Religion In Augustine And Hamlet

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

Augustine financial support for his education, he did not care how Augustine’s character would advance through his education. St. Augustine’s dad paid more than a richer man would pay for their son’s education because he wanted to provide Augustine with the proper education. (Confessions, II, 5). Unlike the attitude toward his father, St. Augustine showed a great deal of respect to his mother, Monica, since she was a practicing Christian (II,60). In spite of this, Augustine criticized his mother for holding him back from his sexual desire (II,8). But his father arranged his marriage and encouraged him to have children (II,6). Unlike Confucius’s teachings of remaining reverent to your parent, Augustine openly criticized his family’s wrong doings because God was his heart and only truth (II,5).

In 1600 Europe had abandoned the ideas and teachings of Catholic Christianity and began having a Protestant view on the world. When Protestants changed their worldview they rejected the idea of purgatory, causing a key foundation of their new religion. The Protestant Worldview and reaction of it can be reflected in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this time of religious and spiritual changes many people are very confused which can be closely related to Prince Hamlet’s immense amount of anxiety and “madness” that causes tension, due to the lack of knowledge and the ghost of his father.

But [he] could not bear to be a little one; [he] was only swollen with pride…[he] seemed a very big man” (Augustine 910). Augustine finds the way the Bible was written then to be too simplistic, more fitting for children so there was no reason to interpret it, but what he didn’t understand then was that within that simplicity was a message that could have provided the growth that his mind sought. I understand his inability to convert to Christianity due to the fact that it was something that did not parallel with what he had been taught because I have also felt conflicted like Augustine when it came to religion before.

Hamlet is a classic work by Shakespeare that is perhaps one of his most well beloved. Much like current literature, Shakespeare's Hamlet touches on many relevant issues in society with a mixture of self conscious metaphors to more direct references. One of the topics that Shakespeare touches on is the topic of religion and that of the religious views of the people in his work. In Hamlet, the views of religion impact many of the story's elements and also strongly affect how the characters view the events.

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 William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet attempts to avenge his father’s death by killing his murderer, his brother King Claudius. However, throughout the play Hamlet appears to have ulterior motives for plotting against his uncle, which he justifies with church doctrine. Although he intends to murder Claudius to free his father from Purgatory, Hamlet’s religious background and relationship with his mother demonstrate that using religion as justifiable means to instill one’s own form of justice is ill founded.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is one of the most famous tragedies William Shakespeare has ever written. Found throughout Shakespeare’s tragedy are many religious references. According to Peter Milward, the author of Shakespeare's Christianity: The Protestant and Catholic Poetics of Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet, “From a purely religious point of view, which is more than just biblical, Hamlet is rich in homiletic material of all kinds, reflecting almost every aspect of the religious situation in a deeply religious age” (Milward 9). These pieces of religious literature are crucial to the plot of Hamlet. The religious elements found in this tragedy provide the plot, allusions, and foreshadowing.

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

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, religion is a significant aspect, adding further meaning to certain scenes. Hamlet, is set in Denmark which at the time it was written, was a Lutheran state (Rulli). Hence, it is implied that the Danish are an extremely religious people, believing in the supernatural and the afterlife. Mirroring this, the characters in Hamlet were extremely religious, specifically Claudius and Hamlet Jr.

thinking. “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in

St. Augustine was a theologian and philosopher born in Africa to St. Monica. Although he is now known as a an incredibly influential Christian writer and thinker, his early years were defined by rebellion and discord that did not, in the least, reflect Christianity or the values that he is now known for supporting. His early years were freckled with mindless disobedience, wretched behavior, and characterized godlessness that makes his conversion to the faith incredibly remarkable and one that is worth defining in Saint Augustine 's Confessions. His incredible turnaround from a faithless man to a devout supporter of Christianity is significant and is freckled with many major milestones that truly demonstrate his spiritual and internal growth into one of the biggest spiritual icons of the fifth century. These major milestones include his realization that his boyhood was defined by pointless rebellious behavior, even though he grew up in a Christian home, his new found appreciation for philosophy as well as God and his incredible mercy during his years as a student at Carthage,

Before submitting himself to God, Augustine lived a life controlled by various sinful tendencies such as theft and lust. Surrounded by strong believers of Catholicism, such as his mother, St. Monica, Augustine grew up questioning Christ and the faith and rather explored other religions. Two religions that Augustine devoted himself to were Manichaeism and Neoplatonism. While both religions had strengths and flaws, neither truly satisfied Augustine’s spiritual emptiness. Before devoting himself fully to the Catholic faith, Augustine is seen as an honorable saint because of the significance of his works and teachings. Augustine’s conversion from Manichaeism to Neoplatonism to Catholicism as noted through Confessions, transformed his life from being powered by sin and immortality to a life dominated by rectitude and devotion.

An essential part of Confessions is Augustine’s conversion to Christianity and his evolving understanding of good and evil. In book seven of Confessions, Augustine describes his perception of God before his conversion to Christianity. He explains that he

Hamlet and Laertes contemplate religious consequences in different ways. Throughout the play Hamlet worries about the religious consequence of his actions, while Laertes does not worry himself with the issue. In the beginning of the play during a soliloquy in which Hamlet is criticizing his miserable situation, he exclaims that “ O that this too too solid flesh would met,/ Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter. O God! O God!”(1.2.131-134). Although Hamlet has these suicidal thoughts, he recognizes that to act on them would be an act against God, and therefore he cannot act against them due to his moral code. Shakespeare uses this recognition to exemplify Hamlet’s