St. Agustine and His Path to Christianity

639 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: At Augustine's philosophy

As an adolescent, many experience different life style changes where they learn about their true nature. Parents usually call these instance phases. As a teen, Saint Augustine lived an immoral lifestyle. Although he was the son of a pagan father and Christian mother, St. Augustine experienced life on his own terms. Conflicting faiths and cultural values helped him grow from his past wicked ways and become one of the most influential advocates of Christianity. His most renowned work refers to Confessions, a spiritual journey into St. Augustine life and insight on how he came to realize the truth in Christianity. The autobiography crosses between philosophy, theology and a fundamental interpretation of the Christian Bible. Each topic within his autobiography refers to a particular part of his life that point to a broader issue. An autobiography is defined as the history of a person’s life as told by that person. However, in Augustine’s account his autobiography taps into deeper than his personal encounters. Each story he chooses to recount has a philosophical or theological aspect being told. Still enjoying his youthful years, Augustine gains a passion for the philosophical truth. Throughout his multiple readings of doctrines, one had a particular affect on him – Neo Platonism. Augustine incorporates his learning’s from Neo Platonism into his Christian theology. Confessions is not only an autobiography, but also a fusion of his ideas and newfound faith in religion. Augustine uses Confessions as a model to show that even while living a sinful life, any individual can overcome their past and pursue a passion for the real truth. His work addresses adolescents who do not believe or are “faithless”. Augustin... ... middle of paper ... ...own each encounter he writes about to illustrate his process in transforming as a person. In Augustine’s time, confessions meant to admit one’s faults to God as well as to praise God. The work proves to depict the greatness of God. During his journey from sinfulness to faith, Augustine realizes the love all things have for God. Augustine describes his life in the first nine books of the Confessions as his path of redemption through a philosophical and religious sense. The story of how he “returned to God” is set in an intellectual formatted autobiography through the philosophical and theological context Augustine is thinking. The main idea that makes Confessions unorthodox from conventional autobiographies is Augustine’s ability to be completely open with his audience and God. He praises God for his salvation and allows his reader to see himself doing so.

Show More
Related

  • Confessions of Saint Augutine in Contrast With Previously Covered Literature

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    When reading ancient texts, they are often told through an omniscient point of view, such as The Odyssey or Gilgamesh, or they are written through another person’s perspective, such as The Republic. Confessions differs in that it is told from a first-person point of view, which makes it uniquely fascinating because we get to learn firsthand how Augustine’s actions, thoughts, and beliefs affected him. In comparison with the other, often mythical, texts, Augustine is a humanized perspective into the world—neither divine nor idolized; his story resembles that of many others as a man who grew to seek both conviction and resolution in his choices. The Confessions of Saint Augustine is, at its core, the journey of an everyman through his life—a concept not far removed from contemporary media. It is the culmination of his trials, tribulations, and efforts as a young man whose development influenced by the immense possibilities of the spiritual world that surrounded him.

    Read More

  • St. Augustine’s Confessions and The Bhagavad Gita

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    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

  • Love and Duty in Virgil’s Aeneid and Augustine’s Confessions

    1593 Words  | 4 Pages

    Augustine. “Confessions”. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 1113-41. Print.

    Read More

  • A Review of Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    Brown’s book is organized, like any scholarly biography, chronologically according to Augustine’s life.  It is separated into five parts, each corresponding to significant portions of Augustine’s life:  his pagan life, his conversion, his actions against the Donatists, his actions against Pelagians, and his final legacy and death.  Each part opens with a chronological table of events both directly involving Augustine and the world he lived in.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Augustine's Emergence From The Cave

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    Augustine’s Confessions is the story of his search for ultimate truth. Out of the Greek and Roman scholars that influence Augustine, Plato 's iconic imagery of the Cave is one of the most influential works apparent in Confessions. Much like the man emerging from the cave and adjusting to the sunlight, Augustine has to emerge from his life of sin to acquaint himself with the truth, the light of the Gospel message.

    Read More

  • The Aeneid by Virgil

    2081 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...der’s attention to important issues within the text without compromising the author’s style or message. The main differences between the two are that it is more accurate to characterize Augustine’s writing as having one voice which speaks in a private, direct tone to God when he has something important to say and in a general, relaxed tone the other times. In contrast, Virgil writes in a private voice to pity the large amount Aeneas suffered against his own will to found Rome while the public voice solicits propaganda for Rome. Nevertheless, both authors successfully use their styles to convey important ideas which we continue to see and hear of today.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Confessions By Saint Augustine

    1568 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Confessions by Saint Augustine, he focuses on his spiritual journey towards God. Mainly, he discusses the effect friendship has had on his journey. Augustine’s crime of stealing a pear proves to alter his soul for the worse. The pear was stolen due to peer pressure inflicted upon Augustine by his friends. Thus, Augustine believes friendships can only cause harm to people and lead them in the wrong direction. Compared to Aristotle’s positive outlook on friendship, Augustine’s views are negative in nature. The death of his friend, however, leads him to realize the immense importance of friendship. Augustine initially believes his friends are detrimental to his relationship with God, but as he continues to examine the life that he has lived, he comes to the conclusion that friendship is what brings him closer to God.

    Read More

  • Saint Augustine's Confessions Essay

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    Saint Augustine writes about his journey to finding God through his autobiography Confessions. It is filled with Augustine’s personal experiences from infancy to adulthood. Many of the experience Augustine’s reviews are common amongst people today. These relevant situations make it easy for readers to apply to their current life. Augustine also adds his current understanding to these past situations that he may have been unaware to at the time. Augustine’s Confessions are bursting with theological, and Psychological text and ideas that he uses to guide him through certain events he goes through. There is a reoccurring theme throughout Augustine’s autobiography about his desire to find God to fill the void or separation he feels. Augustine

    Read More

  • St Augustine and classical education

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    Only after years of personal struggle did Augustine arrive at his own religious revelation. This ultimately made his conversion much more profound. To fully and eloquently express himself and his thoughts was essential to his writings. Clearly, he used his knowledge of rhetoric and the arts to express his views more effectively. His prose is both immaculate and powerful. The result was a masterpiece that greatly affected the growth of early Christianity.

    Read More

  • Analysis of St. Augustine’s Confessions

    1939 Words  | 4 Pages

    Later, after much study and introspection, Augustine discovers that he has been mistaken in attributing a physical form to God. Yet, he still presses on to reconcile his mind to the true precepts of Christian ideology. But what does he...

    Read More

  • Saint Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Augustine’s conception of God is first a comment about the nature of childhood inquiry. There is a legend about Augustine that is ...

    Read More

  • St. Augustine: Thoughts on Good and Evil

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Author Claudia Gray stated, “Self-knowledge is better than self-control any day” (Goodreads). Evil and sin exists in our world today and the temptation they bring bounds many human’s spiritual being. Finding the root of all evil is a hard and torturous concept to understand, but knowing one’s own free will helps bring understanding and deliverance from the evils of the world. Throughout the book Confessions Saint Augustine “ponders the concepts of evil and sin and searches the root of their being” (Augustine 15). The existence of evil is one of the most worrisome challenges a Christian or any individual deals with throughout life. Saint Augustine’s beliefs concerning the root of all evil and sins transforms as he begins to grow and develop in the knowledge of his free will and spiritual being. Early on, he believes “God created all things and evil is a thing, therefore God created evil” (Augustine 73-74). From this he conceives the notion that God cannot be good if he knowingly created evil. As Augustine begins to grow in his spiritual walk, his views begin to evolve as he questions his Manichee’s beliefs and explores the concepts of good and evil. From his inquiring Augustine develops the question, what is evil and what if evil did not need creating? He asks, “Do we have any convincing evidence that a good God exists” (Augustine 136-137)?

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Donne's 'To His Mistress Going To Bed'?

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because Donne describes the connection between the body and union with God in the form of a poem, Donne is able to evoke his readers. Unlike Augustine 's readers who just read of Augustine’s anguish and experience, those who read Donne 's poems actually experience anguish, frustration, and ultimately the unavoidable reliance one has on God, which most Christian followers eventually experience on the road to redemption. Furthermore, writing in a Petrarchan sonnet form, Donne provides an alternate meaning to Augustine’s medieval concept of the souls’ journey to unity with God. In the examination of Donne’s language, which is permeated with many emotions, Donne introduces the new idea that the journey to redemption involves not only a movement away from loving sin but a movement towards loving oneself so that one is not afraid to be loved. In other words, Donne introduces—through his diction—that the process of redemption involves self-love, which will, in turn, allow one to accept God’s already existing

    Read More

  • The Contributions of St. Augustine and Brigid of Kildare to Christianity

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...o the early Christian church. Augustine's contributions were mainly in the form of literature, such as his famed "The City of God." Bridgid chose to influence Christianity through reaching out to her community and working for the betterment of society. She provided education, refuge, advice, and a peaceful environment. Augustine was a man who had learned many things during his life, but he found he was truly content when he was present with God. Augustine influenced the church through his literature and sermons to his community. No matter how different each person's contributions to Christianity may be they are still what shaped our faith. The contributions of Bridgid of Kildare and St. Augustine opened new doors for the church, and there will be people in this world that will follow in the footsteps of these two people and continue to encourage growth in our faith.

    Read More

More about St. Agustine and His Path to Christianity

Open Document