Comparing Augustine's Confessions And Boethius

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.

When one reads the word "confessions," one would not necessarily associate it with the word "narrative." Confessions seem to be more of something stated directly without any story-like element. They are also a more personal thing- one does not simply put them in a story form unless purposely intending to do so, because usually it is something that expresses guilt for something personal or is between the author and their conscience (or perhaps to themselves). However, there can always be an exception, like Augustine's Confessions. It is written as a form of a narrative, even though the original the main audience for whom it was written is God, yet it is also intended to be read by anyone, almost as a didactic piece that sets an example

In Saint Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine does not weep from the separation and distance he has from God, nor for Monica as she dies, but does weep for the separation he feels in Dido’s death—a fictional character— the death of his friend, and later does weep for Monica. As Augustine grows older, he changes from viewing weeping as despicable to finding weeping as a natural part of human life and grieving. The cause of Augustine’s tears shift, from Augustine as a character not understanding things while he is younger, to Augustine as an author, looking and back and judging his former self with his hindsight. It is not until later in his life that Augustine, as an author, understands the reasons behind his past weeping along with understanding that he is now with God and no longer needs to weep.

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

created. However as Augustine starts to show remorse for his sins it does not change the fact that he stole the fruit from the tree for the pleasure of sin.

An omnibenevolent God created a man with the capacity to sin; as Augustine has addressed, the evil in man resides from his will. Augustine, however, does not address how evil stems also from the human nature of temptation that was a consequence of the original fall from Eden. Augustine touches on this theme when accounting for the origins of his sin, but he never fully declares it. “I loved to excuse my soul,” Augustine begins, “and to accuse something else inside me (I knew not what) but which was not I. But, assuredly, it was I, and it was my impiety that had divided me against myself” (62). Here, Augustine admits to denying his own human nature to sin, and blames it on something beyond his will, such as a result of creation. Bonner,

He put his gifted mind into the subjects such as the Trinity, grace, the soul, predestination, the sacraments, sexuality and free will. His thought has a profound impact on both Roman Catholicism primarily as his doctrine of the church and Protestantism especially in his concept for salvation. Augustine has one of the most dramatic conversions, from a former life of loose living and worldly ambitions to a change of belief and behavior, which led to his most influential written works Confessions and The City of

In “Saint Augustine, Confessions, in Oliver Strunk, ed., Source Readings in Music History (SRMH), rev. ed. by Leo 13 Treitler” Saint Augustine expresses that when he listens to music he is present with the problem of indulging in the pleasure of it while he’s listening to the music and then feeling like he should have ended the music because it’s not the words and guidance of them that is drawing him into the music, the pleasure of the singing. Thus, since he is not learning anything from it or what he considered he should have learned, he sees himself enjoying singing as a sin. According to his confession, he feels sinful when he is listening to music because he finds himself enjoying the music, rather than being captivating by the content that is being sing. Therefore, causing him to not like music at those times and makes him think music is bad and sinful that’s why he should not listen to singing. However, he also seems to contradict himself by saying that music could be useful for many people and help increase peoples’ belief in the religion. For example, “…the custom of singing in church so that weaker souls might rise to a state of devotion by indulging their ears (Treitler 133)”.

In Confessions, St. Augustine discusses astrology in detail. It is still wrong to practice astrology because it is contrary to free will and astrology is fake.

First articulated by Augustine (A.D. 354–430), the doctrine of original sin holds that all of Adam’s descendants inherit the guilt of Adam’s sin and thus incur the punishment for Adam’s sin. Inheriting Adam’s guilt at birth, then, presumes one guilty before God at birth and destined for hell. This is the basis for the Catholic need for infant baptism, for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (that Mary herself was uniquely conceived free of Adam’s guilt), and for the belief that salvation is only available through connection with the Church via baptism. Moreover, the belief that God holds Adam’s descendants personally accountable for Adam’s sin calls into question the importance of our own free will as

In the beginning of Augustine’s life, vice was a double-edged sword. As he said, “Nothing deserves to be despised more than vice; yet I gave in more and more to vice simply in order not be to despised” (46). Prior to Augustine finding God and converting to Christianity, vice evidently guided his life. Despite his remorse for his past actions, he seemingly committed many acts of sin in his youth. For the most part, said acts were mainly driven by his desire to avoid judgment from his peers.

Early Christian writers face the question of whether the human body is a good thing or a bad thing. Confessions of St. Augustine and St. Paul’s Epistles use the word, ‘flesh,’ to either depict the human body, man’s immaterial nature, or the nature of sin. The flesh is the obvious difference between the Lord and humans; thus, it describes the sinful nature that humans possess. Both St. Augustine and St. Paul describe the human body as something that can be contaminated; however, St. Paul distinguishes a difference between the spiritual body and the natural, physical body which is the flesh, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians

The original sin is the disobedient actions from Adam and Eve when they ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, the sin is seen as human moral of freedom that is weakened by the first sin. As time progressed, we see sin as a wrong doing but have not took into notice other sacred interpretation of the original sin in all religions.

With thirteen books making up the Confessions, it is hard to say what had played the most important role in Augustine’s life. Obviously, a crucial point in the story was Augustine’s conversion or return to Christianity. Readers see this as something Augustine was struggled with, from stealing fruit to joining the Manicheans. Through all of his struggles about his faith, his mother Monnica was devoted to his conversion. In this brief paper, I will discuss who Monnica was, how she played a role in her son’s conversion, and how she continues to influences others through the Confessions.

The Confessions, written by the prominent philosopher Augustine himself, is essentially an autobiography on his life and an array of philosophical ideas that stir contemplation for the modern reader. Most importantly, Augustine’s confessions immensely scrape the surface of his life devoted to God and his philosophy undisputedly portrays his Christian beliefs. A significant proposition Augustine develops through out his work comprises the function of memory. The concept of memories and how they accumulate in the interminable realm of our mind bewilders Augustine. The narratives in his autobiography certainly show how his life and ideology revolved around Christian beliefs. Augustine illustrates a clear correlation between God and the meaning