Lessons of St. Augustine’s Confessions
Saint Augustine, or Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430), was a philosopher, theologian, and teacher in 5th century Rome. He wrote a number of books, including his biography; The Confessions of St. Augustine. This book covers his life from birth to after his son’s death, with the latter part of his life being covered in his other work, The City of God. His autobiography focuses on Augustine’s spiritual life, his early years of sin and then latter his conversion and baptism. He follows the phases of his life, from a young child struggling with mischief, to his beliefs in Manichaeism and astrology, and through his immoral sexual urges. His autobiography is not a strict one, often large portions of his life or events that could be considered significant. For example the death of his father is mentioned only briefly. Only experiences that had religious meaning were detailed. St. Augustine’s Confessions has many themes. Throughout the book he often references and compares his stories to that of the bible. He uses these examples of his life to teach the reader about religious themes he finds important. His main lesson in this book is to deny the “sins” of the flesh and turn to god. The main point of the book is that Augustine spends his
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entire life trying come to terms with his religion and morality. Every example of his life is given in context of gods will, and the pinnacle of the biography is that of his garden conversion to Christianity. The following outlines how he conveyed his lesson and his purpose for writing his autobiography. One of the first themes found in the book is that of original sin. Early in the book he discusses how he believes the wailing of an infant shows that all people are born with sin, and that even at this early age they are giving it to sins of the flesh . Here it is shown how seriously Augustine takes his actions, even as an infant, writing: “I threw a tantrum because adults did not obey a child…so I inflicted my revenge of wailing.” This state of mind continues throughout the book. His next significant moral experiences is when Augustine is sixteen years old in his home town of Tagaste. He and a group of other teens steal a large amount of pears from a neighbor’s farm. He has a moral dilemma, as he had no true motive for doing it. He compares himself in this situation with Adam from the book of genesis, in that he took part in sin with his friends in the same way Adam did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Later in his life he moves to Carthage and joins another group of rebels, though he is described as too shy to actually partake in much of the trouble making. He writes: “I associated with them but was ashamed not to match their shamelessness-since I kept clear of their raids, though I moved in their circle and had friends there.” Here it is shown that Augustine is still struggling to find common ground between his morality and his social life. He befriends them despite the fact that their actions are contrary to his standards. Augustine wants to fit in somewhere without compromising his own ethics. Which he does, to some degree, when he then finds Manicheism. He takes these views seriously and when his fiend is baptized and chooses to remain in the church it upsets him. His friend dies shortly after, causing Augustine anger and depression that his counsel had not been accepted. He compares this life experiences again with a story from the first book of the bible, Genesis. This time he likens it to Cain being resentful of Abel, as Augustine blames himself for being resentful of his friends’ reception of baptism. The fact that he chose to compare the events of his life to that of the bible displays part of the underlying message of his autobiography, which is one of salvation dependent on god. Soon after in his life he states that he is only still following Manichean doctrine because he can’t find anything else better suited to his beliefs. Augustine is still seeking to fit properly into society and some sort of theological organization, and also continues to struggle with his spirituality. In 368 AD Augustine’s full conversion to Christianity took place in Milan. His conversion was incited by a voice telling him to "take up and read," which he understood as the bible. Another important theme of Augustine’s was that of sexuality.
He often struggled with his own desires and actions. He was ashamed of his impulses and believed that this type of fleshly sin was holding him back from god spiritually. He states that he wishes he could take up abstinence and envies those who do. Even after he is forced to leave his long time concubine after his mother arranges his marriage, he takes up another. After the misbehaving’s in his youth this is what Augustine feels guilty for the most, and seems to haunt him throughout the book. This was not a completely unusual view in Augustine’s time period. Abstinence was thought of highly in many religious sects and looked down on
sexuality. In conclusion, Augustine wrote his biography with stories from his life as examples. Examples that showed how he believed that to find true meaning and happiness in life you had to find it all in god. He believed that morality and spirituality was most important in life. Augustine had a heavy conscience and it dictated much of his life. On occasion he thought of leaving society to live as a monk in the name of god, but in the end his vices kept him in Roman civilization. From these lessons St. Augustine’s Confession had a theological impact in Rome that still resonates in western culture today.
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.
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...
Human nature causes a desire to run away from places and people full of love, into a life that is empty in all ways, and go running back to the open arms of loved ones once self-preservation runs out. This idea of running away and returning was used in the Bible to exemplify man running away from God with selfish ambition only to return to a God with His arms wide open, welcoming the son back home and treating him as though he had never left. In his Confessions Augustine shares his personal Prodigal Son moment, the journey that led him away from, then back to, his Creator. Such is a journey that most individuals find themselves on at one point or another, leaving and then returning to his or her Creator.
One of the most documented and honest journeys to accepting Christ is presented in St. Augustine’s book, Confessions. He embarks on a mission to find truth and explains the many barriers he had to overcome to understand the greatness of God. Throughout the book, St. Augustine lays out different significant milestones that enabled him to overcome certain barriers of thought that he originally believed. These significant milestones included him meeting Ambrose the Bishop of Milan, the learning of Neoplatonism, meeting Simplicianus and Ponticianus which lead him soon after to convert, and finally reaching the end of his journey to Catholicism when he becomes baptized. Each of these milestones presented a realization that played a significant
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.
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.
”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.... ...
Also, he learned from speaking with Alypius in the garden that refusing to accept Jesus as his savior will lead him into a destructive path (Russo 15). After having a conversation with Alypius, he feels remorseful and ashamed of his behavior because he was not able to resist his immoral habits of participating in sex, obtaining wealth, and power, and chasing fame (Russo 16). Moreover, he questioned if he was capable of not indulging in of those immoral activities. As a result, he is uncertain if he is able of accepting Jesus Christ as his savior, and live a righteous life. In fact, in an attempt to justify his actions, Augustine believes that if he was not able to refrain from his mundane, sinful habits then God, and Jesus are “the ultimate source of delight” (Russo 17). While in the garden, feeling despair by his actions, and not being able to forsake his immoral lifestyle, he begins self-harming by ripping his hair out of his head and crying out because of his lack of self-control (Russo
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
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)
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.
Throughout the Confessions, Augustine provides a journal of his life, especially his education. Augustine the narrator comes to the conclusion that his education had been granted by God and therefore should have been accepted graciously. However, at times, Augustine the character disregarded this gift and sinned. I think Augustine the narrator may have been too harsh on his character’s alter ego. He was a child, and therefore still had much learning to do, which is why he was forced to attend school. In addition, children make mistakes such as being plagued by distractions and disobedience. Shouldn’t a man who follows the Catholic faith be able to understand and comprehend that through our sins and mistakes, we are allowed to repent and that enables us to grow and become closer to God?
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...
Why does St. Augustine seek God? Through his Confessions we come to understand that he struggled a great deal with confusion about his faith, before finally and wholeheartedly accepting God into his life. But we never get a complete or explicit sense of what led Augustine to search for God in the first place. Did he feel a void in his life? Was he experiencing particular problems in other relationships that he thought a relationship with God would solve for him? Or perhaps he sought a sense of security from religion? A closer analysis of the text of St. Augustine’s Confessions will provide some insight into these fundamental questions.