Augustine Confessions
Introduction
St. Augustine was born in 354 AD in Thagaste by his parents Monica (Christian) and Patricius (Pagan). Since he was a talented boy, his parents supported him in gaining education and joined schools which were located at Madauros and Carthage. Augustine’s Confession serve an important purpose in our daily lives as it helps Christians live a spiritual life and gain moral growth. Augustine gives accounts of his sinful life, conversion and the God’s saving grace. In the Confessions, he makes a call to abandon the material reality and create a communion with God where human beings will find peace. He also touches things on the universe, the human nature, the cause of evil and more. He says that human being live in a material world and they will return back to the spiritual home through Jesus Christ. Confessions offer profound understanding and has helped many people find happiness. The Confession is not an intellect experience but rather it glorifies God for sustaining him and directing him toward the light.
Infancy and Boyhood
The Confessions begin by “Great art thou, O Lord” where Augustine reveals the pilgrimage of grace and on powerful grace which lord has provided (Sheed, 4). He is so much grateful to God for his mighty deeds since infancy to adulthood. In this book, he reveals the sinful nature of human being and that the nature separates human beings from God. In the Confession, he focuses on two key words namely ‘restlessness and peace’ and states that the soul needs peace but it is hard to gain the peace unless the soul is connected with God (Sheed, 4). Augustine presents his prayer to God and in the prayer; he reveals the problems with human beings. In praying, Augustine states that the purpose of prayer is to ask God put love in our hearts so that we as human beings can live Godly life. Since human beings live in a sinful world, the purpose of prayer should be focused on asking for eternal damnation and salvation (Sheed, 6). Augustine reflects on his infancy and acknowledged the mother-child harmonies relationship that is created by God. However, the natural order from God is destructed by the infant’s behaviors where the child commits sins though it is an inevitable consequence since human beings live in a sinful nature. For example, Augustine looks back to the past and acknowledges his faults and says “And yet I sinned my Lord God” (Sheed, 17). He had a choice between good and bad he decided to choose pleasure and frivolous literature. Even though he acted against the command of his parents, his teachers were accountable for teaching him illicit passages and these actions weakened his moral development. In other words, the education system acted against the moral law. He gives praises to God for saving him from evil ways. He goes on to prayer that God may deliver him from Satan snares and use the positive things he learned in childhood to serve God.
Adolescence
Augustine reflects on the past and remembers the past wickedness and the wicked ways during adolescence. Augustine says that he connected himself with worldly things and his actions pleased men rather than God. He was guided by the flesh and he could not distinguish between God’s will and unholy desire (Sheed, 20). At childhood, he was not accountable for his sins since he was unconscious of sinful acts but during adolescence, he consciously decided to violate the moral law and for this reason, he faced a great penalty. He ignored the ordered love which the soul demand and followed the disordered love of lust. Since there was no one to advise him, he remained into his depravity and illicit behaviors. Augustine says that in adolescent years, he engaged in all kind of sins such as sexual behaviors and theft (Sheed, 20). Generally, he reveals his sinful life and how the grace of God liberated him from the sinful behaviors. In this Confession, Augustine asks God to grant him a perfect rest where he will enjoy the Job of the Lord.
Carthage
Augustine gives an account of his school life in Carthage. During 371-374, he went to Carthage to further his studied on rhetoric and in this city, he experienced all sort of sins such as casual relationships and unfriendly friendships with young men (Sheed, 30). He desired to love and the enjoyment of the body, and this made him foul and unclean. He was engaged in excessive vanity and finally he never met a true lover. While in the dissipations, he came across a positive experience as he read the Hortensius by Cicero where he learnt the philosophy and the true happiness’s. After reading the work by Cicero, he decided to conduct person research to discover the truth (Sheed, 32). He was not satisfied by the Cicero work as he argued that it lacked reference with respect to the scripture and Christ. After being converted into Cicero’s philosophy, Augustine was converted into Manichaeism which focused on ‘heroic humanism’. The latter means that human being could avoid sins and overcome temptation by having the willingness. For example, Augustine could refrain from sexual behaviors through making personal decisions. Manichaeism religion believes that light and darkness existed in the world where the light presented the soul while dark presented the body (Sheed, 37). In addition, there was a war between light and darkness or else God and evil. In order to attain salvation and live a spiritual life, human beings should deny the worldly things. These beliefs helped Augustine understand that the worldly things or the flesh forced him commit sin. However, his mother did support the Manicheans belief and adviced him to return back to Catholicism (Sheed, 41).
Approaching Maturity
Augustine confesses that he engaged himself in lustful projects where he deceived people, taught liberal arts and rhetorical skills. He formed a common-law relationship and bore a child in 372. Though he did not marry the woman, he lived in a faithful relationship with her for 15years (Augustine, & Albert, 46). Later, he realized that God created marital covenant but he engaged in common-law relationship. In Carthage, Augustine had the desires to gain wisdom in the field of astrology and after the study; he gained knowledge that he is not accountable for his faults simply because Venus, Saturn or Mars are full of sinful natures (Augustine, & Albert, 48). However, a friend to Augustine told him the truth that; Astrology was a pseudo-science full of deceptions. Later, Augustine met a tragedy when his friend died and he becomes devastated. In explaining the love for his friend, he says that people should show the ordered love from God to their friends. If he loved his friend with this kind of love, he would have understood that his friend is with God. Augustine wrote ‘The Beauteous and the Fitting” but he did not succeed as he was against money (Augustine, & Albert, 52). Later, he conducted research on the nature of reality through metaphysical speculations. Rather than finding the reality from the scripture, he uses his own ideas which confront the nature of God. Augustine confesses his sins and asks God to defend, support and provide stability (Augustine, & Albert, 60).
Rome and Milan
In year 383, Augustine moved to Rome and here, he taught Manichaeism and maintained his dualist views. Later, he embraced the Plato’s Academy where learned new beliefs on doubting on everything. With this knowledge and Manichean metaphysics, be believes that God is a finite being (Augustine, & Albert, 60). In Milan, he becomes the professor of Rhetoric but he did not succeed in his teachings since Christian-Neo-Platonism was in rise during the period. The Christians-Neo-Platonism was supported by Bishop Ambrose who preached with a rhetoric style and applied intelligent doctrine. This made Augustine to change mind and realized that The Catholic faith was reasonable. For example, the Manicheans rejected the Old Testament but Bishop Ambrose convinced Augustine that the Old and New Testaments relate in that the New Testament interprets the Old Testament (Augustine, & Albert, 60). In year 382 while in Carthage, he was not satisfied with the Manichaeism since Faustus could not give solution to the religious questions presented by Augustine.
Catholic Alternative
Augustine meets with his mother in Milan and at this point, Augustine likes the Christian virtues in her mother. Her mother believes now that God will deliver her son from evil teachings and direct him toward the truth. Since Augustine was a Catholic in childhood, he is willing in to return to his faith as he is influenced by Ambrose’s sermons (Augustine, & Albert, 83). He had to make wise decisions between true faith and Manichean materialism. Remarkable, he gains a spiritual understanding and recognizes that the Scripture states the truth as it interprets thing in allegorical manner. He accepts Catholic faith and rejects the Manichaeism and other secular philosophies which fit only the intellectual elite. Given that he has accepted the Catholic faith at the age of 30, he realizes that in order to completely live a Christian life, he should give up worldly pleasure (Augustine, & Albert, 95). However, he is tempted to commit sexual sins but what compels him toward sin is the lack of humility. Again, he separated with his mistress since he decided to marry another young woman. Waiting for the new marriage, he became a slave of lust and loves another mistress whom their enjoyed sex together. He confesses his crooked ways and asks God to deliver him from the wretched wanderings (Augustine, & Albert, 101).
Encounter with Neo-Platonism
After making serious efforts to follow the Catholic faith, he holds on personal knowledge and questions the Scripture on some issues. Though he does not comprise the word of God using Manichean beliefs, he believes that God is not omnipotent since he cannot remove the evil from the goodness (Puchner, 323). For this reason, Augustine finds the cause of evil and concludes that evil comes from free will. In finding the cause of evil, he enters in Neo-Platonism school of thought to learn about the human existence. However, he argues that Platonists books focus on powers of reason and ignores the faith in Christ. Even though the books do not touch things to do with salvation and redemption, Augustine derives something important based on Paul. The writings of Paul express the Scripture truth and present the glory of God (Puchner, 335).
Moral Conversion
After reading the writing of Platonists and St. Paul, he accepts the existence of God but he is confused on how to handle the intellectual certainty and moral stability. The latter needs accepting the healing power and abandoning the moral autonomy (Puchner, 345). He is advised by Simplicianus to follow the foot step of a man known as Victorinus who was a pagan but decided to abandon the Worldly things and follow Christ by being baptized and becoming a church member. Augustine also believes that Victorinus and Paul have similar traits in that both rejected the pride, self-autonomy and self-reliance and followed Christ (Puchner, 358). However, Augustine is still held back to the old sinful ways and he is compelled by the theory of ‘divided will’. He fails to commit himself to the law of God and this hindered him from overcoming the divided will. He confesses that God may help him refrain from the lustful actions (Puchner, 376).
Conclusion
Augustine’s’ Confessions was written in 397-401 AD, and the title ‘Confessions” was rooted from Augustine’s conversion. In Confessions, Augustine reflects back on his past life, confesses his faults and proclaims God’s mercy. Confessions are also presented as a polemical work-which means he presents arguments on opponents’ opinions. In Confessions, St. Augustine talks more about the love God and his relationship with God. He says by meeting the love of god, he came across a positive experience. Many people in the material world get love from money and wealth but St. Augustine found the real love from God. To gain the true happiness, people need to be connected with God.
Work cited
Puchner, Martin. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. , 2013. Print.
Sheed, Frank J. Confessions of Saint Augustine. London: Continuum International Pub. Group, 1944.
Internet resource.
Augustine, , and Albert C. Outler. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications,
- Print.
