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 sens Continue Reading...
(Alypius was not necessarily being disobedient, of course, but was not doing what his father might have ideally wished) Friendship can even move one to do what is good and right, as Augustine's friendship for Alypius is what motivated the later to g Continue Reading...
St. Augustine's Confessions: Passage Explication from Book III Aurelius Augustine, or St. Augustine (354-430), one of the most important historical figures of the Roman Catholic Church and a major author of its doctrines (Lawall et al.) is the autho Continue Reading...
Augustine and Science Science in the modern sense did not exist for Augustine, or indeed for any of his contemporaries, nor were the events of the material universe and the physical-temporal bodies located within it of any great importance to him. N Continue Reading...
AUGUSTINE'S STRUGGLE FOR SALVATION Augustine: Confessions Augustine's Struggle for Salvation The eighth book of Augustine's Confessions represents the internal dialog of a man in search of spiritual and religious enlightenment in the form of a ver Continue Reading...
" (I.16.23) Despite his guilty attitude towards loving the excitement of Latin pagan literature, Augustine is a man who is converted through reading. He struggles with the intellectual side of pagan life that attracts him, as opposed to what he rega Continue Reading...
In Book Eleven, Augustine contemplates the possibilities that lay in wait upon his death, possibilities that surely would have come to fruition if he had not converted to Christianity, being damnation and eternal punishment at the hands of Satan an Continue Reading...
Confessions of Saint Augustine Carefully reviewing Saint Augustine's Confessions is a fascinating historical excursion to what it was like to be a believer -- four hundred years after the death of Christ -- who had lived a sinful life but was greatl Continue Reading...
The first ten books are mostly autobiographical, as Augustine describes in them episodes from his earlier life, and how his position concerning religion and philosophy had changed throughout his existence. All across the book, Augustine refrains fr Continue Reading...
Conversion of St. Augustine comes about it would seem, as the result of three major forces. Augustine's mother was a Christian and never quit praying for him or witnessing to him; Augustine himself, spent, it would seem, every day of his life, in a s Continue Reading...
" When these words of mine were repeated in Pelagius' presence at Rome by a certain brother of mine (an Episcopal colleague), he could not bear them and contradicted him so excitedly that they nearly came to a quarrel. Now what, indeed, does God comm Continue Reading...
Monica was honored for her forbearance in marriage to an undisciplined, often cruel pagan man. Augustine's father suffers by comparison to Augustine's mother, but rather than suggest that she should have left his father because of his mistreatment, Continue Reading...
Augustine was far from an austere man of the Church, however. His thinking betrays a kind, loving, and even lustful heart. The aspects of his thinking that led more towards individual expression and aesthetic enjoyment found and continue to find re Continue Reading...
Augustine is a Christian father of the late Roman Empire -- the traditional date of the "fall" of the Roman Empire is about a half-century after Augustine's death -- while Thomas Aquinas is a thinker of the medieval period. It is worth noting this su Continue Reading...
St. Augustine's autobiography Confessions is an honest, if not severe, work of introspection. Although many of its themes and motifs are outmoded, there are core elements that remain relevant to modern readers, which is why Confessions remains critic Continue Reading...
St. Augustine's Character as Illustrated Within His Confessions The character of St. Augustine (354-430) as seen within his Confessions (begun 397), which he wrote as a long epistle to God, in midlife, marks a distinct turning point in the life, att Continue Reading...
Aquinas argues that the fact that man can perceive himself to be true serves as a validation for God's existence; however this is dissimilar to Descartes impressions of the Mediator who, according to the philosopher, is capable of mistaking that whi Continue Reading...
It is my opinion that Calvin was not a Protestant, but only a Reformer. The Catholic doctrine of justification by faith is really a works-based recognition that somehow the individual is going to do enough to get himself to heaven. Calvin did littl Continue Reading...
Augustine relates the common human condition of procrastination directly to himself. It thus serves the dual purpose of expounding both the phenomenon of procrastination as experienced by humanity, and of illuminating for the reader the process that Continue Reading...
Thus while he does allow for some Aristotelian influence of the value of sensory experience so he does not fall back into a Manichean divide between good and evil, heaven and earth -- there is some 'good' to be learned with the senses -- Augustine's Continue Reading...
God Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud's seminal student, wrote that "Bidden or unbidden God is present." This motto of his might well stand in for the ways in which Freud, St. Augustine, and Sallie McFague write abo Continue Reading...
Augustine contributed greatly to Christianity. He was a man who held beliefs that transcended his turbulent beginnings and manifested into insightful philosophy. Such philosophy became deeply embedded in Christianity and would lend the way for furthe Continue Reading...
Augustine's main problem when it came to conceiving of the spiritual nature of God? What solution did he find? Before answering this question, it is important to clarify what exactly is meant by "spiritual nature of God." Many things could be meant Continue Reading...
Anselm also added the passion of repentance and the exhilaration of praise to the bare texts, involving the supplicant in an intensity of feeling and a deepening of understanding. In the intensity of sorrow for sin, he is the heir of Augustine of Hi Continue Reading...
He describes a battle of the wills in the formation of his faith: "So my two wills, one old, one new, one carnal, one spiritual, were in conflict, and they wasted my soul by their discord" (168). Only when he was listening to Ponticianus describe th Continue Reading...
It was not simply that his body did not obey his will and that he possessed a stronger spiritual and a physical will after his conversion, but that before his conversion his will was not fully sincere internally. He had not yet accepted God's grace, Continue Reading...
In Chapter 5, the great churchman informs us that Water is in fact an apt designation for the Divinity, better than any of the other elements. Water possess the unique properties of being more moveable than earth (though less movable than air) whil Continue Reading...
Still, the central message of the book was peace within the self and towards others, although it does also advocate self-defense. The Koran for example states "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah Continue Reading...
St. Augustine and the Buddha A Comparison of World Views Were St. Augustine and the Buddha to have a conversation, they might find their points-of-view quite interesting. Of course, Augustine might feel a bit inconvenienced by having to crouch down Continue Reading...
Dante's journey through his 'mid-life' crisis. It uses 7 sources in MLA format and it has a list of bibliography. Mid-life is a period in life in which adults take on new responsibilities, in the family, and at work and changes are often wrought wi Continue Reading...
Saint Augustine's conversion, as recounted in his Confessions This paper will explore the factors leading to Saint Augustine's conversion. This conversion was believed to be the result of an ultimate battle of sexual desire with spirit. Augustine Continue Reading...
Thy anger had overshadowed me, and I knew it not. I was become deaf by the rattling of the chins of my mortality, the punishment for my soul's pride; and I wandered farther from Thee, and Thou didst "suffer" me; and I was tossed to and fro, and wast Continue Reading...
Rousseau and Tolstoy A Comparison of Rousseau's Confessions and Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions opens more brazenly than the other Confessions of antiquity (those belonging to Augustine); the latter were zealously Continue Reading...
St. Augustine's "Confessions" The idea that sex should be equated with sin is a Catholic tradition that has its roots in the writings of Saint Augustine. Prior to this there was little opposition or shame associated with sexual activity, especially Continue Reading...
Confessions of Augustine, The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself, "On the Oration and Dignity of Man," Petrarch's poetry, and Shakespeare's drama "King Lear" are both products of societies in which the dominant religious ethos was Christian ra Continue Reading...
.. she would disclose nothing about the one unto the other, save what might avail to their reconcilement." (Confessions, Book IX, 21) It is certainly true that Monica was patient and long-suffering with her arbitrary son. The pitiful story depicted Continue Reading...
Christ was always present, even before he came to earth, but he waited until humans were able to accept him. The incarnation is still important, as Aquinas would remind us, as this is the ultimate proof of the eternal power and existence of God's po Continue Reading...
