Kelly Gilbert HUMN 220 Professor B. Akmen 4/9/13 Saint Augustine’s Confessions Something I really liked about Saint Augustine’s Confessions was that he brought up several questions that really make people think. They are questions that can be debated about and argued. For example, he asks “how can one seek God without knowing what he is?” which I thought was similar to the question, “how can people pray to God when they don’t know who or what he is?”, How do people know they’re praying to someone, when they don’t know who this being is they’re praying to? I feel that a lot of time, when religious people pray, they just have faith and belief that there is a God, a being of greatness and religious knowledge, whom is listening to them and whom will answer their prayers. There may be some people who are skeptical, however, when praying. They may be thinking something like, “why do I pray if I don’t know who or what exactly is listening to me? They may wonder if there’s even a point in praying when they are unsure of who is listening, unsure of what they look like, if they’re a corporeal being or if they’re just a spirit. Another part from Augustine’s Confessions that really interested me was the story of “Stealing Pears”. I feel that this kind of greediness occurs so much, not only back then, but today. People may have more of a reason to perform sin today, but I feel that a lot of people still sin just to sin. Look at how many people commit murders or acts of violence, and have no reason at all. This analogy is pretty different compared to stealing a few pears, but it’s the same idea of sinning just to sin, and not having a valid reason to do it. Stealing the pears may not have been such a horrible sin if Augustine had maybe been stealing them for a poor family or someone who was starving, but he literally had no good incentive when stealing these pears, he was just trying to be mischievous. I guess I can give him a tiny bit of credit, however, just the fact that he was a young boy and young boys have a habit of doing really stupid things for no reason at all. It still was very wrong.
In regards to the death of St. Augustine’s friend, why does he call the love of his friend an “error” and “a vast myth and a long lie”? Following the death of his close friend, St. Augustine was grief stricken and felt like he had lost a part of his soul. Everything thing around him appeared like death and he felt lost. But in hindsight, St. Augustine reflects on this event and calls the love of his friend an error. The theme represented by this story is the danger of becoming attached to mortal and transient things in life, “To love a man as more than a man-what craziness!” (IV.12). St. Augustine reflects on his past and concludes that it is dangerous to become attached to other people because it will only lead to grief in the end. Rather, St. Augustine believes that one should only place such love in God, who is permanent. St. Augustine calls the love of his friend a mistake because he was a mortal man and his love should have been devoted to God at the time. He never would have felt such grief and sorrow if he placed his love in God, “One never loses a loved one in the person who loves all and cannot himself be lost- and who is that, God, but our God.” (IV14). The story of his deceased close friend leads St. Augustine into a lengthy discussion about the transient nature of everything in life such as the physical senses. The death of St. Augustine’s friend is used to illustrate the importance of faith and love for God as opposed to love of transient and mortal entities.
What are St. Augustine’s views on friendship? St. Augustine defines the love of friends as a sort of reciprocal love. “It makes us feel guilty if we do not reciprocate another’s love for us, and hope for a return on our love.” (IV14). St. Augustine claims that because of this social dynamic, it is only natural for us to feel grief at the loss of a friend. St. Augustine is often skeptical feelings of friendship. He is more concerned with devoting one’s love to the impermanent God. Another negative side of friendship is brought up when St. Augustine describes his story of the pear tree. When reflecting on his terrible sin of robbing for the sake of sin itself, St. Augustine states, “But this act was not one that I ever would have done alone.” (II17). He talks about the infectious nature of friendship and why he committed the pranks and hooligans he committed as a child. A sort of peer pressure was partially responsible for the incident with the pear tree. St. Augustine provides many examples of how friendship can lead one astray. He is far more concerned with his connection to God than with other people. This leads back to the theme of avoiding too much connection with transient and mortal entities.
What is the relation of “The Lost Sheep” parable in Confessions? St. Augustine mentions the lost sheep parable and how people are more joyful over someone who was lost and is found than someone how was always there to begin with. This also relates to the prodigal son and the lost coin parable. He mentions that it’s strange that people should feel this but this is also how god feels as is conveyed in the parables in the bible. “Even you, the father of pity, have greater joy ‘for one returning than for ninety-nine who never strayed.’” (pg. 165) He questions why this is so. “What is going on within a man when he is happier to see the rescue of one there was no hope for, snatched from a terrible plight, than of one always hoped for or in no terrible plight?” (pg. 165) I understand why one would question this. Why should you show more joy to someone that has done you wrong than to someone that was always faithful to begin with. Doesn’t always being faithful deserve more of a reward than those that have done wrong? I understand the joy part though. If someone is always doing good you don’t get too happy when they do something great while if someone who does wrong suddenly does something great people are more joyful of this. You could compare it to two students, one who always gets good grades and one who hardly ever does homework and does badly. If on the next test they both get a good grade the one that was doing badly will get more praise and joy than the other. What is significant behind the stealing of the pear? The stealing of the pear stood out from Augustine’s other sins because he had no real reason behind it. It was committing a sin simply for the sake of committing a sin. ”Simply what was not allowed allured us…The act was ugly, and that is what I loved in it.” (pg. 32) Augustine feels so bad about this particular sin that he committed, now looking back, because he had no real reason behind it. He did it and enjoyed it just because it was wrong. He wasn’t hungry or starving and was driven to steal the pear for that reason. He just simply wanted to. Later on Augustine makes an example of murderers and why they would murder. They all have a reason for it. They do “not love [their] crime for its own sake but for the objects to be gained by it.” (pg. 33) They want to obtain wealth, keep people from stealing from them, or taking revenge on people who did them wrong. These reasons all make sense to me, with proper reasoning it’s easy to forgive someone for a crime that they have committed. When someone is just a deranged, psychopathic murderer with no reason people can’t empathize with the murderer and see the crime in a much more severe way.
What is the importance of his friend’s death? When his friend becomes ill and is given a baptism while he is unconscious Augustine is sure his friend would not like this but instead he’s shocked when his friend warns him not to talk like that. Instead of making Augustine believe more in the faith, Augustine blames it on his friend’s ill state for his crazy talk. Had his friend lived perhaps Augustine would have found his faith in God sooner than he did. Augustine mourns; his friend was the other half of his soul and now he was gone. Augustine says he was afraid of death and would never kill himself after his friend’s death. From his friend’s death came his wish to live. Augustine mentions that unhappiness can be cherished. He says that the performer who suffered the most and brought the most tears to his eyes was the one who pleased him the most. He mentions that it was “a superficial thing, since [he] did not want to be suffering, only to see it.” Augustine suffers himself when his friend dies. By mourning and suffering though he could gain some sort of comfort. “Can it be that weeping, bitter in itself, is comforting as an alternative to the horror of dwelling on our former joy?” (pg. 68) Augustine fled from Thagaste back to Carthage just to get away from the memories that his hometown gave him of his friend.
A dissection of St. Augustine's interpretation of God and the notion of good and evil
To say “god is good” or “benevolent” is a fallacy; especially based on the assertion that God is a supreme being that is perfect (which is what is basically implied in Book 1, especially with the word “omnipotent” that was used to describe God). If God was perfect or omnipotent, hir could not be branded as being “good” because it contradicts the notion of perfection, or hailing from a perfect realm. This is the case because “good” and “evil” are relative notions, and can only exist in a realm where there is the equal potential for both. Good cannot exist without evil, just as cold cannot exist without hot ( just as with all dualities such as soft and hard, light and dark, etc.). Without the existence of evil, there is no point of reference for what constitutes good; good and evil would cease to exist, just as you cannot know what it means for something to be cold, or even know what coldness is, without having a sense of what hotness or warmth is, and vice versa. This is precisely why in the Daoist symbol yin and yang there is always a little yin in the yang, and vice versa, because neither can exists totally independent of one another; they are not, and cannot be, mutually exclusive. Furthermore, it just doesn't make any sense to apply a moral theory created by humans to a supposed supreme being who is perfect and all powerful; frankly it's pretty silly. If God is all powerful and perfect, what purpose do ethics serve such a being who needs nothing because they're already perfect? Who can conceive of a utility that living by a benevolent moral theory would serve a being whom, according to orthodox Christianity and St. Augustine, created everything, is everything, and therefore would have everything hir could ever need or want? It's a total contradiction, as a true omnipotent and perfect being, who happens to have everything, would need nothing, including a need to act a certain way (“good”) as they would have no needs. Anything less would make God less than perfect! God is either perfect and needs nothing, or God is imperfect and has needs, and thus has some sort of need to be benevolent, or in other words, to act a specific way for whatever reason. Regardless of which one of the two you subscribe to, St. Augustine is wrong about something. He is either incorrect that god is good and evil is the lack thereof, or incorrect that god is omnipotent and a perfect supreme being. If I subscribed to the Christian conception of God, then I surely would hope god is an omnipotent supreme being rather than a good God, because he can't really be both without contradicting one another.
What does St. Augustine think of infants? How does this relate to teachings in the Bible? When St. Augustine talks about his life as an infant he was "so tiny a child, so great a sinner". What he means by this is that he sinned a lot as an infant by being needy and fussy. He describes how infants cannot express their needs without crying and how he thinks this is wrong. St. Augustine also says that when he was a baby he would throw temper tantrums if he didn't get what he wanted. He explains that this is wrong and sinful but that babies don't have the capacity to understand that they should be sorry therefore they are sinners. Babies can't show thanks either, which is also not in their favor according to St. Augustine. This relates to teachings in the Bible because the Bible says that people are born with sin. It would make sense then, in the eyes of St. Augustine, that babies are sinful. What is significant about the theft of the pears? St. Augustine says that in his teenage years, he and his friends stole some pears off of a neighbors tree. When St. Augustine talks about this he is not happy and is upset that he did it. He says that there was no need to steal the pears from the tree since he and his friends had enough food at their homes and were not even hungry. They did it for the sake of stealing, which is wrong. It is interesting that St. Augustine is so upset about this seemingly small sin since he has done much worse things. The moral of this story is that it is not ok to sin just for the sake of sinning. Sinning without reason is worse than sinning for the sake of sinning. What are the Manichee's three main criticisms of Catholicism? The first one is the existence of evil. The ask if God is good and god is in everything then how can there possibly be evil? Since there is evil, why can't God get rid of it since he is good? The Manichees say that God is always at a constant struggle with evil. The second criticism asks "is god confined within a corporeal form? has he hair and nails?". What this is asking is if god is a physical being. Manichees do not think that god is everywhere. The third criticism is polygamy and animal sacrifice in the Bible. The Manichees think that this conflicts with the teachings of God.
Robert Lawton 4/9/2013 How does Augustine reconcile with Platonic thought? What about Islamic philosophies of Averroes? Superficially there are some similarities between Platonic thought and the philosophies of Augustine. In his writings Augustine seems to believe in rationality and education as paths to spiritual enlightenment. The enlightened man works for justice and spiritual positivity because of its own merit. Those that cannot see the merit of working for the greater good are deigned to a life sin and struggle. There are some vast differences, however. Augustine, unlike Plato, believes every man has divinity within them. In Chapter 1 he says (paraphrased) of God “How can I invite you to come in me, if I am already part of you?” God is part of all things, as the creator, and so the divinity resides in all of us. This is a far cry from Plato’s allegory of the cave, where he posits that only some men are worthy of attaining true knowledge, of seeing the sun. The great inspiration of Augustine is the hope that even a great sinner (as he was) can attaina higher state and rise out of the role of a producer. Augustine may have greater common ground with Islam and Averroes. In Augustine’s view God is above the petty squabbles of man. God cannot be as man and rest from work, can never get tired. God is in all things, and the source of all good. Augustine’s God is like Plato’s sun, but also like the inimitable source of Averroes. We cannot put our worldly failings on god in anyway, we can never claim God has failed us. Any sin is our own fault for not understanding or not studying.
What leads Augustine to characterize himself as "so tiny a child, so great a sinner?" As a child, he resisted his education, and despised those pressing it upon him. He only learned because he was forced to, and that those forcing him were doing it because God willed it. He resisted because he found them dull and irksome. His resistance earned him beatings, which was what he deserved for resisting what God willed. For, what God “decreed is fulfilled when sin becomes the souls own punishment of itself.” Why does Augustine ask where the beauty was in his theft of the pears? He asks this because through his eyes, everything else was beautiful. The pears are beautiful because they were made by God. He says robbery has no beauty; it lacks moral, human, and physical beauty. He knows that there is beauty everywhere, except in his theft. Why was Augustine attracted to astrology? Augustine was attracted to Astrology because it didn’t sacrifice animals, or rely on demons to get the job done. Instead, they turned to the stars, looking for answers. They said that the inescapable cause of sin was lodged in the stars, that the planets or deities, controlled sin. This allowed Augustine to blame sin on the creator, and not on man. He liked this because it ridded him of suffering for his own actions, and that he only sinned because the creator willed it.
How did Saint Augustine’s early sins affect him in his adult life? Saint Augustine deeply regretted the sins he committed as a youth. There were two sins in particular that regretted the most. The first of his sins were all of his sexual escapades. Saint Augustine often lusted after women and had sex before marriage along with other sexually related sins. Saint Augustine regretted these sexual sins and he even seemed embarrassed about them. In his adult life, Augustine believed that sex should only be used for making children. He also believed that relationships between men and women needed to be loving in nature. Men and women should not lust after each other, but they should work together and love each other. His other sin that bothered him was when he and his friends stole pears of a tree of one of their neighbors. This sin bothered him so much because he did not steal them because he was hungry; it was because he stole them for the fun of it. He sinned because of the thrill he got from stealing. Augustine regretted this sin the most because he was just sinning for the sake of sinning. Sinning in this way was worse than sinning and having an actual reason behind it. These sins made Augustine deeply regret his past actions.
What convinced Augustine to lean towards philosophy and what philosophy/religion did he originally choose? Augustine was convinced to study philosophy after he read Cicero’s Hortensius. This book is about how philosophy is important and should be studied. This book was also a major influence on Augustine. This book convinced him that seeking wisdom is an important part in life. With this new found desire for wisdom, Saint Augustine travelled to the city of Carthage. In Carthage he met the Manichees. The Manichees were a group of heretic Christians who believed that there were two Gods. One God was evil and the other God was good. These two Gods would always be in conflict with one another. Augustine followed this group of people because they were willing to answer questions about God that no one else would answer. Augustine did not always stick with the Manichees, he eventually switched his thinking and began to believe that evil is the absence of a God.
How relatable of a character is Saint Augustine? Even though Saint Augustine is an actual saint, I find him to be an incredibly relatable character. It always looks like a person who is a saint is a person who has always been without sin. Saint Augustine is quite different however. He is by no means perfect. He sinned when he was a kid. He sinned in a bunch of different ways, whether it was through premarital sex or through stealing pears of a neighbor’s tree. Saint Augustine makes his confessions very personal. His ability to be personal is what I enjoy most about his book. What he says is very sincere. He was an imperfect man, and it is interesting that someone with such a background can become a person who is regarded so highly by others.
Saint Augustine Confessions This reading is very interesting; instead of being solely about religion he incorporates his life into it, examining it with religion. I believe almost any well-functioning adult could do what Augustine has in Confessions. We should all be capable of introspection because through this whether we use religion like Augustine does or just psychology we have much to gain. To understand why people do things and cope with the world is one of the greatest feats man has to face. Saint Augustine mentions the death of his friend and how he grieved, but he is then consoled when he reaches the idea that it was not true love because he had not converted yet and had not known true love. When I read this it made me think again that religion for many is just a way to cope. Religion the Pacifier for the Masses In many cases it seems that religion has been able to thrive because it has explained the unexplainable at the time. When the earth shook and when thunder happened what better explanation of a simple people is that it is a supernatural being expressing themselves. People want answers to the complex questions in life they don’t want them to remain unanswered and if religion can answer them why not follow them. Some of the biggest questions we have, we answer with religion, like what’s the purpose of life? “Be a good person, follow God’s tenets”. What happens after we die? “If you are good and follow Gods word you will go to heaven if you don’t you will go to hell”. Some have even gone as far as to say religion is the best measure to control people. In many cases this seems true. People can do amazing things with faith, whether it is strive to achieve their goals or it is making it through an impoverished life. “Religion is the opiate of the masses”. Saint Augustine joined Manichaeism because they had answers that others did not. Does this not show that he was just looking for answers? Are we all not sheep looking for our shepherd? It is far easier to follow than it is to lead, and diffusion of responsibility definitely helps people get through their day. Saint Augustine only stops following it when he is no longer appeased with their answers. Later in his life Saint Augustine is baptized, my question to this is why he was not baptized as a child? His mother being a staunch catholic seems almost absolute that she would baptize her baby as soon as possible in the days when infancy deaths were common. My only idea on this is that his father rejected it because he was pagan. But it seemed as though his father was more secular in the fact that he did not indoctrinate his son but worried rather about his worldly knowledge.
I've heard that if the question was asked to a man of religion, "if I knew not of sin would I go to Hell?" then the religious man would say no. I feel that this applies to and is a rebuttal to St. Augustine's thoughts of babies being sinners. As it was said in class, it could be said that St. Augustine could be making this an allegory to those people that do not know of God or never get on the path to being a Christian, but Augustine seems to think that these people are still terrible people and the ultimate sinners, just as he thinks sinners are. He believes that babies are constantly asking for things and never thank those who provide for them just as he believes people that do not believe in God are ungrateful for all that God provides. However, babies are incapable of even grasping the concept of sin. Would Augustine believe that someone with a mental disability that could not grasp the idea of sin and did not know any better to thank those who provide in their lives was a sinner as well? If one is unaware or incapable of sin, I feel they should not be judged on their sins. If God is a gracious god, as Augustine proclaims, he will have mercy on these people in their ignorance. I almost feel as if Augustine could be jealous of the infant state due to the fact that babies do not remember their sins once they grow older. They can only rely on the anecdotes of their caregivers. I feel if Augustine could choose, he would like to be able to not remember his sins because they put a heavy burden on him for the rest of his life. He battles with knowledge throughout his entire life. He constantly is battling with his ignorance of things religious and desperately trying to find an answer and he is also trying to figure out which types of knowledge are most necessary for a fulfilling life. He starts in his battles with infancy when he doesn't know any better than to sin, to his childhood where he is openly against his teachers and what is being taught, to his early adulthood where he starts with learning all things to do with rhetoric and has his eyes opened by Cicero that there are other things that need to be learned other than the arrangement of words. Augustine is extremely passionate and desperately needs something to love and to make his life feel full. His clashes with what to learn get in the way of his happiness. The internal dissonance he is constantly feeling is a handicap for him throughout his life, but at least he has enough of an achievement identity status to explore different facets of life to find a passion. Luckily he finally comes to one in God.
How does St. Augustine’s sin relate to the sin of Adam and Eve?
I thought that it was interesting how St. Augustine’s sin of stealing the pear can relate to Adam and Eve sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Everyone knows the story of how Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, when they were told specifically not to. They had other sources of food and yet they were tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Obviously, after eating the forbidden fruit they were punished by God for committing their sin. This punishment obviously changed the rest of their lives. This relates to St. Augustine because, he was tempted to steal a pear just for the sake of stealing. He knew that it was wrong to steal and had other sources of food, but yet he still stole a pear when he didn’t need it. However, instead of someone else punishing him for stealing, he punished himself. He was in inner turmoil and couldn’t forgive himself for stealing the pear. If he had stolen the pear because he was poor and didn’t have anything to eat, then it could be justifiable. But he stole the pear when he had better food to eat. This affected the rest of his life, because even in adulthood he could not forgive himself. Therefore, St. Augustine, Adam and Eve can be compared because they were tempted by others to commit a sin and the outcomes of their sin impacted their lives.
What happens in the Garden in Milan? In the Garden in Milan, St. Augustine converts to Christianity. He admits that he was confused on what to believe and wanted answers. This was the reason why he went on the path of joining the Manicheans, because they were the only ones that would give him answers. After he disagreed with some of the Manichean beliefs he left that religion and started thinking about converting to Christianity. He stated that, “I had now been rid of all my doubts about an incorruptible substance from which all other substance takes its being. I did not ask for more certain proof of you, but only to be made more steadfast in you.” (157) However, he did not fully convert to Christianity until he was in the Garden in Milan. While in the Garden he heard a child’s voice telling him to “Take it and read, take it and read.” After hearing this command he immediately decided to convert to Christianity.
What are Augustine’s feelings about the death of his friend? After a close friend of Augustine’s had died he was obviously very upset. While he was grieving he realized that he would not be in a much pain if he had God to depend on. God obviously doesn’t die, so would never loose him. He stated that, “…our God who made heaven and earth and fills them with his presence, because by filling them he made them. No one can lose you, my God, unless he forsakes you.” (80) Therefore he would always be able to depend on him as long as he still believed in God. The sense of security is important and appealing for someone like Augustine who is confused and doesn’t know which path to take.
What elements of Augustine’s early schooling does he now disapprove of? Why?
Saint Augustine did not approve of several aspects of early schooling. The quote “Ah. God, my God, What wretchedness I suffered in that world and how I was trifled with” expresses Saint Augustines dissaproval and reentment towards his early schooling. (Page 48, The Confessions). IT speaks to the arrogance in that he considers schooling a trifle, something he shouldn’t have been bothered with. One of the atrocities of school for him was that the nature of children at that age was to play and they were punished when they did so. Saint Augustine also did not approve of the way that they were taught in schools. He believed that they were improperly taught how to read and write, and he was dependant on self learning to become better at both. Saint Augustine says that “…writing and arithmetic has been no less burdensome and boring to me than all the elements of Greek. What other reason could there be for this than the sinful, inane pride in my life…” which demonstrates his own recognition of his arrogance (Pg 52, The Confessions).
What happens in the garden in Milan? What is it that triggers Augustine’s conversion?
In the garden in Milan, after a conversation with Alypius, Saint Augustine became angry at himself for the failure of his own will. He begins to beat himself and tear his own hair out he is so angry. This outburst comes after much internal turmoil after Saint Augustine hears a story of a highly respected rhetorician’s conversion to Christianity near the end of his life. This marks the turning point in Augustine’s way of thinking and he edges closer and closer to conversion until he finally bursts out emotionally and finally faced the internal struggle, with the ultimate outcome being Saint Augustine’s conversion to Christianity.
What are some of the problems with Saint Augustine's issues with babies? Saint Augustine seems to be ignoring the nature of being an infant, which as far as I'm concerned just trivializes his entire argument. To frame it in Freudian terms, newborns just don't have a grasp of the reality principle, they don't know how to come to terms with the fact that their needs cannot always be instantaneously satiated, and as such go though a severe amount of discomfort, which tends to manifest itself in crying and other stereotypical newborn behavior. Saint Augustine seems to make a big deal about how smart he thinks he is, so it seems radically unfair of him to go about judging beings that can't even begin to conceptualize sin, let alone eating, bathing, pooping, etc., on the same intellectual-moral levels that he himself functions on. If God really had a problem with the fact that infants were so inherently sinful then it seems to me that we wouldn't be born so ignorant.
Why exactly does Saint Augustine have so much faith in Christianity? To me, Saint Augustine's conversion seemed to stem from entirely external sources, and was hardly at all a decision that came from within. Perhaps the influence of his mother and his cultural surroundings played a large role in his conversion, but it seems that he knew what it was he wanted to find before he found it, and that he was just able to constrain the framework of Christianity for his own ends, instead of the framework of Christianity becoming the inspiration for his writing. This leads Saint Augustine to retroactively examine all of his sins and cast them in the light of what he must have assumed was being a 'good Christian,' which while that may be totally harmless and is really 'whatever,' it doesn't seem very genuine to me.
St. Augustine begins his Confessions with a strange, well, confession. He really absolutely despises babies. While I got the impression that he appreciates everything he has learned from seeing babies in "action", to him they represent all that is wrong with humanity, which at a very basic level I agree with. Babies will cry and cry and cry for what they need at any moment, whether it is food, affection, or for some discomfort to stop. They aren't entirely sure if this abrasive tactic will get them what they want or need, and they surely have no understanding of the sacrifice those taking care of it have to make. At the basic level, this need and disregard for the "pain" caused on others to fulfill the need constitutes the evil urges humans have. All in all though, I think he should give babies a break, while we might complain about the difficulty in understanding readings such as these, I imagine figuring out what pooping is is incredibly stressful.
Is St. Augustine's guilt the basis of a great Catholic tradition?
I grew up a Catholic, and knew pretty early on that maybe it wasn't the best way to go about Sunday mornings feeling guilty about all the "sins" I have committed. I always wondered where this sense that the guiltier you are, the more pious you are came from. The more confessions you went to, the better of a Catholic you were, but isn't there a paradox there!? What if you don't commit any sins, and have no need to confess. That is something I thought about, but the something the religion teachers explained was impossible for an 8 year old boy. What I think my parish, and perhaps the whole Catholic church is misunderstanding about confession is that St. Augustine is examining during confession. He is constantly questioning God's motives and presence in his world. Like if God had created the pear, they held his inherent beauty, and were therefore not entirely worse then his own pears. While St. Augustine may have seemed like a self deprecating narcissist, his Confessions have changed my perception on their meaning and importance in the Catholic church.
What is love, St. Augustine?
St. Augustine's view on love are powerful and thought provoking passages. Especially in times like these, love is solely viewed as the partnership with another person, bond by their affection for one another. St. Augustine believes that love is in fulfillment of the soul, which he finds through loving and worshiping God. He clearly finds redemption and fulfillment in this seemingly endless love and devotion for God, which is admirable and desirable to me. I doubt that I that most of my classmates will find this nourishment in loving God, society has changed, but I wholeheartedly agree with St. Augustine's view on love. Find it in the work you have passion for, then share it with another person, that is what love is.
What is it about school that St Augustine disapproves of? Why?
In his retrospect, St Augustine made it very apparent that he had an issue with the scholastic system. St Augustine was upset that he was taught to speak and write for corrupted purposes, mainly gaining future honor and wealth. He refers to this with using the term "loquacity." Augustine also considers his teachers to be ignorant of the proper purposes of education. He notes that his teachers meant well, however, he disapproved of the classical texts he was forced to read. He particularly disapproved of the fiction, because he viewed it as a waste of time. He argues that it is sinful to read of another's sins while remaining ignorant of one's own?
What is the main theme of Cicero's "Hortensius" and how did it effect St Augustine?
The main theme of Cicero's "Hortensius" is that truth is best pursued through philosophy. This was a crucial moment for Augustine, because this is the first time in which he deviated from "loquacity," he read Cicero's text because of its content rather than its form. Augustine was moved deeply by "Hortensius" and for the first time he "longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardor in my heart." It should be noted, though, that Augustine takes care to include much praise to God in his philosophy.
What is evil according to Augustine?
When answering the Manichee question of what Evil is, Augustine responds as follows: "Evil has no existence except as a privation of good, down to that level which is altogether without being." This is to say that Evil is a lack of true existence. Evil isn't something that exists in conflict with God, instead, Evil is the extent to which something in God's creation has strayed from him. Essentially, St Augustine argues that, in fact, there is no Evil.
What does Augustine do to help make up for his early indiscretions?
It could be argued that his confessions are the culmination of just that - a way to prove his piety. After a life dedicated to finding greater meaning from the word of god, this written account of his life serves as a sor to final proclamation of religious fervor. Based on the slightly pleading tone present throughout the work, it’s unlikely that Augustine was happy with his level of penance. Regardless, most anyone would be satisfied with the breadth of theological scholarship he provides.
2. Why does Augustine consider the way that most other Roman citizens lived to be improper?
He felt that the people he encountered around him were too centered on worldly concerns, and not divine grace. This, he feels, lead to much of the issues surrounding society, as he feels it sets a poor precedent for those just entering the social compact. Everything from education onwards pushed Augustine in an impure direction, and his sentiment towards the contemporary process was certainly not positive.
3. What delayed the coming of Augustine’s epiphany?
As stated by Augustine himself, much of his internal conflict centered around love, and implicitly the acceptance of his being. While groups like the Manicheans provided answers, they didn’t give Augustine the reassurance he desired. It wasn’t many years of searching that he came across the document to finish his internal puzzle. Perhaps this is cliche, but the more compassionate message found in the New Testament certainly fits a love and be loved perspective on life. It’s no surprise that he finally came around to Christianity’s relatively inclusive message
Saint Augustine vs. Averroes: It seems to me, Averroes philosophy regarding religion would be in pretty stark opposition to that of Saint Augustine, and not just because one is Muslim and the other is Christian. Averroes proposes that there are two equal truths: the truth as taught in the Bible and the Qur'an, and the truth taught through philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, etc. These two truths can coexist and be believed by a person at the same time without that person thinking heretically. Essentially, earthly knowledge and heavenly knowledge are not in opposition to each other, in Averroes' thinking. Saint Augustine would reject this analysis, though, as he would argue that only knowledge attained by faith in God, religious knowledge, can be good, and that trying to obtain knowledge outside the realm of God leads to evil. He himself states in his Confessions that looking back he disapproves of his early schooling as the focus was on the material world, when in fact the focus of all learning should be on God and attaining his Grace. For Saint Augustine, there are not two truths, only one: God's truth.
The Death of St. Augustine's friend: Saint Augustine suggests in book four of the Confessions that loving anyone outside of God, one is bound to suffer and experience painful loss based on his feelings after a friend of his died. Reading this already in the mindset of it being a book that's influenced modern psychology, I can't help but do a little bit of armchair psychoanalysis of Augustine here. Based on the fact that he experienced such horrible feelings of loss and sadness at the death of his friend, as well as the loss of his girlfriend/concubine/whatever, it seems to me that his Faith in God, and his belief that loving anyone other than God is bad, might be sort of a coping mechanism, a way of dealing with his grief. In a time of desperation, he may have found comfort in the idea that there is an undying, eternal entity that one gets to love and be loved by even after death. Had he not lost these people that were close to him, he might not have been compelled to convert Christianity. I guess this is part of a larger question about what factors influence people's faith and why faith exists at all, but I think one factor is being in a desperate position and them finding comfort in Faith.
While reading Confessions, I found it the most interesting to hear the ideas of Augustine of Hippo during the early periods of Christianity. The ideas of an early believer in monotheistic worship seem to be a valuable thing to observe when discussing philosophy or religion. Augustine's life takes place in a period of history when the Roman Empire was still the dominant power in the West but, the roots of Christianity were taking hold and spreading through the Empire. I wasn't aware that Catholicism had reached northern Africa that recently after the Council of Nicea. I may be straying away from the material in the book by asking what made it so easy for individuals to convert away from the pagan traditions of the Roman Empire to Catholicism or other heretical forms of Christianity? In Confessions, Augustine's mother Monica is already a strong Christian believer but, it seems that Augustine's father Patricius has no interest in Catholicism. In Augustine's early life, he seemed to only want Augustine to get a proper education and become an educated and possibly a man of power in the Roman Empire. The father, Patricius seems to represent the old Roman traditions and the mother, Monica, the new Catholic views that were beginning to take hold across the empire.
What of St. Augustine’s Confessions is relevant to non-Christians today? St. Augustine answers many important religious questions somewhere between explaining why babies are sinners and listing all the things he’s done to make him hate himself, but what value does it have to a secular student? His understanding of good and evil, of love, of sin, and of friendship, are all inextricable from his belief and devotion to God. Without that belief, a reader is left with no answers to any of life’s many questions. Not only do the answers not apply, but many of the questions are irrelevant. Asking how and to what extent God fills things sounds very strange to an atheist, and St. Augustine’s general attitude toward friendship should startle even those who believe in the same God as he did. Exploring what is sin could be of interest to atheists, but at least for me the idea of morality is a bit different than the concept of sin. While sins are often morally wrong (to me, if not to most people), the part worth discussing is why something is immoral. When explaining why something is a sin the reason usually involves quoting the Bible or a religious authority, which means little to anyone outside the religion. One aspect of Confessions that mattered to me was the reason why he stole the pears. This was as much a sin as it was immoral, and he had little reason to do it. Immorality for the sake of immorality is just as interesting as sin for the sake of sin. Why did Augustine take the pears? Augustine puts some of the blame on the fact that his friends were with him. There certainly is something to this, as studies show the people around you affect your willingness to cheat. This explanation is still incomplete, though. People do bad things by themselves plenty; if anything people are more inclined to act immorally while no one is watching (or are they? Augustine skipped the important questions it seems). How much of it is demonstrating power to others and oneself? That is what I assume stealing for the sake of stealing is, making the weak suffer what they must to prove you are one of the strong, doing what you can. Assuming it adequately describes this crime, this still doesn’t explain that many crimes today. Are school shooters motivated by the hope of being remembered, or by irrational or misplaced hatred? Is genocide similar in motivation, or is the fact that the victims all belong to the same “group” significant? Is all that matters that the perpetrators view the victims as “others?” Is all that matters how many lives were lost, or does the killer’s motivation matter? Does whether or not the victims suffered matter, or is it all the same if the end result is death? What is the measure of a tragedy? Is it a body count, or something more? Sorry, none of these questions, despite their relevance to current events, are found in Confessions. I should have just stuck to discussing how babies defy divine law.
What is the importance in mentioning why children are sinful? Augustine mentions in his Confessions how he believes that children are sinful in it of themselves. He believes that if we were to judge their actions as adults, then they would be deemed sinful, so we should not give infants the benefit of the doubt. He brings up many reasons behind why infants should be considered sinful, but I think he mentions his reasoning for calling infants because he believes that infants themselves are representative of the original sin that all humans are born with. Humans are born with the original sin, and this leads to humans being both selfish and disobedient. I think he brings infants into the story, and uses the story in it of itself as a way of telling us how to become truly righteous. Humans are born as beings that are inherently sinful, inherently selfish and disobedient. As they grow up, like Augustine, they learn of their sin, and the begin questioning it. By listening to God’s words and his teachings, human beings can end up becoming righteous people, and they will lead a good life. He uses the example of infants for showing how he believes that all people are born with the original sin.
How does Augustine’s opinions on literature and theatre relate to Plato? Saint Augustine held a very large distaste towards the way the education system worked when he was a child. He did not dislike education itself, but rather what was taught to him as a child. As a child, there was an emphasis placed on literature based on fiction. He disliked this, and also disliked theatre when he looked back at it. He disliked these two things because he felt that they manipulate the people who consume these works of art into eliciting immoral reactions. He is basically critical of works of fiction because they use words to manipulate people. This is seen in Plato’s allegory of the cave, where he also dislikes works of fiction because he feels the same way Augustine feels, he feels that these works teach people to praise fictitious heroes who only achieve their status because of unjust actions.
St. Augustine consistently refers to his youth as a time in which he sinned excessively and unnecessarily. He references the theft of the pears as a prime example of this. He states that he stole the pears not out of need, but out of pure desire to commit wrong. In hindsight, he deeply regrets this. He goes on to describe his sexual escapades in his young adulthood. He concludes that sex should be used for procreation only. He condemns the lustful but believes that love is a vital part of a relationship.
Why does St. Augustine refer to the love of his late friend as an “error”?
Generally, one would consider the loss of a friend a tragic event. Because of this, it is very curious that St. Augustine regrets the love of his passed friend. Initially after the death of his friend, Augustine was incredibly distraught, going as far as to say that he felt as though part of his soul had been lost. After his grief had settled, Augustine concludes that extreme attachment should be reserved only for God rather than other people. Augustine argues that attachment to people eventually ends in sadness, but attachment to God will lead to happiness.
Why have all of the heroes, in the novels we have read so far been extremest? It is frustrating to me that these insane characters who demonize their current education and wish hypocritically so to flip their lives upside down to build a new regime of their own making while not following their own philosophical mantra are so beloved that we build up the literature they present themselves in as important. I am not a lover of crazy people. I do not believe they are valid because of the natural biases that a crazy person would have. For example, all babies are sinful even though everyone had to be a baby at some point and only the rich upper class should be educated even though Socrates, Plato's mentor was famous for ethics. I believe that to institutions that value the historical natural of literature Augustine is important because of his religious influences, but diminishes any respect politically or philosophically because he is not a rational man, or a SANE man. Maybe we live in a world that values those historical figures that not only think outside the box but cannot think at all.
Why is it important to so many characters in our humanities class that people do not enjoy what they own? According to both the bible and the Qur'an the rich are much more likely to be sinners. Plato believed a Philosopher king cannot own anything for himself or he might fall to the temptation of liking his possessions. Adam and Eve fell because they were not allowed to covet anything like a fruit that God himself coveted. Augustine blamed his sinfulness of his environment and society. He blamed everything he had every received including his education which helped him become the 'respected' figure he is today as part of his temptation away from God. I might be reading to much into this but doesn't it seem like this people have an obsessive compulsive disorder. This is how my recovering hording cousin acts. He blames the things around him as temptation when it is his own lack of restraint that makes him struggle. I wonder if these characters realize how unethical it is to blame their surrounding for their own inner struggles.
Is the nature of all men good? Do all men have it within them to be good when given everything they want, or is it the corruption of pursuing everything they want that makes them evil? The story of St. Augustine gives me slightly more faith that all men are good at heart but it is the temptations of the world that ruin their soul. I have always had the idea that the true nature of all living things is good, that good is a fundamental quality of the living. My argument originates with the theories of evolution and why we are all here in the first place. For example; a fox teaching it’s young to hunt. If the fox was in anyway “bad” it would not continue this natural instinct. Or consider amoebas; living their lives according to the realm they were created in. They will not lash out and commit genocide upon their species because there is just a natural order of good that they are set by on the plain that they live. Even bacteria just thriving and trying to live cannot be considered bad. Whether it causes a mass sickness within the human race or not it has never had malicious intent. It is simply trying to live. The point is that even when it seems as though humans are acting “evil” perhaps it is just a step in their life on their way to prospering and reaching the good that they were created for. St. Augustine lives a life unlike most men. He goes through a series of changes that eventually lead him to a righteous way to live. The patterns of events that occur within St. Augustine’s life inevitably lead him to a happy and virtuous perspective. His story is one that emphasizes that money does not bring happiness. Throughout his life he was always able to come and go and do whatever he wished. He was a spoiled child that was too smart for his own good. The first 20 years of his life he committed great sin and indulged in virtually all he could. He sinned every way imaginable. All the sin that he was able to frequently relish in committing most men become caught up with throughout their lives where he was able to get almost every seductive urge out of his system . His spoiled nature and keen mind allowed him to sin every way and he eventually comes around to seeing the good in knowledge and justice. The phycology he uses to break his own thoughts and feelings down make him a specimen among men. While going through great spiritual trials he holds the physical nature of his mind accountable; Such as his lust, pride, gluttony, or mischievous behavior while trying to obtain new understanding. Though he is not aware until years later he always is comes to some sort of conclusion about himself that inevitably makes him change for the good. The episode of St. Augustine’s theft of the pears demonstrates the evolution of his understanding for he becomes very engrossed with himself in later life. He reflects that the thrill is the only reason why he was willing to steal the pears and was proof to him that his soul was indeed corrupt. He also makes a reference to his own infancy (though he cannot actually remember) and his inability to be thankful for anything. He explains that he took his pampering for granted (at the time) and that it was the most sinful part of his life. These events and recollections of what was currently happening within his personal life helped him evolve to greater understandings. For instance; his involvement with the Manichees. He originally joins them for the answers to questions that no one in his life could answer before but he eventually leaves them because he attains his own understanding about what type of being god must be through logic. His hunger for knowledge eventually overcomes his gluttonous tendencies. From an outside perspective most humans would say that Augustine was indeed evil or held evil within him. However, the sin he took part in could also be viewed as a necessary part of his biological life. He eventually became a Saint and better man than most because he was able to stretch his spectrum of evil and allow logic to steer him to the correct answers.
Kelly Gilbert
ReplyDeleteHUMN 220
Professor B. Akmen
4/9/13
Saint Augustine’s Confessions
Something I really liked about Saint Augustine’s Confessions was that he brought up several questions that really make people think. They are questions that can be debated about and argued. For example, he asks “how can one seek God without knowing what he is?” which I thought was similar to the question, “how can people pray to God when they don’t know who or what he is?”, How do people know they’re praying to someone, when they don’t know who this being is they’re praying to?
I feel that a lot of time, when religious people pray, they just have faith and belief that there is a God, a being of greatness and religious knowledge, whom is listening to them and whom will answer their prayers. There may be some people who are skeptical, however, when praying. They may be thinking something like, “why do I pray if I don’t know who or what exactly is listening to me? They may wonder if there’s even a point in praying when they are unsure of who is listening, unsure of what they look like, if they’re a corporeal being or if they’re just a spirit.
Another part from Augustine’s Confessions that really interested me was the story of “Stealing Pears”. I feel that this kind of greediness occurs so much, not only back then, but today. People may have more of a reason to perform sin today, but I feel that a lot of people still sin just to sin. Look at how many people commit murders or acts of violence, and have no reason at all. This analogy is pretty different compared to stealing a few pears, but it’s the same idea of sinning just to sin, and not having a valid reason to do it.
Stealing the pears may not have been such a horrible sin if Augustine had maybe been stealing them for a poor family or someone who was starving, but he literally had no good incentive when stealing these pears, he was just trying to be mischievous. I guess I can give him a tiny bit of credit, however, just the fact that he was a young boy and young boys have a habit of doing really stupid things for no reason at all. It still was very wrong.
In regards to the death of St. Augustine’s friend, why does he call the love of his friend an “error” and “a vast myth and a long lie”?
ReplyDeleteFollowing the death of his close friend, St. Augustine was grief stricken and felt like he had lost a part of his soul. Everything thing around him appeared like death and he felt lost. But in hindsight, St. Augustine reflects on this event and calls the love of his friend an error. The theme represented by this story is the danger of becoming attached to mortal and transient things in life, “To love a man as more than a man-what craziness!” (IV.12). St. Augustine reflects on his past and concludes that it is dangerous to become attached to other people because it will only lead to grief in the end. Rather, St. Augustine believes that one should only place such love in God, who is permanent. St. Augustine calls the love of his friend a mistake because he was a mortal man and his love should have been devoted to God at the time. He never would have felt such grief and sorrow if he placed his love in God, “One never loses a loved one in the person who loves all and cannot himself be lost- and who is that, God, but our God.” (IV14). The story of his deceased close friend leads St. Augustine into a lengthy discussion about the transient nature of everything in life such as the physical senses. The death of St. Augustine’s friend is used to illustrate the importance of faith and love for God as opposed to love of transient and mortal entities.
What are St. Augustine’s views on friendship?
St. Augustine defines the love of friends as a sort of reciprocal love. “It makes us feel guilty if we do not reciprocate another’s love for us, and hope for a return on our love.” (IV14). St. Augustine claims that because of this social dynamic, it is only natural for us to feel grief at the loss of a friend. St. Augustine is often skeptical feelings of friendship. He is more concerned with devoting one’s love to the impermanent God. Another negative side of friendship is brought up when St. Augustine describes his story of the pear tree. When reflecting on his terrible sin of robbing for the sake of sin itself, St. Augustine states, “But this act was not one that I ever would have done alone.” (II17). He talks about the infectious nature of friendship and why he committed the pranks and hooligans he committed as a child. A sort of peer pressure was partially responsible for the incident with the pear tree. St. Augustine provides many examples of how friendship can lead one astray. He is far more concerned with his connection to God than with other people. This leads back to the theme of avoiding too much connection with transient and mortal entities.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the relation of “The Lost Sheep” parable in Confessions?
St. Augustine mentions the lost sheep parable and how people are more joyful over someone who was lost and is found than someone how was always there to begin with. This also relates to the prodigal son and the lost coin parable. He mentions that it’s strange that people should feel this but this is also how god feels as is conveyed in the parables in the bible. “Even you, the father of pity, have greater joy ‘for one returning than for ninety-nine who never strayed.’” (pg. 165) He questions why this is so. “What is going on within a man when he is happier to see the rescue of one there was no hope for, snatched from a terrible plight, than of one always hoped for or in no terrible plight?” (pg. 165) I understand why one would question this. Why should you show more joy to someone that has done you wrong than to someone that was always faithful to begin with. Doesn’t always being faithful deserve more of a reward than those that have done wrong? I understand the joy part though. If someone is always doing good you don’t get too happy when they do something great while if someone who does wrong suddenly does something great people are more joyful of this. You could compare it to two students, one who always gets good grades and one who hardly ever does homework and does badly. If on the next test they both get a good grade the one that was doing badly will get more praise and joy than the other.
What is significant behind the stealing of the pear?
The stealing of the pear stood out from Augustine’s other sins because he had no real reason behind it. It was committing a sin simply for the sake of committing a sin. ”Simply what was not allowed allured us…The act was ugly, and that is what I loved in it.” (pg. 32) Augustine feels so bad about this particular sin that he committed, now looking back, because he had no real reason behind it. He did it and enjoyed it just because it was wrong. He wasn’t hungry or starving and was driven to steal the pear for that reason. He just simply wanted to. Later on Augustine makes an example of murderers and why they would murder. They all have a reason for it. They do “not love [their] crime for its own sake but for the objects to be gained by it.” (pg. 33) They want to obtain wealth, keep people from stealing from them, or taking revenge on people who did them wrong. These reasons all make sense to me, with proper reasoning it’s easy to forgive someone for a crime that they have committed. When someone is just a deranged, psychopathic murderer with no reason people can’t empathize with the murderer and see the crime in a much more severe way.
What is the importance of his friend’s death?
When his friend becomes ill and is given a baptism while he is unconscious Augustine is sure his friend would not like this but instead he’s shocked when his friend warns him not to talk like that. Instead of making Augustine believe more in the faith, Augustine blames it on his friend’s ill state for his crazy talk. Had his friend lived perhaps Augustine would have found his faith in God sooner than he did. Augustine mourns; his friend was the other half of his soul and now he was gone. Augustine says he was afraid of death and would never kill himself after his friend’s death. From his friend’s death came his wish to live. Augustine mentions that unhappiness can be cherished. He says that the performer who suffered the most and brought the most tears to his eyes was the one who pleased him the most. He mentions that it was “a superficial thing, since [he] did not want to be suffering, only to see it.” Augustine suffers himself when his friend dies. By mourning and suffering though he could gain some sort of comfort. “Can it be that weeping, bitter in itself, is comforting as an alternative to the horror of dwelling on our former joy?” (pg. 68) Augustine fled from Thagaste back to Carthage just to get away from the memories that his hometown gave him of his friend.
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ReplyDeleteA dissection of St. Augustine's interpretation of God and the notion of good and evil
DeleteTo say “god is good” or “benevolent” is a fallacy; especially based on the assertion that God is a supreme being that is perfect (which is what is basically implied in Book 1, especially with the word “omnipotent” that was used to describe God). If God was perfect or omnipotent, hir could not be branded as being “good” because it contradicts the notion of perfection, or hailing from a perfect realm. This is the case because “good” and “evil” are relative notions, and can only exist in a realm where there is the equal potential for both. Good cannot exist without evil, just as cold cannot exist without hot ( just as with all dualities such as soft and hard, light and dark, etc.). Without the existence of evil, there is no point of reference for what constitutes good; good and evil would cease to exist, just as you cannot know what it means for something to be cold, or even know what coldness is, without having a sense of what hotness or warmth is, and vice versa. This is precisely why in the Daoist symbol yin and yang there is always a little yin in the yang, and vice versa, because neither can exists totally independent of one another; they are not, and cannot be, mutually exclusive. Furthermore, it just doesn't make any sense to apply a moral theory created by humans to a supposed supreme being who is perfect and all powerful; frankly it's pretty silly. If God is all powerful and perfect, what purpose do ethics serve such a being who needs nothing because they're already perfect? Who can conceive of a utility that living by a benevolent moral theory would serve a being whom, according to orthodox Christianity and St. Augustine, created everything, is everything, and therefore would have everything hir could ever need or want? It's a total contradiction, as a true omnipotent and perfect being, who happens to have everything, would need nothing, including a need to act a certain way (“good”) as they would have no needs. Anything less would make God less than perfect! God is either perfect and needs nothing, or God is imperfect and has needs, and thus has some sort of need to be benevolent, or in other words, to act a specific way for whatever reason. Regardless of which one of the two you subscribe to, St. Augustine is wrong about something. He is either incorrect that god is good and evil is the lack thereof, or incorrect that god is omnipotent and a perfect supreme being. If I subscribed to the Christian conception of God, then I surely would hope god is an omnipotent supreme being rather than a good God, because he can't really be both without contradicting one another.
What does St. Augustine think of infants? How does this relate to teachings in the Bible?
ReplyDeleteWhen St. Augustine talks about his life as an infant he was "so tiny a child, so great a sinner". What he means by this is that he sinned a lot as an infant by being needy and fussy. He describes how infants cannot express their needs without crying and how he thinks this is wrong. St. Augustine also says that when he was a baby he would throw temper tantrums if he didn't get what he wanted. He explains that this is wrong and sinful but that babies don't have the capacity to understand that they should be sorry therefore they are sinners. Babies can't show thanks either, which is also not in their favor according to St. Augustine. This relates to teachings in the Bible because the Bible says that people are born with sin. It would make sense then, in the eyes of St. Augustine, that babies are sinful.
What is significant about the theft of the pears?
St. Augustine says that in his teenage years, he and his friends stole some pears off of a neighbors tree. When St. Augustine talks about this he is not happy and is upset that he did it. He says that there was no need to steal the pears from the tree since he and his friends had enough food at their homes and were not even hungry. They did it for the sake of stealing, which is wrong. It is interesting that St. Augustine is so upset about this seemingly small sin since he has done much worse things. The moral of this story is that it is not ok to sin just for the sake of sinning. Sinning without reason is worse than sinning for the sake of sinning.
What are the Manichee's three main criticisms of Catholicism?
The first one is the existence of evil. The ask if God is good and god is in everything then how can there possibly be evil? Since there is evil, why can't God get rid of it since he is good? The Manichees say that God is always at a constant struggle with evil. The second criticism asks "is god confined within a corporeal form? has he hair and nails?". What this is asking is if god is a physical being. Manichees do not think that god is everywhere. The third criticism is polygamy and animal sacrifice in the Bible. The Manichees think that this conflicts with the teachings of God.
Robert Lawton
ReplyDelete4/9/2013
How does Augustine reconcile with Platonic thought? What about Islamic philosophies of Averroes?
Superficially there are some similarities between Platonic thought and the philosophies of Augustine. In his writings Augustine seems to believe in rationality and education as paths to spiritual enlightenment. The enlightened man works for justice and spiritual positivity because of its own merit. Those that cannot see the merit of working for the greater good are deigned to a life sin and struggle. There are some vast differences, however. Augustine, unlike Plato, believes every man has divinity within them. In Chapter 1 he says (paraphrased) of God “How can I invite you to come in me, if I am already part of you?” God is part of all things, as the creator, and so the divinity resides in all of us. This is a far cry from Plato’s allegory of the cave, where he posits that only some men are worthy of attaining true knowledge, of seeing the sun. The great inspiration of Augustine is the hope that even a great sinner (as he was) can attaina higher state and rise out of the role of a producer.
Augustine may have greater common ground with Islam and Averroes. In Augustine’s view God is above the petty squabbles of man. God cannot be as man and rest from work, can never get tired. God is in all things, and the source of all good. Augustine’s God is like Plato’s sun, but also like the inimitable source of Averroes. We cannot put our worldly failings on god in anyway, we can never claim God has failed us. Any sin is our own fault for not understanding or not studying.
What leads Augustine to characterize himself as "so tiny a child, so great a sinner?"
ReplyDeleteAs a child, he resisted his education, and despised those pressing it upon him. He only learned because he was forced to, and that those forcing him were doing it because God willed it. He resisted because he found them dull and irksome. His resistance earned him beatings, which was what he deserved for resisting what God willed. For, what God “decreed is fulfilled when sin becomes the souls own punishment of itself.”
Why does Augustine ask where the beauty was in his theft of the pears?
He asks this because through his eyes, everything else was beautiful. The pears are beautiful because they were made by God. He says robbery has no beauty; it lacks moral, human, and physical beauty. He knows that there is beauty everywhere, except in his theft.
Why was Augustine attracted to astrology?
Augustine was attracted to Astrology because it didn’t sacrifice animals, or rely on demons to get the job done. Instead, they turned to the stars, looking for answers. They said that the inescapable cause of sin was lodged in the stars, that the planets or deities, controlled sin. This allowed Augustine to blame sin on the creator, and not on man. He liked this because it ridded him of suffering for his own actions, and that he only sinned because the creator willed it.
Colin Moore
ReplyDeleteHUMN 220
Confessions of a Saint
How did Saint Augustine’s early sins affect him in his adult life?
Saint Augustine deeply regretted the sins he committed as a youth. There were two sins in particular that regretted the most. The first of his sins were all of his sexual escapades. Saint Augustine often lusted after women and had sex before marriage along with other sexually related sins. Saint Augustine regretted these sexual sins and he even seemed embarrassed about them. In his adult life, Augustine believed that sex should only be used for making children. He also believed that relationships between men and women needed to be loving in nature. Men and women should not lust after each other, but they should work together and love each other. His other sin that bothered him was when he and his friends stole pears of a tree of one of their neighbors. This sin bothered him so much because he did not steal them because he was hungry; it was because he stole them for the fun of it. He sinned because of the thrill he got from stealing. Augustine regretted this sin the most because he was just sinning for the sake of sinning. Sinning in this way was worse than sinning and having an actual reason behind it. These sins made Augustine deeply regret his past actions.
What convinced Augustine to lean towards philosophy and what philosophy/religion did he originally choose?
Augustine was convinced to study philosophy after he read Cicero’s Hortensius. This book is about how philosophy is important and should be studied. This book was also a major influence on Augustine. This book convinced him that seeking wisdom is an important part in life. With this new found desire for wisdom, Saint Augustine travelled to the city of Carthage. In Carthage he met the Manichees. The Manichees were a group of heretic Christians who believed that there were two Gods. One God was evil and the other God was good. These two Gods would always be in conflict with one another. Augustine followed this group of people because they were willing to answer questions about God that no one else would answer. Augustine did not always stick with the Manichees, he eventually switched his thinking and began to believe that evil is the absence of a God.
How relatable of a character is Saint Augustine?
Even though Saint Augustine is an actual saint, I find him to be an incredibly relatable character. It always looks like a person who is a saint is a person who has always been without sin. Saint Augustine is quite different however. He is by no means perfect. He sinned when he was a kid. He sinned in a bunch of different ways, whether it was through premarital sex or through stealing pears of a neighbor’s tree. Saint Augustine makes his confessions very personal. His ability to be personal is what I enjoy most about his book. What he says is very sincere. He was an imperfect man, and it is interesting that someone with such a background can become a person who is regarded so highly by others.
Saint Augustine Confessions
ReplyDeleteThis reading is very interesting; instead of being solely about religion he incorporates his life into it, examining it with religion. I believe almost any well-functioning adult could do what Augustine has in Confessions. We should all be capable of introspection because through this whether we use religion like Augustine does or just psychology we have much to gain. To understand why people do things and cope with the world is one of the greatest feats man has to face. Saint Augustine mentions the death of his friend and how he grieved, but he is then consoled when he reaches the idea that it was not true love because he had not converted yet and had not known true love. When I read this it made me think again that religion for many is just a way to cope.
Religion the Pacifier for the Masses
In many cases it seems that religion has been able to thrive because it has explained the unexplainable at the time. When the earth shook and when thunder happened what better explanation of a simple people is that it is a supernatural being expressing themselves. People want answers to the complex questions in life they don’t want them to remain unanswered and if religion can answer them why not follow them. Some of the biggest questions we have, we answer with religion, like what’s the purpose of life? “Be a good person, follow God’s tenets”. What happens after we die? “If you are good and follow Gods word you will go to heaven if you don’t you will go to hell”. Some have even gone as far as to say religion is the best measure to control people. In many cases this seems true. People can do amazing things with faith, whether it is strive to achieve their goals or it is making it through an impoverished life. “Religion is the opiate of the masses”.
Saint Augustine joined Manichaeism because they had answers that others did not. Does this not show that he was just looking for answers? Are we all not sheep looking for our shepherd? It is far easier to follow than it is to lead, and diffusion of responsibility definitely helps people get through their day. Saint Augustine only stops following it when he is no longer appeased with their answers.
Later in his life Saint Augustine is baptized, my question to this is why he was not baptized as a child? His mother being a staunch catholic seems almost absolute that she would baptize her baby as soon as possible in the days when infancy deaths were common. My only idea on this is that his father rejected it because he was pagan. But it seemed as though his father was more secular in the fact that he did not indoctrinate his son but worried rather about his worldly knowledge.
I've heard that if the question was asked to a man of religion, "if I knew not of sin would I go to Hell?" then the religious man would say no. I feel that this applies to and is a rebuttal to St. Augustine's thoughts of babies being sinners. As it was said in class, it could be said that St. Augustine could be making this an allegory to those people that do not know of God or never get on the path to being a Christian, but Augustine seems to think that these people are still terrible people and the ultimate sinners, just as he thinks sinners are. He believes that babies are constantly asking for things and never thank those who provide for them just as he believes people that do not believe in God are ungrateful for all that God provides. However, babies are incapable of even grasping the concept of sin. Would Augustine believe that someone with a mental disability that could not grasp the idea of sin and did not know any better to thank those who provide in their lives was a sinner as well? If one is unaware or incapable of sin, I feel they should not be judged on their sins. If God is a gracious god, as Augustine proclaims, he will have mercy on these people in their ignorance. I almost feel as if Augustine could be jealous of the infant state due to the fact that babies do not remember their sins once they grow older. They can only rely on the anecdotes of their caregivers. I feel if Augustine could choose, he would like to be able to not remember his sins because they put a heavy burden on him for the rest of his life. He battles with knowledge throughout his entire life. He constantly is battling with his ignorance of things religious and desperately trying to find an answer and he is also trying to figure out which types of knowledge are most necessary for a fulfilling life. He starts in his battles with infancy when he doesn't know any better than to sin, to his childhood where he is openly against his teachers and what is being taught, to his early adulthood where he starts with learning all things to do with rhetoric and has his eyes opened by Cicero that there are other things that need to be learned other than the arrangement of words. Augustine is extremely passionate and desperately needs something to love and to make his life feel full. His clashes with what to learn get in the way of his happiness. The internal dissonance he is constantly feeling is a handicap for him throughout his life, but at least he has enough of an achievement identity status to explore different facets of life to find a passion. Luckily he finally comes to one in God.
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ReplyDeleteHow does St. Augustine’s sin relate to the sin of Adam and Eve?
I thought that it was interesting how St. Augustine’s sin of stealing the pear can relate to Adam and Eve sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Everyone knows the story of how Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, when they were told specifically not to. They had other sources of food and yet they were tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Obviously, after eating the forbidden fruit they were punished by God for committing their sin. This punishment obviously changed the rest of their lives. This relates to St. Augustine because, he was tempted to steal a pear just for the sake of stealing. He knew that it was wrong to steal and had other sources of food, but yet he still stole a pear when he didn’t need it. However, instead of someone else punishing him for stealing, he punished himself. He was in inner turmoil and couldn’t forgive himself for stealing the pear. If he had stolen the pear because he was poor and didn’t have anything to eat, then it could be justifiable. But he stole the pear when he had better food to eat. This affected the rest of his life, because even in adulthood he could not forgive himself. Therefore, St. Augustine, Adam and Eve can be compared because they were tempted by others to commit a sin and the outcomes of their sin impacted their lives.
What happens in the Garden in Milan?
In the Garden in Milan, St. Augustine converts to Christianity. He admits that he was confused on what to believe and wanted answers. This was the reason why he went on the path of joining the Manicheans, because they were the only ones that would give him answers. After he disagreed with some of the Manichean beliefs he left that religion and started thinking about converting to Christianity. He stated that, “I had now been rid of all my doubts about an incorruptible substance from which all other substance takes its being. I did not ask for more certain proof of you, but only to be made more steadfast in you.” (157) However, he did not fully convert to Christianity until he was in the Garden in Milan. While in the Garden he heard a child’s voice telling him to “Take it and read, take it and read.” After hearing this command he immediately decided to convert to Christianity.
What are Augustine’s feelings about the death of his friend?
After a close friend of Augustine’s had died he was obviously very upset. While he was grieving he realized that he would not be in a much pain if he had God to depend on. God obviously doesn’t die, so would never loose him. He stated that, “…our God who made heaven and earth and fills them with his presence, because by filling them he made them. No one can lose you, my God, unless he forsakes you.” (80) Therefore he would always be able to depend on him as long as he still believed in God. The sense of security is important and appealing for someone like Augustine who is confused and doesn’t know which path to take.
Alec Wolsiefer
ReplyDeleteHum 1
4/9/2013
The Confessions
What elements of Augustine’s early schooling does he now disapprove of? Why?
Saint Augustine did not approve of several aspects of early schooling. The quote “Ah. God, my God, What wretchedness I suffered in that world and how I was trifled with” expresses Saint Augustines dissaproval and reentment towards his early schooling. (Page 48, The Confessions). IT speaks to the arrogance in that he considers schooling a trifle, something he shouldn’t have been bothered with. One of the atrocities of school for him was that the nature of children at that age was to play and they were punished when they did so. Saint Augustine also did not approve of the way that they were taught in schools. He believed that they were improperly taught how to read and write, and he was dependant on self learning to become better at both. Saint Augustine says that “…writing and arithmetic has been no less burdensome and boring to me than all the elements of Greek. What other reason could there be for this than the sinful, inane pride in my life…” which demonstrates his own recognition of his arrogance (Pg 52, The Confessions).
What happens in the garden in Milan? What is it that triggers Augustine’s conversion?
In the garden in Milan, after a conversation with Alypius, Saint Augustine became angry at himself for the failure of his own will. He begins to beat himself and tear his own hair out he is so angry. This outburst comes after much internal turmoil after Saint Augustine hears a story of a highly respected rhetorician’s conversion to Christianity near the end of his life. This marks the turning point in Augustine’s way of thinking and he edges closer and closer to conversion until he finally bursts out emotionally and finally faced the internal struggle, with the ultimate outcome being Saint Augustine’s conversion to Christianity.
What are some of the problems with Saint Augustine's issues with babies?
ReplyDeleteSaint Augustine seems to be ignoring the nature of being an infant, which as far as I'm concerned just trivializes his entire argument. To frame it in Freudian terms, newborns just don't have a grasp of the reality principle, they don't know how to come to terms with the fact that their needs cannot always be instantaneously satiated, and as such go though a severe amount of discomfort, which tends to manifest itself in crying and other stereotypical newborn behavior. Saint Augustine seems to make a big deal about how smart he thinks he is, so it seems radically unfair of him to go about judging beings that can't even begin to conceptualize sin, let alone eating, bathing, pooping, etc., on the same intellectual-moral levels that he himself functions on. If God really had a problem with the fact that infants were so inherently sinful then it seems to me that we wouldn't be born so ignorant.
Why exactly does Saint Augustine have so much faith in Christianity?
To me, Saint Augustine's conversion seemed to stem from entirely external sources, and was hardly at all a decision that came from within. Perhaps the influence of his mother and his cultural surroundings played a large role in his conversion, but it seems that he knew what it was he wanted to find before he found it, and that he was just able to constrain the framework of Christianity for his own ends, instead of the framework of Christianity becoming the inspiration for his writing. This leads Saint Augustine to retroactively examine all of his sins and cast them in the light of what he must have assumed was being a 'good Christian,' which while that may be totally harmless and is really 'whatever,' it doesn't seem very genuine to me.
Why does St. Augustine hate babies?
ReplyDeleteSt. Augustine begins his Confessions with a strange, well, confession. He really absolutely despises babies. While I got the impression that he appreciates everything he has learned from seeing babies in "action", to him they represent all that is wrong with humanity, which at a very basic level I agree with. Babies will cry and cry and cry for what they need at any moment, whether it is food, affection, or for some discomfort to stop. They aren't entirely sure if this abrasive tactic will get them what they want or need, and they surely have no understanding of the sacrifice those taking care of it have to make. At the basic level, this need and disregard for the "pain" caused on others to fulfill the need constitutes the evil urges humans have. All in all though, I think he should give babies a break, while we might complain about the difficulty in understanding readings such as these, I imagine figuring out what pooping is is incredibly stressful.
Is St. Augustine's guilt the basis of a great Catholic tradition?
I grew up a Catholic, and knew pretty early on that maybe it wasn't the best way to go about Sunday mornings feeling guilty about all the "sins" I have committed. I always wondered where this sense that the guiltier you are, the more pious you are came from. The more confessions you went to, the better of a Catholic you were, but isn't there a paradox there!? What if you don't commit any sins, and have no need to confess. That is something I thought about, but the something the religion teachers explained was impossible for an 8 year old boy. What I think my parish, and perhaps the whole Catholic church is misunderstanding about confession is that St. Augustine is examining during confession. He is constantly questioning God's motives and presence in his world. Like if God had created the pear, they held his inherent beauty, and were therefore not entirely worse then his own pears. While St. Augustine may have seemed like a self deprecating narcissist, his Confessions have changed my perception on their meaning and importance in the Catholic church.
What is love, St. Augustine?
St. Augustine's view on love are powerful and thought provoking passages. Especially in times like these, love is solely viewed as the partnership with another person, bond by their affection for one another. St. Augustine believes that love is in fulfillment of the soul, which he finds through loving and worshiping God. He clearly finds redemption and fulfillment in this seemingly endless love and devotion for God, which is admirable and desirable to me. I doubt that I that most of my classmates will find this nourishment in loving God, society has changed, but I wholeheartedly agree with St. Augustine's view on love. Find it in the work you have passion for, then share it with another person, that is what love is.
What is it about school that St Augustine disapproves of? Why?
ReplyDeleteIn his retrospect, St Augustine made it very apparent that he had an issue with the scholastic system. St Augustine was upset that he was taught to speak and write for corrupted purposes, mainly gaining future honor and wealth. He refers to this with using the term "loquacity." Augustine also considers his teachers to be ignorant of the proper purposes of education. He notes that his teachers meant well, however, he disapproved of the classical texts he was forced to read. He particularly disapproved of the fiction, because he viewed it as a waste of time. He argues that it is sinful to read of another's sins while remaining ignorant of one's own?
What is the main theme of Cicero's "Hortensius" and how did it effect St Augustine?
The main theme of Cicero's "Hortensius" is that truth is best pursued through philosophy. This was a crucial moment for Augustine, because this is the first time in which he deviated from "loquacity," he read Cicero's text because of its content rather than its form. Augustine was moved deeply by "Hortensius" and for the first time he "longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardor in my heart." It should be noted, though, that Augustine takes care to include much praise to God in his philosophy.
What is evil according to Augustine?
When answering the Manichee question of what Evil is, Augustine responds as follows: "Evil has no existence except as a privation of good, down to that level which is altogether without being." This is to say that Evil is a lack of true existence. Evil isn't something that exists in conflict with God, instead, Evil is the extent to which something in God's creation has strayed from him. Essentially, St Augustine argues that, in fact, there is no Evil.
What does Augustine do to help make up for his early indiscretions?
ReplyDeleteIt could be argued that his confessions are the culmination of just that - a way to prove his piety. After a life dedicated to finding greater meaning from the word of god, this written account of his life serves as a sor to final proclamation of religious fervor. Based on the slightly pleading tone present throughout the work, it’s unlikely that Augustine was happy with his level of penance. Regardless, most anyone would be satisfied with the breadth of theological scholarship he provides.
2. Why does Augustine consider the way that most other Roman citizens lived to be improper?
He felt that the people he encountered around him were too centered on worldly concerns, and not divine grace. This, he feels, lead to much of the issues surrounding society, as he feels it sets a poor precedent for those just entering the social compact. Everything from education onwards pushed Augustine in an impure direction, and his sentiment towards the contemporary process was certainly not positive.
3. What delayed the coming of Augustine’s epiphany?
As stated by Augustine himself, much of his internal conflict centered around love, and implicitly the acceptance of his being. While groups like the Manicheans provided answers, they didn’t give Augustine the reassurance he desired. It wasn’t many years of searching that he came across the document to finish his internal puzzle. Perhaps this is cliche, but the more compassionate message found in the New Testament certainly fits a love and be loved perspective on life. It’s no surprise that he finally came around to Christianity’s relatively inclusive message
Saint Augustine vs. Averroes:
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me, Averroes philosophy regarding religion would be in pretty stark opposition to that of Saint Augustine, and not just because one is Muslim and the other is Christian. Averroes proposes that there are two equal truths: the truth as taught in the Bible and the Qur'an, and the truth taught through philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, etc. These two truths can coexist and be believed by a person at the same time without that person thinking heretically. Essentially, earthly knowledge and heavenly knowledge are not in opposition to each other, in Averroes' thinking. Saint Augustine would reject this analysis, though, as he would argue that only knowledge attained by faith in God, religious knowledge, can be good, and that trying to obtain knowledge outside the realm of God leads to evil. He himself states in his Confessions that looking back he disapproves of his early schooling as the focus was on the material world, when in fact the focus of all learning should be on God and attaining his Grace. For Saint Augustine, there are not two truths, only one: God's truth.
The Death of St. Augustine's friend:
Saint Augustine suggests in book four of the Confessions that loving anyone outside of God, one is bound to suffer and experience painful loss based on his feelings after a friend of his died. Reading this already in the mindset of it being a book that's influenced modern psychology, I can't help but do a little bit of armchair psychoanalysis of Augustine here. Based on the fact that he experienced such horrible feelings of loss and sadness at the death of his friend, as well as the loss of his girlfriend/concubine/whatever, it seems to me that his Faith in God, and his belief that loving anyone other than God is bad, might be sort of a coping mechanism, a way of dealing with his grief. In a time of desperation, he may have found comfort in the idea that there is an undying, eternal entity that one gets to love and be loved by even after death. Had he not lost these people that were close to him, he might not have been compelled to convert Christianity. I guess this is part of a larger question about what factors influence people's faith and why faith exists at all, but I think one factor is being in a desperate position and them finding comfort in Faith.
Saint Augustine's Confessions
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Confessions, I found it the most interesting to hear the ideas of Augustine of Hippo during the early periods of Christianity. The ideas of an early believer in monotheistic worship seem to be a valuable thing to observe when discussing philosophy or religion. Augustine's life takes place in a period of history when the Roman Empire was still the dominant power in the West but, the roots of Christianity were taking hold and spreading through the Empire. I wasn't aware that Catholicism had reached northern Africa that recently after the Council of Nicea. I may be straying away from the material in the book by asking what made it so easy for individuals to convert away from the pagan traditions of the Roman Empire to Catholicism or other heretical forms of Christianity? In Confessions, Augustine's mother Monica is already a strong Christian believer but, it seems that Augustine's father Patricius has no interest in Catholicism. In Augustine's early life, he seemed to only want Augustine to get a proper education and become an educated and possibly a man of power in the Roman Empire. The father, Patricius seems to represent the old Roman traditions and the mother, Monica, the new Catholic views that were beginning to take hold across the empire.
What of St. Augustine’s Confessions is relevant to non-Christians today?
ReplyDeleteSt. Augustine answers many important religious questions somewhere between explaining why babies are sinners and listing all the things he’s done to make him hate himself, but what value does it have to a secular student? His understanding of good and evil, of love, of sin, and of friendship, are all inextricable from his belief and devotion to God. Without that belief, a reader is left with no answers to any of life’s many questions. Not only do the answers not apply, but many of the questions are irrelevant. Asking how and to what extent God fills things sounds very strange to an atheist, and St. Augustine’s general attitude toward friendship should startle even those who believe in the same God as he did. Exploring what is sin could be of interest to atheists, but at least for me the idea of morality is a bit different than the concept of sin. While sins are often morally wrong (to me, if not to most people), the part worth discussing is why something is immoral. When explaining why something is a sin the reason usually involves quoting the Bible or a religious authority, which means little to anyone outside the religion. One aspect of Confessions that mattered to me was the reason why he stole the pears. This was as much a sin as it was immoral, and he had little reason to do it. Immorality for the sake of immorality is just as interesting as sin for the sake of sin.
Why did Augustine take the pears?
Augustine puts some of the blame on the fact that his friends were with him. There certainly is something to this, as studies show the people around you affect your willingness to cheat. This explanation is still incomplete, though. People do bad things by themselves plenty; if anything people are more inclined to act immorally while no one is watching (or are they? Augustine skipped the important questions it seems). How much of it is demonstrating power to others and oneself? That is what I assume stealing for the sake of stealing is, making the weak suffer what they must to prove you are one of the strong, doing what you can. Assuming it adequately describes this crime, this still doesn’t explain that many crimes today. Are school shooters motivated by the hope of being remembered, or by irrational or misplaced hatred? Is genocide similar in motivation, or is the fact that the victims all belong to the same “group” significant? Is all that matters that the perpetrators view the victims as “others?” Is all that matters how many lives were lost, or does the killer’s motivation matter? Does whether or not the victims suffered matter, or is it all the same if the end result is death? What is the measure of a tragedy? Is it a body count, or something more?
Sorry, none of these questions, despite their relevance to current events, are found in Confessions. I should have just stuck to discussing how babies defy divine law.
What is the importance in mentioning why children are sinful?
ReplyDeleteAugustine mentions in his Confessions how he believes that children are sinful in it of themselves. He believes that if we were to judge their actions as adults, then they would be deemed sinful, so we should not give infants the benefit of the doubt. He brings up many reasons behind why infants should be considered sinful, but I think he mentions his reasoning for calling infants because he believes that infants themselves are representative of the original sin that all humans are born with. Humans are born with the original sin, and this leads to humans being both selfish and disobedient. I think he brings infants into the story, and uses the story in it of itself as a way of telling us how to become truly righteous. Humans are born as beings that are inherently sinful, inherently selfish and disobedient. As they grow up, like Augustine, they learn of their sin, and the begin questioning it. By listening to God’s words and his teachings, human beings can end up becoming righteous people, and they will lead a good life. He uses the example of infants for showing how he believes that all people are born with the original sin.
How does Augustine’s opinions on literature and theatre relate to Plato?
Saint Augustine held a very large distaste towards the way the education system worked when he was a child. He did not dislike education itself, but rather what was taught to him as a child. As a child, there was an emphasis placed on literature based on fiction. He disliked this, and also disliked theatre when he looked back at it. He disliked these two things because he felt that they manipulate the people who consume these works of art into eliciting immoral reactions. He is basically critical of works of fiction because they use words to manipulate people. This is seen in Plato’s allegory of the cave, where he also dislikes works of fiction because he feels the same way Augustine feels, he feels that these works teach people to praise fictitious heroes who only achieve their status because of unjust actions.
ReplyDeleteSt. Augustine's view of his own youth.
St. Augustine consistently refers to his youth as a time in which he sinned excessively and unnecessarily. He references the theft of the pears as a prime example of this. He states that he stole the pears not out of need, but out of pure desire to commit wrong. In hindsight, he deeply regrets this. He goes on to describe his sexual escapades in his young adulthood. He concludes that sex should be used for procreation only. He condemns the lustful but believes that love is a vital part of a relationship.
Why does St. Augustine refer to the love of his late friend as an “error”?
Generally, one would consider the loss of a friend a tragic event. Because of this, it is very curious that St. Augustine regrets the love of his passed friend. Initially after the death of his friend, Augustine was incredibly distraught, going as far as to say that he felt as though part of his soul had been lost. After his grief had settled, Augustine concludes that extreme attachment should be reserved only for God rather than other people. Augustine argues that attachment to people eventually ends in sadness, but attachment to God will lead to happiness.
Why have all of the heroes, in the novels we have read so far been extremest?
ReplyDeleteIt is frustrating to me that these insane characters who demonize their current education and wish hypocritically so to flip their lives upside down to build a new regime of their own making while not following their own philosophical mantra are so beloved that we build up the literature they present themselves in as important. I am not a lover of crazy people. I do not believe they are valid because of the natural biases that a crazy person would have. For example, all babies are sinful even though everyone had to be a baby at some point and only the rich upper class should be educated even though Socrates, Plato's mentor was famous for ethics. I believe that to institutions that value the historical natural of literature Augustine is important because of his religious influences, but diminishes any respect politically or philosophically because he is not a rational man, or a SANE man. Maybe we live in a world that values those historical figures that not only think outside the box but cannot think at all.
Why is it important to so many characters in our humanities class that people do not enjoy what they own?
According to both the bible and the Qur'an the rich are much more likely to be sinners. Plato believed a Philosopher king cannot own anything for himself or he might fall to the temptation of liking his possessions. Adam and Eve fell because they were not allowed to covet anything like a fruit that God himself coveted. Augustine blamed his sinfulness of his environment and society. He blamed everything he had every received including his education which helped him become the 'respected' figure he is today as part of his temptation away from God. I might be reading to much into this but doesn't it seem like this people have an obsessive compulsive disorder. This is how my recovering hording cousin acts. He blames the things around him as temptation when it is his own lack of restraint that makes him struggle. I wonder if these characters realize how unethical it is to blame their surrounding for their own inner struggles.
Is the nature of all men good?
ReplyDeleteDo all men have it within them to be good when given everything they want, or is it the corruption of pursuing everything they want that makes them evil? The story of St. Augustine gives me slightly more faith that all men are good at heart but it is the temptations of the world that ruin their soul. I have always had the idea that the true nature of all living things is good, that good is a fundamental quality of the living. My argument originates with the theories of evolution and why we are all here in the first place. For example; a fox teaching it’s young to hunt. If the fox was in anyway “bad” it would not continue this natural instinct. Or consider amoebas; living their lives according to the realm they were created in. They will not lash out and commit genocide upon their species because there is just a natural order of good that they are set by on the plain that they live. Even bacteria just thriving and trying to live cannot be considered bad. Whether it causes a mass sickness within the human race or not it has never had malicious intent. It is simply trying to live. The point is that even when it seems as though humans are acting “evil” perhaps it is just a step in their life on their way to prospering and reaching the good that they were created for.
St. Augustine lives a life unlike most men. He goes through a series of changes that eventually lead him to a righteous way to live. The patterns of events that occur within St. Augustine’s life inevitably lead him to a happy and virtuous perspective. His story is one that emphasizes that money does not bring happiness. Throughout his life he was always able to come and go and do whatever he wished. He was a spoiled child that was too smart for his own good. The first 20 years of his life he committed great sin and indulged in virtually all he could. He sinned every way imaginable. All the sin that he was able to frequently relish in committing most men become caught up with throughout their lives where he was able to get almost every seductive urge out of his system . His spoiled nature and keen mind allowed him to sin every way and he eventually comes around to seeing the good in knowledge and justice. The phycology he uses to break his own thoughts and feelings down make him a specimen among men. While going through great spiritual trials he holds the physical nature of his mind accountable; Such as his lust, pride, gluttony, or mischievous behavior while trying to obtain new understanding. Though he is not aware until years later he always is comes to some sort of conclusion about himself that inevitably makes him change for the good.
The episode of St. Augustine’s theft of the pears demonstrates the evolution of his understanding for he becomes very engrossed with himself in later life. He reflects that the thrill is the only reason why he was willing to steal the pears and was proof to him that his soul was indeed corrupt. He also makes a reference to his own infancy (though he cannot actually remember) and his inability to be thankful for anything. He explains that he took his pampering for granted (at the time) and that it was the most sinful part of his life. These events and recollections of what was currently happening within his personal life helped him evolve to greater understandings. For instance; his involvement with the Manichees. He originally joins them for the answers to questions that no one in his life could answer before but he eventually leaves them because he attains his own understanding about what type of being god must be through logic. His hunger for knowledge eventually overcomes his gluttonous tendencies.
From an outside perspective most humans would say that Augustine was indeed evil or held evil within him. However, the sin he took part in could also be viewed as a necessary part of his biological life. He eventually became a Saint and better man than most because he was able to stretch his spectrum of evil and allow logic to steer him to the correct answers.