Explain What Is Meant By St. Augustine Of Hippo

If we really recognize that something is wrong, we will not do it" (Placher 101). In "The Confessions", Augustine tells a story about his life and the sin that he has committed. He begins the story of him stealing pears simply because he was able to; however, he chose to throw them away because he felt bad (Placher 101-102). Also, throughout his life he has committed adultery lusting over women, in the end with a mistress they both had a son (Placher 103-104). He was simply tempted and enjoyed the process of stealing, but was ashamed when he realized it was wrong to do so.

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

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,

Soon after creation humankind fell into sin. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is the universal condition of the human race. All people are born with a sinful nature. Sin has many serious consequences for humankind. Sin alienates humankind from God and keeps us from having a relationship with our Creator. Sin provides a sickness that keeps us from becoming the person we should be. People want to live good lives but are forced by sin to fall short. The ultimate consequence of sin can be found in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.” Having an understanding of the extent and effect of sin is key to developing a worldview. I know I cannot escape the confines of sin. It is my nature as a human being to sin. In his divine wisdom, God also knew that his creation could not keep the original covenant of obedience so he would have to set a new covenant with creation.

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

In Confessions, Saint Augustine showed that people commit sin since the beginning until the end of life, implying that sin is inside us, like part of our nature. In this sense, there is really nothing we can do, except to follow God and ask for his forgiveness. For Augustine, God offers grace, and you have the opportunity to accept it. In this essay, I analyzed some examples of Augustine’s life that help me prove my point that people are not always capable of accepting God’s grace, and as result may fall into sinful behavior.

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.

The journey of Saint Augustine into finding his faith is depicted through his writings in Confessions. Augustine was born in the year 354 AD in Hippo, a region in North Africa. Today, he is regarded to be one of the most important influencers of the development of early Christianity. However, he is not a typical saint; It took him years of philosophizing and experiential learning to be able to accept and appreciate the Christian faith. Despite pressures from Augustine’s religiously devout mother Monica, who spent her life trying to sway Augustine in the direction of Christianity, Augustine firmly held the belief that Christianity was far too simple to fulfill his spiritual desires.

What is sin? This has been the question of scholars for centuries. Man was created in the image of God, after His likeness, but the whole human race fell in the fall of the first Adam. Not only was his moral nature grievously injured by the fall but he totally lost all spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, therefore is subjected to the power of the devil. . "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:7-8 New International Version). We as humans were born into a world that is a prisoner to sin. This is why we sometimes refer to it as the adamic nature. Each of us was born with an inbuilt bias toward sin. No one had to teach us to sin. From the moment of birth, our life was self-centered and totally focused on our needs.

St. Augustine, one of the best examples of sinner to saint, was born on November 13, 354 in Thagaste, Numidia. His mother, St. Monica, raised him as a Christian while his father was a pagan official. St. Augustine, considered one of the most intelligent and educated saints, was sent to school in Madaurus at the age of 11, the same age that Augustine first sinned. During his school years, he learned Latin and became accustomed to pagan beliefs. This is also when he grew apart from the Christian faith and, ultimately, left the Church at age 17 for the Manichean religion. Around age 19, Augustine had an affair with a woman in Carthage and bore him a son, Adeodatus. For many years, Augustine continued to have an affair until he ended the relationship in 385 to become married to a ten-year-old heiress, but, he decided to not marry her and instead become a priest. After finishing school, Augustine taught grammar in Thagaste for only a year before moving to Carthage to teach rhetoric. Augustine soon left for Milan to teach as a rhetoric teacher. While Augustine lived a sinful early life, he converted back to Christianity and became one of the Doctors of the Church.

Augustine took the view that everything in the universe was created simultaneously by God, and not in seven calendar days like a literal interpretation of Genesis would require. He said it was just a logical platform for humans to understand better. Augustine also does not envision original sin as causing structural changes in the universe, and even suggests that the bodies of Adam and Eve were already created mortal before the Fall. (From City of God, and The Literal Interpretation of

In the end we learn that his conversion is described in his autobiographical work, “confessions” and Augustine framed the doctrine teaching of "original sin" for the early Church. He believed all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all after Adam and Eve were born and stained with sin, known as Original

     If we use the Weslyan definition of sin we find that there are four elements that lead to sin a personal voluntary act. The first of these is to use God as a standard. He is perfect and flawless, as we should strive to be. The second is man as a free personality. God gave us free will to decide our own actions; He did not just make us drones. The third makes sin a live option. It is something that is always there and we can always choose to do what God would have us do or go against His will. The fourth is a deed committed. This goes back to the third one. Sin is a willful act against God. We must choose right or wrong.

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,

As Augustine reflects on his childhood in book one, he explains how he believes in original sin because of how he has seen children envy