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The contribution of Augustine to Christianity
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In the early years of Saint Augustine’s life, he was no saint. He lived his life to the fullest: going out to parties, sleeping with women, and living a sinful life. After a conversion, Saint Augustine turned his life around and became one of the most influential people in the Catholic Church. His works have covered many different types of subjects, from his confessions to philosophy, and marriage and sexuality. St. Augustine’s conversion to Christianity, after his sordid lifestyle as a young teen, divulged in his Confessions, lead to his beliefs on contraception and sexual activity during marriage, virginity, and the sinfulness of lust. Saint Augustine talks about how when he hit puberty around the age of sixteen, he starts to desire sex. …show more content…
“Impatient of delay, since it was not until two years’ time I was to obtain her I sought, being not so much a lover of marriage as a slave to lust, procured another.” Augustine was engaged, but since he had to wait so long to marry her, the intense power that lust had over him, made he go and have sex with another women. After Augustine straightened out his life, he admitted that sex took over his life when he was a younger man.” My will was the enemy master of, and thence had made a chain for me and bound me. Because of a perverse will was lust made; and lust indulged in became custom; and custom not resisted became …show more content…
“Some Manicheans, Augustine alleged, not only commit sexual sins, but they also try to excuse themselves by claiming that the power of evil was stronger than the power of God.” Augustine for a while in his younger years was a Manichean. He did not admit that he himself believed this, his actions should that it was somewhat true in his life. “For even that fellowship which should be between God and us is violated, when that same nature of which He is author is polluted by perversity of lust.” God wants a relationship with everyone, but lust comes in between it and ruins the relationship. “ These be the chief iniquities which spring forth from the lust of the flesh, of the eye, and of power, whether singly, or two together, or all at once. After converting Augustine saw how his lust for sex when younger disrupted his relationship with God. He wanted people to not make the same mistake that he made. Augustine made God his supreme joy in life which helped him beat his obsession with sex. Augustine believes that putting all the faith in God can help get you through whatever you are going
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...
Augustine remarks that he sees man as seeking what gives him glory rather than what brings glory to God. When talking about self Augustine shares that he enjoyed studying Latin in school simply because it came easy to him, not because it brought glory to God. As he grew, he was, in the eyes of his society, an upstanding citizen, he did nothing inherently wrong. However, Augustine believes he did considerable wrong; rather than living for and seeking after the Lord, he was living for and seeking after his own desires. These claims exemplify mankind’s tendency to turn its back on its beliefs and the One in whom they
Augustine’s conversion is his partaking in the act of getting baptized. St. Augustine had taken a bigger role in the Church after his retirement from teaching and had decided it was time to get baptized. He returned to Milan with Alypius and Adeodatus, his son born out of sin, and all of them were baptized by his good friend Ambrose. St. Augustine’s conversion to Catholicism was complete and he began to live out a life dedicated to
13-18- Here is when Augustine begins to recall from the earliest parts of his memory how he studied language and learned about the world. And more particularly how it was done sinfully and for vain purposes that distracted him from the pure way of life.
Augustine claims, “I cared for nothing but to love and be loved” (Book II, Ch.2). Augustine demonstrates his desire for love just like Dido shows her love to Aeneas and even commits to suicide in order to pursue her love. By contrast, Aeneas never admits his marriage with Dido. However, there is a major distinction between Dido’s love and Augustine’s love. For Dido, her love is more about carnality and romanticism, while Augustine’s real need is the love of God. That’s why Augustine writes a self-condemnation about his mistaken love at Carthage, as he says, “I also fell in love, which was a snare of my own choosing” (Book III, Ch.1). Augustine denies sexual love. Instead of insisting on romantic love like Dido does, Augustine chooses to give up and begins a new a journey to find what he is destined to do, same as Aeneas leaves for Dido and continues to find
Augustine. “Confessions”. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 1113-41. Print.
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.
St. Augustine considers his mother as a crucial factor in his conversion to Catholicism. However, through the analysis of his confessions, it leads me to believe that St. Augustine’s mother was not a decisive figure. Monica was in the background keeping him in thought and prayer, however Augustine’s watershed moments came as a result of his own examination of readings as well as his conversations with his friends and mentors. Therefore, I argue that Monica had delayed Augustine’s baptism and it was his own experiences that allowed him to come to God. Baptizing a baby at birth was a common practice during the time when Augustine was born.
In his Confessions, Saint Augustine warns against the many pleasures of life. "Day after day," he observes, "without ceasing these temptations put us to the test" (245).[1] He argues that a man can become happy only by resisting worldly pleasures. But according to Aristotle, virtue and happiness depend on achieving the "moral mean" in all facets of life. If we accept Aristotle's ideal of a balanced life, we are forced to view Saint Augustine's denial of temptations from a different perspective. His avoidance of worldly pleasures is an excess of self-restraint that keeps him from the moral mean between pleasure and self-restraint. In this view, he is sacrificing balance for excess, and is no different from a drunkard who cannot moderate his desire for alcohol.
...lighted” Augustine’s body (Confessions VIII. 5, p. 148). In this example, regardless of Augustine’s want to will succumbing to God, he found that his habits had rendered him unable to. His will in favor of the lower things held Augustine tighter than his will for God, which caused Augustine to choose the lesser good, which left him “in the midst of that great tumult I had stirred up against my own soul in the chamber of my heart” (Confessions VIII. 7, p.152). His two wills tore at him until he fully abandoned his earthly lust for the spiritual Godly desires; supporting his conclusion that free will in favor of the lesser goods causes evil. Therefore, free will is the ultimate source of evil.
After stating this, Augustine continues to support his statement by talking about friendship. Is the friendship Augustine mentions lustful or sincerely about love? "Thus I polluted the stream of friendship with the filth of unclean desire and sullied its limpidity with the hell of lust." (pg. 35) Obviously Augustine is letting the idea of love turn straight to lust. He talks about unclean desires, but he says he wants to be clean and courtly. Maybe Augustine has the wrong idea about love.
St. Augustine's sordid lifestyle as a young man, revealed in Confessions, serves as a logical explanation for his limited view of the purpose of sexuality in marriage. His life from adolescence to age thirty-one was so united to passionate desire and sensual pleasure, that he later avoided approval of such emotions even within the sanctity of holy union. From the age of sixteen until he was freed of promiscuity fifteen years later, Augustine's life was woven with a growing desire for illicit acts, until that desire finally became necessity and controlled his will. His lust for sex began in the bath houses of Tagaste, where he was idle without schooling and "was tossed about…and boiling over in…fornications" (2.2). Also during that time, young Augustine displayed his preoccupation with sexual experience by fabricating vulgarities simply to impress his peers. In descript...
A common thread of faith and reason runs through the two different theological visions of St. Augustine in his Confessions. This can be seen by comparing the ascent, the vision, the descent, and language in the two visions. Although other parts of the text will be referred to, the central part of these visions are as follows:Vision 1: "...
...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.
..., 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.