Un Fallible Seducer-He Wins The Soul

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.

The next important topic I want to talk about is condemnation. Now what is condemnation? Webster’s definition of condemnation is this: an act of judicially condemning. Condemnation to me means not only condemning someone, but also condemning ourselves, because of sins we have committed. Romans 8:1 says this “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” What is this saying? Through Jesus we do not have to feel guilty for the wrong we have done. Jesus has already paid for our sins through his sacrifice. Justification is a term that goes with both condemnation and grace. Justification is defined in the Praxis the assigned book for Theo 104. “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoned all our sins, and accepted us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness

Augustine openly criticized his family’s wrong because God was his heart and the only truth (II, 5).

Augustine rejects skepticism by talking is a dialogue with his friends which took place in villa after the conversion to Christianity. The issue he took was about the “New Academy” the successors of Plato’s academy. Augustine’s dialogue didn’t need to be demonstrated or explained, because it was free of any errors.

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

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

Grace peregrinates from auricular discerning, to reading, to lecture, and praying. Venturing into these channels opens us up to be crafted by the Spirit. Enrolling in the means of grace, opposed to passively waiting on God, is a kind of unique investment. Moreover, accepting grace is not about standing by waiting on God. This elucidates why Wesley was an advocate of “all who desire an increase of the grace of God are to wait for it in partaking of the Lord’s Supper.”

Augustine experienced thoroughly in himself, and analyzed with pain and with a sense of real tragedy, what happened to this world of ours, namely, the fall of Adam and the redemption of Christ, sin and the forgiveness of sin. He experienced the wretchedness of fallen human nature and its healing through grace. This inner experience thus defines his approach to all things of this world, both material and spiritual, as well as explains his profound is trust of all that is purely on the natural level and so foreign to the supernatural, yet he shows an unshakable trust in the work of salvation through Christ and his Church. Should this not be our guiding

Augustine lived in an era when the stake of strength and stability, the Roman Empire, was being shattered. To believe in God, he had to find an answer to why, if God is all-powerful and also purely good, he still allows suffering to exist. “But if you know or believe that God is good 9 and it is not right to believe otherwise), God does not do evil. Also if we admit that God is just (and it is sacrilege to deny this)”

The first major milestone of St. Augustine’s conversion to the Christian faith was his realization during his adolescent years that his behavior was pointlessly reckless and rebellious and far from God’s design for his life. Born to St. Monica, St. Augustine was raised in a faith filled home. He was integrated into the church from a young age and was raised in Christian institutions during his

The book expresses three main concerns. One is Augustine’s frank and detailed acknowledgment of his personal sinfulness and the power he came to recognize as God’s provident grace—protective, creative, salvific—in every moment of his life. He also wrote in order to confess his own Christian faith and clearly repudiate any supposed lingering connections on his part with Manichaeism. Finally, The Confessions are a heartfelt paean of praise and thanksgiving in honor of God’s glory.

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.

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,

Augustine, who lived from A.D. 354 – 430, was a genius in certain aspects of biblical exegesis. He was part of the Western School of interpretation. He developed significant theories of biblical interpretation such as: the interpreter must possess a genuine Christian faith & the literal and historical meaning of Scripture should be held in high regard, to name a few. Unfortunately, Augustine forsook most of his own principles and tended to follow a method of allegorization. His theories, however, became the predominant view of the middle ages.

Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was one of the greatest philosophers of the roman period. He was raised in a religiously divided home, but through time he found his own truth. He was always an excellent student. He fully mastered the Latin language, however, he never did well with Greek. Saint Augustine was also a man who had a way with words. After his teenage rebellious stage, he found an unorthodox religious group that he decided to become involved with for a while. He traveled the area and ended up staying in Milan for a while. This is where he met Bishop Ambrose and began to listen to his teachings. This caused for Augustine think about his life and ultimately converted him to Christianity. After converting, he wrote books such as: Confessions, The City of God, and De Doctrinia (On Christian Doctrine), along with many others. Saint Augustine was and still is a great Christian influence in the world today.