Augustine's Confessions Book Report

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Augustine's Confessions

Q and a on Confessions

What is Augustine confessing, why, and to whom?

Augustine is confessing to God, because he was a public sinner and in order to justify himself as a Catholic it is necessary to confess and in this sense he is renouncing his old views and letting it be known to both God and man that he now believes as a Catholic. The Confessions is written to God, whom Augustine addresses at length: "Accordingly, my God, I would have no being, I would have no existence, unless you were in me" (Augustine, 2008, p.4)

What book by what author does Augustine read at age 18 that changes his life?

Augustine reads Hortensius by Cicero and this makes him want to pursue philosophy rather than mere sensual pleasure: "That book of his…Hortensius…it altered my prayers" (Augustine, 2008, p. 39).

What method does Augustine learn from the books of the "Platonists" that allows him to see his god's invisible nature? What does it look like?

Augustine learns that materialism does not explain everything and that there is a spiritual aspect to life that can be understood by means of the use of reason and the pursuit of objective truth.

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He sees God's invisible nature as a body of light. In this manner, he is led out of the error of the Manichees: "Our Savior himself, your only Son, I imagined emerging from the mass of your dazzling body of light for our…Manichees did not hold the area of Darkness to be equal to that of Light, but to be a black 'wedge' cutting into the light" (Augustine, 2008, p. 85).

4. What author was Augustine reading in the Milan garden?

He was reading the letters of St. Paul.

5. According to Augustine, why are bad habits so hard to break? What is needed to do so?

Bad habits are hard to break because the will is weakened to the point that it commits the sins by rote without any effort to not commit them. In order to break the bad habits, prayer is needed to help strengthen the will to conform to God's will: "My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in God-Given Talents, his creatures, in myself and others" (Augustine, 2008, p. 22).

6. Why does Augustine still get distracted watching hunters course after rabbits?.....

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