Analysis Of Augustine's Confessions

Confessing his sins Augustine recalls the first sin that he can remember, thievery. As a boy Augustine “and some other wretched youths” had gone and stole pears from trees. Augustine himself having no need to steal out of poverty or hunger, as the boys end up disposing of the pears to pigs in the end (Augustine, 30). Augustine explaining that “I loved my sin - not the thing for which I had committed the sin, but the sin itself” (Augustine, 31). This task of thievery seeming to be trivial, is a significant obstacle as Augustine is not only discovering why he and others sin. As well as the important difference between what Augustine describes are lower and higher goods. Augustine explains that while following worldly law, we also have to keep in mind and not stray from the Lord’s law (Augustine,31). With the aspect of worldly honor and greed, sin was committed for the reason in acting due to the love of something

Augustine’s Confessions is a diverse blend of autobiographical accounts as well as philosophical, theological and critical analysis of the Christian Bible. Augustine treats his autobiography as an opportunity to recount his life and mentions how each event in his life has a religious and philosophical explanation. Augustine had many major events happen in his life but only 3 events would deem of extreme importance to his journey to faith. Theses major events were Book II how he describes that he considered his time of adolescence to be the most lurid and sinful period of his life, Book III how this becomes the lowest point in his relationship with God because his

In Augustine’s Confessions, he confesses many things of which we are all guilty; the greatest of which is his sadness of not having a relationship with God earlier in his life. He expressed to us that to neglect a relationship with God is far worse than the pity he felt for Dido. In reviewing his life, he had come to examine life and how there are temptations in this world that can keep us distracted. He tells to us how he became aware of this fact; everything is negligible except love for God, and his own guilt at not having found this truth sooner.

Augustine’s Confessions is an autobiography written around 400 A.D which details his spiritual journey, and each of the books address a certain element of Augustine’s steps in his spiritual path. In Book III, he develops his overcoming of lust by introducing the book with the line: “I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust.” (III.1, pp55). The theme of non-sexual lust instantly becomes the focal point of the book and Augustine presents the “hissing cauldron” as a low point in his relationship with God, for he wanders away from his creator by loving his own ways; however, he later discovers this was merely lust compared to the true love of God. In this essay, I will argue that Book III of Confessions

Young Augustine weeps for the woman who dies for her love, as an older Augustine weeps over his complete ignorance and incontinence. Young Augustine is ignorant of the presence of God in his life, and is compelled not to weep for his own spiritual distance from God, but instead for a tragedy that, in the mind of the older Augustine, is incomparable to the tragedy of being without God. The older Augustine is compelled by his advanced knowledge of the Lord’s proximity to lament his previous lack of control over his habits, proclaiming “I had no love for you and ‘committed fornication against you’ (Ps. 72:27); and in my fornications, I heard all round me the cries ‘Well done, well done’ (Ps. 34:21; 39:16) … I abandoned you to pursue the lowest things of your creation.” (Conf. 16). This reveals that Young Augustine lives an entirely habitual life, never thinking of God or his importance, instead concerned with material and worldly concerns such as reputation and honor. This state of pure habit does not leave space for Young Augustine to have continence, and leaves him to act out his life according to passion and emotions.

In his lifetime Augustine develops a strong relationship with an unnamed friend. This relationship was so strong that his death makes a tremendous impact both negatively as Augustine faces true devastation. In addition this positively impacts him as he discovers that it is God that is the solution. Describing the relationship as a “very sweet experience, welded by the fervour of our identical interests” (Conf. 4.7), Augustine exhibits their relationship as one that is pleasing, with their similar interests acting as the base of their friendship. The identical interests in this case happen to be religious views; Augustine not a converted Christian, influences his friend by showing him his religious views and “turned him away from the true faith” (Conf. 4.7) being Christianity. At this point they strengthen their relationship through their similar religious stances, and become “deeply dependent on one another” (Conf. 4.8). It is this dependence upon one another that serves as the cause of Augustine’s despair that follows his friend’s death. Their separation quickly unfolds as his friend becomes ill with a fever and dies soon after. His death marks the beginning of the long and unbearable heartbreak that Augustine experiences.

Augustine considers his greatest sin to be the sin of lust. He is held fast by the chains of love and its physical pleasures. Augustine says that his “one delight was to love and be loved” (Augustine 1118). As an adolescent he “could not distinguish the white light of love from the fog of lust” (Augustine 1118). There is a difference between love and lust. Love is pure and noble; lust is a base desire. Augustine went to study at Carthage, “where a cauldron of illicit loves leapt and boiled about [him]” (Augustine 1121). Interestingly, Carthage is the city where Aeneas had his affair with Dido. Augustine says that he “in

However, Augustine has another agenda- his confessions are also meant to show his praise and love for God. He says this in the fifth book with: "Accept the sacrifice of my confessions by the agency of my tongue, which Thou has formed and quickened, that it may confess to Thy name... But let my soul praise Thee, that it may love Thee; and let it confess Thine own mercies to Thee, that it may praise Thee." This is a clear declaration of his praise to God, and ​almost another underlying message of the text to the audience. So as he is writing about his life, he is trying also to set an example to the audience about how his choices were not always the best and use this as a guide to their own lives. And finally through his story, use his conversion and change as a way to praise God to show that even someone who "strayed off" the path was able to redeem themselves and how merciful and good God is to accept someone even as sinful as he was.

In St. Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine’s worldly experiences throughout his autobiography are crucial to his understanding of Christianity. Augustine reflects on his childhood experience of stealing pears from his neighbors to understand his sinful nature. Augustine struggles to understand his motivation for taking the pears when he knows that the pears are not necessarily better than those at his own home. He finally recognizes that this transgression is of the most wicked nature because he was sinning for the sake of sinning. “Now let my heart tell you what it was seeking there in that I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself”(29). By reflecting on a worldly experience, he is able to reach a

In this paper I will write about Augustine and his thoughts and ideas on sin in the Confessions, where sin originates and whether or not I believe that Augustine’s conception of sin has a place in modern society. From all of this I will conclude that through Augustine's work and findings, Augustine’s conception of the human person and their human actions are somewhat relevant today, due to the fact Augustine set a standard for what human nature is, known as the ability to desire, think and do, yet, people see the human differently today than Augustine did. At the same time his ideas of original sin and how the evil nature of humans is associated with original sin are still very relevant today.

In St. Augustine’s Confessions and Dante’s Inferno, the central characters in their respective narratives are presented a message from which induces distinct reactions. More importantly, their reactions are reflections of their perspective concerning the Christian outlook

During that time, not only did he face numerous bouts of “soul searching,” he also engaged in intellectual examinations of events often viewed as acts of dissidence. Whether by acting out his erotic desires or by playful thievery, Augustine delved into examining the nature of sin as a means of understanding man’s true intentions with every action. As Augustine discussed and acted out his sexual desires, he stood firm to his idea that he did it out of an innocent need for love. In addition, Augustine’s pear theft acted as a means of showing that one who commits a criminal offense may not fully understand all of the implications it may hold for that person.

Augustine undergoes several cases of separation. As a young child, he feels separated from the fictional character, Dido, in the Aeneid. Augustine weeps “over the death of Dido dying for love of Aeneas” (Conf. 1.21). The tragic nature of Dido’s death captures Augustine’s emotions; he weeps because he is incapacitated with sympathy towards her. When Augustine reflects upon this situation, he notes he was actually “dying by [his] alienation from [God]” (Conf. 1.20). As Augustine reflects back on these events, he realizes this alienation does not cause his younger self to weep, despite separation from God being the most tragic occurrence that can transpire to humans. At a young

To conclude, St. Augustine’s views on the lust for sex and the roles of women are similar. They are both seen as negative, weak and immoral. However, they do align with

In the Confessions by Saint Augustine, this great philosopher experiences many problems and emotions related to sin and evil. As a boy, he often felt darkness, blindness, and confusion while attempting to find rest in God. Augustine started out in childhood with a restless heart because he had to live in two different worlds. These worlds consisted of his mother’s Christian faith, and the world of everything else. These two worlds confused and disturbed Augustine as a child. Augustine’s father was pagan and his mother was Christian, and they both wanted him to be very successful in the world. As he became confused, he began asking questions that could not be answered such as, “Humans often feel restless, but what is it they need to feel at