Augustine Chapter 7 Summary

This is joy grounded in you, O God, who are the truth, ‘my illumination, the salvation of my face, my God.’” Repeatedly examples of the paradoxical nature of the Christian God are presented in Saint Augustine’s Confessions. But the unquenchable thirst for answers to these paradoxes that Saint Augustine exhibits are merely illustrations of man’s longing for truth. Saint Augustine himself laments over the yearning he felt for truth. In fact, it was this desire that led him to the Manicheans. But if God is truth and truth leads to God then how did the pursuit of truth lead Augustine so far astray for so long? The answer lies in the wickedness of human nature; man spends all his life searching for truth, yet although his soul craves it, his mind longs to control and perverse it. Saint Augustine journeyed far and wide, and spent years digging through books and papers trying to find the truth his soul craved. But he continued to ignore and snub God because he wanted that truth on his own terms and not on the terms of a divine and supreme being. Often man denies the presence of a superior being even when the inner void and the truths of the

Understanding the Trinity by Dr. McGrath is a book worth reading for those who want to learn more about the Trinity. Although having an apologetic formula, the message the author is trying to convey is not rooted on such. From the beginning, the author emphasizes the need for a personal encounter with God in order to validate its existence, something that can happen to anyone. McGrath further develops a number of models, which he assumes will help individuals create a conception of God. Using illustrations and models, the author tries to help the reader understand the limitations of fully understanding the nature of the divine, and the notion of Trinity.

St. Augustine is a man with a rational mind. As a philosopher, scholar, and teacher of rhetoric, he is trained in and practices the art of logical thought and coherent reasoning. The pursuits of his life guide him to seek concrete answers to specific questions. Religion, the practice of which relies primarily on faith—occasionally blind faith—presents itself as unable to be penetrated by any sort of scientific study or inquiry. Yet, like a true scientist and philosopher, one of the first questions St. Augustine poses in his Confessions is: “What, then, is the God I worship” (23)? For a long time, Augustine searches for knowledge about God as a physical body, a particular entity—almost as if the Lord

In Augustine’s Confessions and St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, both authors discuss the relationship between fleshy temptation and the purity of the spirit. The Confessions is Augustine’s writes of his extensive search for truth and conversion to Christianity, as he struggles against fleshy temptations and his soul to find rest in God. Augustine’s writes of a constant struggle to reconcile between the dualistic notion of the flesh and spirit with a nuanced understanding of flesh. On the other hand, St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians calls for a unified community as a body to the Christian community. He writes of the significant bond one can have between the soul and Christ. The writings of Augustine and Paul are separate. Augustine explores of revelations of Christianity through his mistakes and encounters with people. On the other hand, Paul derives his understanding of the word from the life of Jesus. Paul is an advocate of Jesus, as he relays the gospel of God to the people to become one with God. Augustine’s Confessions and St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, address the relationship between fleshy temptation and the purity of spirit in two different perspectives. Augustine explores the meaning of a devout Christian as an dualistic battle between the body, temptations of evil, and the soul, desire to be pure. Whereas, Paul deduces that the body of Christ is a unity of all followers of Jesus, and the soul is a spiritual bond with God.

In the Confessions and after more research, it is clear that Saint Augustine addressed himself articulately and passionately to the complicating questions that were sitting in the minds and hearts of men since always. Religions thrived on answering the confusing questions of the universe and people were able to find solace in the answers. The Confessions tells a story in the form of a long conversation with God. Through this conversion to Catholic Christianity, Augustine encounters many aspects of love. The following essay will further explore the fundamental aspect of love which guided Augustine towards the ultimate relationship with God.

It is obvious from The Confession that Augustine was a man who struggled endlessly to extricate himself from the bondage of sin, but the more he tried, the more he failed and sinks deeper into its abyss. And with every failure, comes a sense of disappointment and despondency, until he had a strange experience. In AD 386, while sitting in his garden, Augustine heard a voice from some children playing not far away urging “him” to pick the book—the Bible, and read. What he read from Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman Christian in Chapter 13 transformed, not only his understanding of the hopelessness and despair man encounters in trying to solve the problem of sin on his own, but he saw the provision that God has made to remedy the consequences of sin and the grace he has graciously provided to live a life that is acceptable to God. That moment was the turning point in Augustine’s life and how he developed his sotoriological

Throughout Augustine’s life, he experiences multiple conversions with the earliest beginning when he was only a school-aged boy. This conversion carries over into his early adulthood and is a conversion of truth. During this time, Augustine becomes attracted to the Christian beliefs and develops a curiosity for understanding who God is. Since Augustine was born to a catholic mother, during his childhood he “observed men praying” and “learnt to do likewise.” (Augustine, 11). Augustine practices this observance of prayer in his childhood and prays

However, before he will begin talking of his own life there is prayers of invocation and reflections on the mystery of God 's indwelling and being. This serves to situate the writings as a spiritual account of God 's work in Augustine 's life, rather than a removed biography. Seeing himself as one who abandoned the true religion, he wrestles with some fundamental challenges he faces upon reflection - where was God when Augustine was not living a Christian life or does knowledge of God precede or follow from calling upon God? Reading his account of God 's being (Confessions, Book I, Chapter IV) one has the sense that this particularly poetic chapter reflects a converted soul 's struggle to reconcile paradoxical images of God, which Augustine juxtaposes to convey a sense of mystery. Phrases like "my Lord God" carry distinctly biblical tones since the Divine Name is often translated 'Adonai ' (Lord). There are clearly other biblical influences on the chapter. God is "never new, never old, yet making all things new" referring to God 's eternal nature and Revelation 21:25. However, other descriptions seem to draw on other philosophical traditions. An expression of God reflected Platonic forms is seen as God is "most high, best, most powerful" even to the extent of being both the "furthest and nearest". "The idea of the true philosopher seeking the light as if in a darkened cave can

Augustine first characterizes God based on how he experiences God’s presence and qualities. Augustine searches for Him unsuccessfully in the

Augustine then writes about how to convey God’s truth to diverse audiences and demonstrates that both the Bible and one’s own life are texts to be read and assessed against the true Cristian Doctrine. The last four books offer an interpretation of the opening of the Book of Genesis. As mentioned before when Augustine’s converted to Christianity his appropriation of Platonic ideas uses his past sins and later confesses to God. This will eventually enhance his mind and soul. The consequences of this appropriation are that sins can be ‘pleasurable’ which will tremendously effect Augustine’s life.

It was so difficult for Augustine to make the decision to embrace the Christian faith because he was running from God. He speaks as if he had been convicted for a while, and he did not want to accept that God was convicting him. Augustine was also struggling with not being worthy enough for this call on his life from God, to become a Christian. Augustine might even have had some struggles with letting go of his plans and life and allowing God to have control. Augustine is at odds with himself because he describes how he willed it and how he did not will it. Augustine is struggling with letting his life go and giving it to God. He struggles with giving God the power and glory over himself.

In Book 7, Augustine tried to fully understand the Catholic faith and paid close attention to God’s conceptions. In doing so, Augustine deeply struggled in picturing God and could not grasp the idea that something that does not take up space still had the ability to exist. Additionally, Augustine questioned the sources of evil and why such evil exists. He then realizes that there is no evil, only an absence of goodness. At the beginning of Book 8, Augustine still has yet to convert to Catholicism; however, the only thing holding him back from converting is his inner self. He still holds steady to his faith in material beings. Due to internal turmoil, Augustine has a mental breakdown in the garden. In the garden he hears a child repeating

One of the greatest problems Augustine struggles with in the course of his spiritual journey was with the image of God. Augustine was struggling with the idea that anything not occupying space could still have an existence. For a long time, he pictured God as “a secret breath of life” or like sunlight, when he shouldn’t have been “picturing” him at all. “My eyes are accustomed to such images,” he writes, “and my heart accepted the same structure.” In Book IV, Augustine was trying to conceive how God could have beauty and magnitude as attributes; he failed to realize that “you [God] yourself are your own magnitude and your own beauty.” This error led Augustine further into problems of trying to imagine God. Under the influence of Manicheism,

With his doctrine of Trinity Augustine, originally proposed in the “Confessions” and later developed in his treatise “On the Trinity”, Augustine wanted to develop his neo-Platonic idea of the ascent of the soul to God because of his teachings about the triadic structure of consciousness, I exist - I live – I think. In the same way, through the theory of the “image of God” in man as the “image of the Trinity”. As the result, Augustine aspire to show that the soul can not only detect the image of the Trinity, which corresponds to its marks in the universe, but also through its enlightening effect ascend to the contemplation of the Trinity

While we as humanity searched for the truth, God was the one shining the light for us to see the path. This is part of what he believed to be “Memoria”, or the information within ourselves that was not the influence of experience. These would include; knowledge of self, truths of reason, ethical truths, values and God himself. (Text) St. Augustine thought that when searching inside of oneself this would eventually lead to a higher elevation of understanding from the physical and self towards the infinite and eternal, then finally, to God which was the greatest of all things. Being that St. Augustine was primarily rationalization and because of his beliefs in God, he claimed that reason could not function properly without faith (Tex). That “Faith seeks, and understanding finds” (Text), for if we have faith we are guided down a path by God 's light so that with reason we can find understanding in our path and purpose. He feels that the evidence of God is in creation but not in our sense perception (Text). That senses and the world can be too changeable to be of any basis for God who is eternal and absolute. From his faith and studies of the Bible, St. Augustine states that we are closer to God than nature because we are made in his image. Next he begins development on his ideas of God 's divine freedom of creation and how everything, including time itself came from nothing other than God 's desire for it to be so. That God in his divinity