Book 4 Augustine Research Paper

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

I agree with Augustine on his spiritual principles. It is essential in the Christian faith to study the scriptures to gain wisdom and knowledge on how one is to live life. I refer to scriptures from the Holy Bible; scriptures that encourage us to seek knowledge from God. In the book of James 5:1, we are told to seek wisdom from God, not from the books written by men. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him,” (Holy Bible) and here we are advised in the book of I Corinthians 3:19-20, “For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” (Holy Bible)

The theological issue that most perplexed Augustine in his youth was that his mother Monica was Christian. He had turned his back on Christianity in his days as a youth and always tried to hide his views about Christianity. His mother never give up and always prayed that one day he would return Christian. I believed his Mother prayers had a lot to with him converting to

Here God is constantly pushing Augustine to reflect on his actions and thought which also relates to a college students experience and how they are pushed to continually reflect on their actions. It isn’t always a pleasant experience since they reflect on both the good and the ugly. This stage isn’t the only chance to learn or think for yourself, or the last “but it is the best” Deresiewicz points out. Which I don’t completely agree with due to the fact that there are many stages in a person’s life: childhood, growing into an adult, living on your own, getting married, or having kids, that require a lot of internal reflection and growth which are equally important because

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.

It was not until after Augustine graduated college that his perception and understanding of religion became positively evident. Before that, it was very vague and shallow. Augustine indulged in sin the most during his teenage years, claiming that he “ran wild.” His morality rapidly

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

There are several themes within the passage that shows Augustine’s worldview. For example, in the first line of the passage, he understands the concept of loving God later in life: “I have learnt to love you late”(Conf. X.27). This quote suggests that Augustine is now able to see why is mother was so skeptical in giving him is baptism early in his childhood. He commits to sin on numerous occasions, but comes back to find God again. In Book II, Augustine’s actions are paralleled with the prodigal son: “I strayed still farther from you and you did not restrain me.

In order to understand St. Augustine’s thought process, one must understand his history. St. Augustine was born in a time of turmoil for the Church. Born shortly after the edict

Another critical aspect of Saint Augustine’s writing is that this entire book is an autobiography. It is the road to his conversion to Christianity. When people are looking toward Christianity and are entertaining the thought of converting they can read an actual conversion story; a story that is filled with ups, downs, and an all around full circle of change. Not all Christians have an intense story that led to their faith; some Christians have been born into the faith. Saint Thomas Aquinas was, in many ways, the polar opposite of Saint Augustine.

He works through human error.’ In short, Augustine’s hermeneuti­cal question was not ‘what does the text say’, but what does the text say to me in this moment” (Miles 39). Miles here states that the question to ask during the middle of reading is “What does the text say to me right now?” I disagree, this is not always a great question to ask. In Augustine’s personal quiet times with the Lord, that would be a great question to ask, but only with Scripture. Too often people make decisions based on their emotions, and this is a dangerous game to play. Augustine realizes he was making impulsive decisions based off of his lusts. He cuts these out with the help of his mother, who views marriage as an institution between not only a man and his wife but to God as well. This is evident through Augustine writing, “She had been the wife of one husband, had requited her parents, had governed her house piously, was well reported of good works. She had brought up her children” (Confessions 65). Here, Augustine describes his mother as a woman who works so hard for her family and for the good of something bigger than herself; she is seeing the Gospel as life-changing for not only her but for her family as well. She views marriage as the most important thing she can hold onto for her family; she is a family woman who cares about the togetherness of her family and realizes that she will be

Theologians, Biblical scholars and Christians all over the world often wrestle with two extremely important questions about their faith. These questions are, "What is God like?" and "How should we live in response to God?" Some feel that we need others to direct us, some feel we need them to challenge us, but everyone agrees that we need others. That is exactly how Saint Augustine struggles to find his faith and beliefs. He found it extremely difficult to come with a conclusion when it was staring at him straight in the face, but just as he did, we draw up our own conclusions with the guidance of others.

Without being a professional about how the mind works, Augustine takes the challenge head on to see how the mid can compare to faith. The mind is a tricky and a vast phenomena. He has come up with four different aspects in regards to the human mind and memory. He examines his senses, skills, ideas, and emotions to each other to help him in his search of God in his own mind.

At this point in his life, Augustine is recognized for doing many things for the Church as a priest, author, and defender of faith. As an author he wrote Confessions, his spiritual autobiography, and City of God, his great work describing the Christian philosophy throughout history. In this magnificent work,