this entire dialogue is the concept of God, as relates to Christianity; what is God, and what traits separate Him from humans? According to Christianity, God is the creator of all things, and God is good; he is omnipotent, transcendent, all-knowing, and atemporal- not subject to change over time- a concept important to the understanding of the differences between this world and the higher, spiritual realm He presides over. God’s being is eidos, the essence which forms the basis of humans. With God defined, the core problem being investigated by Augustine and Evodius becomes clear. Augustine states the key issue that must be reconciled in his inquiry; “we believe that everything that exists comes from the one God, and yet we believe that God is not the cause of sins. What is troubling is that if you admit that sins come from… God, pretty soon you’ll be tracing those sins back to God” (Augustine, 3).

    Read More

  • St Augustine and classical education

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Saint Augustine’s deeply personal work, Confessions, he shares the story of his life up to his eventual conversion to the Christian faith. His odyssey through life is, at times, one of bitter inner conflict between his intellect and faith. Augustine’s classical education had a profound affect on the way he viewed the world, and eventually had a major affect on the way he approached Christianity. He is definitely an “intellectual” Christian, and viewed many aspects of his faith from this perspective. Augustine’s attitude towards classical literature and thought was at times slightly self-contradictory. It is clear, however, that although he was grateful for the education he was given, it was not necessary to his conversion. At many points throughout his life, his education actually seemed to hinder his flight towards Christianity.

    Read More

  • Aquinas Nature Of Evil

    467 Words  | 1 Pages

    In question 78 by Aquinas explains how evil is not intended for its own sake, but for the sake of avoiding another evil or obtaining a good. He further goes on to say that someone would choose the good for its own sake, without suffering the loss of another good and then uses an example of a lustful man: “anyone would choose to obtain a good intended for its own sake, without suffering loss of the other good; even as a lustful man would wish to enjoy a pleasure without offending God” (Q. 78, Reply to Objection 2). This point about the lustful man wanting to enjoy the pleasure, without offending God, really connected to Dante because it seems that people, for the most part, did not commit sins with the intent of offending God and making Him

    Read More

  • Augustine and The Problem of Evil

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... effects of a corrupting entity, what then is Christ’s work? How can a physical sacrifice save the world from sliding into nonexistence? The answer comes from another adjustment; Christ comes to pull creation back towards the eternal God. Salvation through Christ is does not look like Him coming as a warrior to vanquish the evil forces, but Him coming as a loving servant to heal the corrupted beings (i.e. sinners) back to their original state of grace. Thus, the idea of there being a war between forces of God and Evil is not compatible with truth of the Gospel; rather that God designed the world in harmony and wishes it to return to this state. This proves that, in the end, Augustine’s answer to the problem of evil is correct in accordance to Christian Confession.

    Read More

  • St. Augustine's Conversion to Christianity

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ed a great value on classical thinking and rationalism. Many others also found the same incongruities and inconsistencies that Augustine found. Augustine's credentials as a scholar and intellectual gave authority to his Christian beliefs, and encouraged many others to follow. Augustine's message of self-resurrection also had a particular appeal to independent thinkers. Augustine paints a picture of a youth, sinful, decadent and lustful, who, through struggle and inner strife, is reborn in Christ. Further, Augustine's story relates a direct relationship to God. God sent messages to Augustine's mother and brought him to the Church. Unlike other religions, Christianity was offering everyone a direct one-to-one relationship with the creator. By relating his narrative, Augustine was offering a path to the Church and to what he believed to be salvation to everyone.

    Read More

  • St. Augustine: Thoughts on Good and Evil

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    ..., 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.

    Read More

More about How Does Augustine Relate To Evil

Open Document