Question 1: Faith inculcation can work in a variety of different ways, but the main two are by social exposure and through important life events. If asked, anyone will say their faith was influenced by either major figures in their life or an event that caused them to look at the world differently. My belief is that there is no one way that someone gains his or her view of faith. It can be influenced by countless conditions in which a single person experiences. Furthermore, when it comes to religion, there are two kinds of people, those who have an overtime transformation of their current faith or a sudden conversion of faith. To begin with, the first type is those who have been accustomed to his or her faith their whole life. For …show more content…
Is there a god that will take me in after I die? Does he judge me everyday based on my actions? This event forced me to think more critically about the faith that I wanted to be associated with. For others, it may be an event that causes them to become closer to the god they already believe in. An example is getting married or having a child. These events allow people to praise the god they worship and give thanks for doing something amazing in their life. Augustine (1997) states that, “My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher.” This quote shows that the faith in which Augustine has is based solely on God having given it to him. Also, in book one, Augustine states, “but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?” Augustine brings up an interesting point about how can a person call upon God when that person has never believed in him or does not have someone to guide them to God. This reinforces the idea that when faced with a life altering experiences, we as humans search for something bigger to believe in. We all want to believe there is something after life. Which has caused people to turn toward having faith when there is nothing else to turn to.
Question 2: As Augustine reflects on his childhood in book one, he explains how he believes in original sin because of how
The choice between approaching the world through reason or faith is one that people commonly struggle with. In fact, this is a reoccurring theme in Augustine’s Confessions. While most perceive reason and faith as two different things that have no correlation, Augustine argues that reason and faith are significantly related.
Many people would agree that without faith, the world would be in chaos. The book Christian Foundation by Kathleen Fischer and Thomas Hart gives an interpretation on faith in our time. Many people would question the definition of faith. Faith is a gift, which is given by God to have trust in him and belief in him. This book is a great entry in anyone's life that has speculation on his or her own faith. The book has many ways into understanding ones own religion. It discusses the Bible, Jesus, Church, God's existence and Images of God. All of these chapters helped me get a better interpretation of what my religion entailed.
How is one persuaded to belief in God? Social influences certainly play a role in accepting or rejecting Christianity. Many people raised in a Christian environment receive positive classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. However, numerous individuals do not grow up in a positive Christian environment or have had negative experiences related to Christianity. How are they persuaded to belief in God? Rick Wade (1998) in his article “The Relevance of Christianity: An Apologetic,” offers one dimension to persuading non-Christians to believe. Wade’s perspective, however, had little relevance to my own conversion.
Augustine is our exemplar to human nature, as well as the guideline to what it means to be human. He demonstrates both the good and bad qualities that humans obtain and show that not everything can always be all-good. In the Confessions Augustine talks about how he knows about his own imperfections. He states “At one time in adolescence I was burning to find satisfaction in hellish pleasures” (Augustine, Confessions, pg. 24). Many of his imperfections have brought a new way of thinking about the human being. In the Confessions, Augustine focuses on his autobiography and how sin comes from inside us humans. From this we have learned about the term introspective conscience and how it depicts when someone is constantly looking at him or herself and looking at the motivation to sin.
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 his adolescent years, Augustine was very doubtful and raised several questions on how to call upon Him and whether God has enough room to even take him in. He observes of how he was younger and that he did not know any better than to sin. Augustine talks of studying babies and how “the feebleness of infant limbs is innocent, not the infant’s mind.” (Book I, sec.11) He tries to justify the fact that people are born with sin; they do not inherit it from others.
pg. 3) It is from here that he draws the emphasis that mankind is born with sin from Adam. “In whom, that is in Adam, all have sinned… From him therefore all are sinners, because we are all produced from him” (155. Original Sin pg. 216). In addition to Augustine’s understanding of the notion of original sin, we find more quotes of the gravity of the burden of sin from Adam onto mankind, whom God created without sin but stained from the actions of one man. It was through Adams actions that God had no choice but to punish mankind with a label of original sin, however as a Merciful God, there is relief from the ‘righteous punishment’ he gave to man. “Truly the nature of man was originally created blameless and without any vice; but that nature of man, with which each is born of Adam, now needs a physician because it is not healthy,… it needs illumination and healing, was not derived from its blameless Maker, but from original sin which was committed through free choice; and on this account a penal nature, is a part of a most righteous punishment.” (Augustine, 160.
This included stealing of his neighbors fruit for no other reason besides the fact that he wanted to commit the sin. Then he would boost about sleeping around with women even though he hadn’t because he wanted the attention. These experiences are how Augustine believed that humans were inclined towards original sin, and could only be saved from the grace of God. Next, in his work about the Holy Trinity, Augustine wrote about how the Holy Trinity was one substance, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and not separate. “This does not, however, make three gods or three creators. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are each one Person, and any person affirms himself for himself”(De Trin, VII, 11). Lastly, in the City of God, Augustine wrote that the fall of the Roman Empire was not at the hands of the Christians. In this, he also emphasized his original position on original sin, and include statements of good versus evil. Furthermore, Augustines work were vital to debating points in the first council that defined the Holy Trinity(First Council of Nicaea), set up by Constantinople.
Augustine religious experience he finds himself going through acts of self-appropriation and asking himself who he is. In the fifth chapter St. Augustine said, “… yet is there something of man which ‘the spirit of man which is in him’ itself knows not. But You, Lord, who hast made him, know him wholly.” This points out two things to me, one, he believes knowledge of himself is revealed through religious experience and two, that his perception of God is all knowing. From a psychological approach, this allows insight for how his unique religious experience shifted his way of thought and comprehension of himself and the world. By this change, his ability to search for answers, which some would depend solely on their internal selves or look towards the world for answers, he looks to God. Because of this, his whole perspective and thought-process is altered.
In Augustine’s Confessions his mother pleads with him throughout his life to come to a knowledge of who God is and let his life be one that glorifies God. Augustine struggles with many temptations, a major one being women and lusting towards them. He questioned himself and he questioned God. Augustine had a heart knowledge of who God was from his mother. He knew laws and how God felt about how Augustine behaved, but it was not until he moved away and lost the woman he loved due to his upcoming marriage that he realized how lost and how sinful he really was. He begged God for forgiveness and he began to turn his life around. Augustine’s mother grew ill very quickly and Augustine spent time in prayer. He prayed over his mother’s soul, and he
Throughout the book, St. Augustine narrates his movement from a life of sin to a life of faithfulness through two different formats, the first part an autobiography of his life as a sinner and the second part his views on philosophy. What struck me the most in reading this book is the measured tone and the Christianity which St. Augustine displayed throughout
Augustine first characterizes God based on how he experiences God’s presence and qualities. Augustine searches for Him unsuccessfully in the
In fact, modern culture expresses serious reservations against Original Sin. Indeed, modern society seems not to accept the idea of an inherited sin, that is, a sin linked to the decision of one who is the head of a race and not to each person. In fact, some thinkers consider that such a conception contrasts with the personalistic vision of man and with the requirements that arise from the full respect of his subjectivity. However, man has rejected the teaching on Original Sin, he has not been able to explain the mysterious presence of evil in the world. And he will never find a solution to his inquiries in this matter is he does not understand the reality of Original Sin in man. Indeed, man, “without the knowledge Revelation gives of God, cannot recognize sin clearly and [is] tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc.,” but will never have a real understanding of his dark moments. In other words, the Church teaching on Original Sin is important for the life of Christians and non-Christians because through this teaching one can give an answer to several of our questions regarding human experience. “Any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be
The author uses an autobiography to create a literary version of himself to represent the choices that he made throughout his life and how all of these choices lead him to Christianity. During the story of Augustine’s life, he confesses both to God and to his audience that it is his own decisions that lead him to commit sin. He emphasizes the fact that free will enables people to turn away from God and live a sinful life devoted to worldly pleasures. “…free will is the cause of our doing evil… I willed or was unwilling to do something, I was utterly certain that it was none but myself who willed or was unwilling—and immediately I realized that there
Saint Augustine’s Confessions is a diverse mix of autobiography, philosophy, and interpretation of the Christian Bible. The dialogue starts off with Augustine praising to God and it is the natural desire of all men. However, Augustine does not have a lot of knowledge about God because he felt that he isn’t too powerful enough for God to come to him and help him. All throughout his life, he was very educated. Yet he made a lot of sins from birth through adulthood. Such as crying and tantrums of infancy; boyhood pranks like stealing pears to feed to the pigs; bodily pressure like sex, food, theater, etc. With all these sins dragging Augustine down his mother constantly prays for his son to find God and strongly believe that one day he will