NAME: MUNU CHRYSANTUS MBIEMIEH
REGISTRATION NUMBER: 11027T
THE CONFESSIONS- ST. AUGUSTINE
???
St Augustine is the son of a pagan father and a staunch Christian mother who is so devoted to her faith. He was born in the year 354 and died in the year 430. This implies that he died at the age of 70. His early childhood shows that he was very rough and immoral in his dealings. It is also important to highlight the fact that St Augustine was a great scholar. This is reflected in his quest for knowledge which later leads him to Manichaeism. It is thanks to his mother persistence prayer and the sermon of one the bishops that made him convert to Christianity and later became a doctor of the church. He has contributed quite enormously both in philosophy and theology. His writings are still captivating and inevitable in the history of the church. What is outstanding about the life of St Augustine is the fact that one is never condemned in his present situation; there are many rooms for change if one is determine to change. In other words change is not impossibility.
St Augustine is the son of a pagan father and a staunch Christian mother who is so devoted to her faith. He was born in the year 354 and died in the year 430. This implies that he died at the age of 70. His early childhood shows that he was very rough and immoral in his dealings. It is also important to highlight the fact that St Augustine was a great scholar. This is reflected in his quest for knowledge which later leads him to Manichaeism. It is thanks to his mother persistence prayer and the sermon of one the bishops that made him convert to Christianity and later became a doctor of the church. He has contributed quite enormously both in philosophy and theology. His writings are still captivating and inevitable in the history of the church. What is outstanding about the life of St Augustine is the fact that one is never condemned in his present situation; there are many rooms for change if one is determine to change. In other words change is not impossibility.
 |
| I heard about the book earlier and wish to study it now |
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Portalié, “Life
of St. Augustine of Hippo” The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 2, New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.
Summary and Reflection
INTRODUCTION
St.
Augustine in his highly celebrated book Confessions
presents his autobiography which is highly philosophical and spiritual. From
his account one can assert that he lived a life of sin until the age of
thirty-two, and even after his conversion, he was prevented from accepting the
faith by weakness in dealing with sexual temptation.[1] The
first nine Books of the Confessions are devoted to the story of Augustine’s
life up to his mother’s death, but the last four Books make a sudden, lengthy
departure into pure theology and philosophy. This shift should help us
appreciate in the same context the double meaning of ‘confessions’ for
Augustine, the story of his sinful life and redemption is in fact a profoundly
philosophical and religious matter, since his story is an example of the way
imperfect creation yearns to return to God. Thus, the story of the return to
God is set out first as an autobiography, and then in conceptual terms.
A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
In book one; Augustine illustrates his infancy and early childhood. He admits
that neither his mother not his nurses filled their breasts of their own
accord, for it was you who used them as the law prescribes to give me infant’s
food.[2]
He falls ill and is almost baptized; he is sent to school to study Latin
literature. In book two he recounts his adolescence stage. He continues his
studies; he becomes sexually mature; he steals pears with a group of friends.
He acknowledges the fact that the pears they stole were beauty since they are
created by God but the act of stealing is sinful.[3]
Book three focuses on Augustine's early adulthood. He goes to Carthage to
study; where he reads Cicero's Hortensius, which inspires him with a
love of wisdom. He later encounters Manichaeism and becomes a Manichee. As a
result of this, his mother consults the bishop asking him to chat with Augustine
but he told her to pray for him and he will discover his mistakes and the depth
of his profanity.[4]
In the next book he becomes a tutor of rhetoric as a result of this he takes a
concubine. The death of his close friend drives him away from Thagaste. In book five he travels from one place to
another because of one reason or the other. While in Milan, he hears the
sermons of Bishop Ambrose, causing him to reject the teachings of the
Manichees. Here he contrast Faustus and Ambrose and at the end he says the
latter surely thought the doctrine of salvation.[5]
At this juncture Augustine devotes
time in reading Platonic philosophy, which enlightens and gives more meaning to
his understanding of Christianity and the nature of evil. As a result of this
knowledge he finally accepts the truth of Christianity and gave up Manichaeism.
Despite this acceptance, there is still a struggle within him concerning this
decision. This struggle is made evident in book eight where after hearing
various stories of conversion like that of Anthony, he reaches a moment of
spiritual crisis. After reading a passage in one of St. Paul’s corpus which
reads “… spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetite”[6]
This text appeals to his heart in such a fashion that he had no option than
offering his life to God. In book nine Monica like Simeon says there was
one reason, why I wished to remain a little longer in this life, and that was
to see you baptized before I die.[7]
Towards the end of this book he prays for his parents especially his mother
calling on all who read this book to remember her on the altar. He ends this
book by praying for all his brothers and sisters in Christ.
He begins book ten by asking a series
of questions about his confession. What would they profit after reading my
confessions? In response to this he says his true brothers are those who
rejoice for me in their hearts when they find good in me and grieve for me when
they find sin.[8] This
is closely followed by the examination of his
memory and the temptations of the senses. He believes that his memory contains
his feelings, not in the same way as they are present to the mind when it
experiences them, but in a different way that is in keeping with the special
powers of the memory. In book eleven Augustine asserts that the entire treasury
of wisdom and knowledge is in God. These are the treasures that he seeks in
your books. This endeavor is evident as we find him rendering an explanation of
the verse, in which God begins the creation of heaven and earth.[9]
He proceeds with the discussion of the
nature of time and eternity. In book eleven he continues with the discussion of
how according to his opinion scripture may be interpreted. In the last book
Augustine gives a concise explanation of the seven days of creation. He
highlights the fact that all that God created was good in itself.[10]
A CRITIQUE OF THE
CONFESSIONS
After
reading this text I can say without an iota of doubt that St. Augustine was a
great scholar. This is evident in the way he presents his material in this
book. He often begins with a series of rhetorical questions which helps the
reader to wander with him before he starts proposing the answers. By so doing
he involves the reader very much in the experiences he is sharing as they also
sort to search for the answers before he finally gives the answers at the end. It
is also important to note the fact that it takes a lot courage and humility for
someone of this caliber to narrate the dark side of his story. For in most
cases people are prone to present good side of their stories and conceal the
bad side from the world. By doing this Augustine has surely win so many souls
to heaven as people have come to realize that no one is too bad to become a
saint or Christian. From the Confessions of Saint Augustine, it
is clear that as long as we have that inner disposition to receive God in our
hearts; God is always ready to lead us through. That is why he makes it clear
that our hearts will remain restless until they rest in the hands of the Lord.
That is precisely where we will be able to gain eternal happiness or see God
face to face. From his experience it is evident that all that we encounter here
on earth is vanity. It is not one day journey to enter this eternal life but it
is a prolong sincere searching. Looking at this text from this point of view
one can say that it is a very good text for spiritual reading. I will
personally recommend this text to all those who think that because of their
shortcomings or weaknesses they cannot see the eternal glory of God. He has a
true face of a human person. This goes especially to all those who because of
their weaknesses think that they are condemned beyond repair.
It
is also important to acknowledge the fact that the language of Augustine in
this text is too archaic for modern readers. I also realized that he asked so
many questions about god and toward god, which could not be answered. From this
perspective one can say that book one seems to be meaningless because he only
praised the God rather than the ordinary people who gave him (Augustine) knowledge
to write and learn. Without human beings, how could he get over all this
obstacles on his way to salvation? In this light I think Augustine fails
because he does not acknowledge those who help him to attain this salvation.
The church teaches that salvation is personal but it must be achieved
collectively.
Nonetheless,
Christ is crucial to Augustine, although he has no place in Neoplatonism which had
a very strong influence in his life. Christ is the mechanism by which the
return to God is effected. It is through Christ that a human can come to know
his or her existence in God, since Christ is God taking the form of man.
Augustine suggests that Christ is also wisdom itself, since wisdom too is a
kind of intermediary between God and the lower levels of creation. It is in
this wisdom, in the context of this Christ, that God created the universe, and
it is through this wisdom, Christ, that the universe can return to Him. From
the above argument one can assert without an iota of doubt that Saint Augustine
has contributed enormously in Christianity.
It is also important to note
that understanding the function of the brain is not Augustine’s goal in book
ten. He is rather trying to understand how God can be experienced by a human
being. The Platonists’ and Neoplatonists’ idea about the memory of all
knowledge leads him directly to conclude that the truth of God can only be
accessed through the mind. The glory of the Lord is evident in the amazing
faculty of memory, but he finds truth by looking inward and uncovering and reassembling
the truth of God something that, he says, was already there. He ends the book with
a critique of the visions of God about which the Neoplatonists wrote. Once
again, Augustine reminds us that the pagan Neoplatonists might have had
rigorous and inspired philosophy, but they were fundamentally lacking in the
truth of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they did not perceive God, but were in error.
It is worth noting that Augustine arrives at this conclusion despite his love or
sentimental attachment to Neoplatonism which is evident in most of his
writings.
Saint Augustine also
argues that time does not really exist it is more of an illusion we generate
for ourselves for unclear reasons fundamentally; we fall into time because of
our distance from God’s perfection. Past and future exist only in our present
constructions of them. From God's point of view, all of time exists at
once--nothing comes “before” or “after” anything else temporally. God created
the universe not at a specific time, but rather creates it constantly and
always, in one eternal act. It is this same idea that he use to develop his
doctrine of the Trinity. It is important to also note that Augustine unlike
Thomas Aquinas is very clear and precise in the way he presents his ideas. He
seldom used ambiguous words which will create problem to his readers
No comments:
Post a Comment