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Augustine's Accomplishments

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On the contrary, it could be said that Augustine did not reach this great achievement of wisdom and submission because he continually struggled with sin even after he repented and overcame his ignorance. In Book Ten, Augustine dictates to readers his current state in life. He struggles daily with sin and admits that he is still subject to sin and the ways of the world. He indulges in erotic images and struggles with loving food more than he should. Additionally, he struggles with the ego and the self-love he feels when others praise him. Augustine admits, “Placed amidst these temptations, I strive daily against greediness in eating and drinking. For this is not the kind of thing I can resolve once and for all to cut off and touch no more, as …show more content…

Augustine details his mistakes and discoveries in such detail so that readers may learn from them and not repeat them. Similarly, everyone in the world is subject to sin and thus everyone can also relate to how Augustine felt. Thus, a reader feeling as Augustine felt can learn how to remove him or herself from the ways of the world and direct his or her life toward the path God has created for him or her. In Book Ten, Augustine states that her scribes these confessions, “in deed and in word, I do it under Your wings, for the peril would be too great were not my soul under Your wings and subject to You, and my infirmity known to you…To such then as You command me to serve will I show, not what I was, but what I am now, what I continue to be…Thus therefore let me be heard” (192). God willed Augustine to share his story to bring others away from sin and closer to God just how God did for Augustine. However, Augustine admits his work and blessings are not of his own but subject to God and God is the commander of everything good in his life. God uses Augustine and his Confessions not only to direct Augustine’s life, but to direct the hearts of those reading his confessions so that they too may have a rhetorical organization of their mind and heart to rise to God’s greater

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Himes mentioned in lecture, Augustine’s baptism was deferred until after infancy, which I think ties God more intimately into his life journey as he is actually aware of the most important sacrament of his life. In Book II, Augustine admits his sinful life with regret, displaying an increased conscience and awareness of God. He reasons that

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And if God is God, why is He letting us suffer?” (1) The lifelong quest for answers to these questions shaped his theology

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His condition improved when he was not seeking spiritualists, and Cabbarus took note of that to destroy and progress. The text states, “Instead of warning him against disappointment, Cabbarus provided Augustine with still more occultists and spiritualists, each with one thing in common, failure. Each disappointment took a toll on Augustine’s health, undoing the best efforts of the court physician” (59). When Torrens addressed himself to Augustine, he cautioned, “Sire, I have warned you against the consequences of dealing with these charlatans. As your physician, I insist- “(59) before he was cut off by Cabbarus.

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1813 Words | 8 Pages

Before meeting Lady Continence, Augustine feels torn “between [the lust] against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh”; he wants to harmonize his feelings so he can “become [Y] our soldier” (VIII.11), who is not “bound to the earth… afraid of being rid of all my burdens” (VIII.11). Augustine feels guilty for being between a righteous life with God and an imperfect life with his secular desires, because he has acknowledged that a better life exists than he is living. However, he has not been able to make the full jump to being right with God. As a result of his internal dissonance, Augustine’s guilt manifests in a physically as Lady Continence. She appears to Augustine as “serene and cheerful without coquetry”, and tells Augustine to join the others who have already relinquished their earthly desires: “Cast yourself upon him, do not be afraid… Make the leap without anxiety; he will catch you and heal you” (VIII.27).

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552 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the book of Confessions, Augustine tells his story from how he remembers them, and it seems to be more personal because it is about true events that led to him to find

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623 Words | 3 Pages

God intended sex, like all creaturely gifts, to lead us to him, resulting in love and worship of his name. Our loves, on the other hand, are fundamentally disturbed as Adam's children. We displease God by preferring God's gifts to his, the Giver, because we are pleased with God's offerings. Augustine utilizes negative terminology to characterize his sexual drives throughout his autobiographical masterpiece "Confessions": desire is mud, a vortex, shackles, thorns, a seething cauldron, and an open sore that must be scratched.. Augustine's desire is nearly a compulsion for him, an inexplicable instinct that he believes he can't control without God's help, a bondage that he is too weak to break free from.

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2281 Words | 10 Pages

Augustine was aware of his own struggle within, Perceval is blind to his own lack of wisdom, King Shahrayar must slowly be brought, by Shahrazad, to seeing his need to change and rule wisely, Don Quixote is dedicated to faithfully serving in his imaginary role as a knight, and only sees at the end of his life; what was clear to others. The truth of God is uncovered or revealed in the end of all these stories of sally, journey and darkness of night. All of these literary travelers are guided by others in key moments to learn, confess, or to continue to listen. Each of them must come to a moment of seeing themselves in the moment of need, or within the story of the night. Perceval is told by his cousin that “miseries will come” (One Thousand, 3592), because of his refusal to act wisely when in the castle of the Fisher King.

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When Augustine said that people were born fundamentally flawed, he also thought that we have the ability to choose the good and to resist temptation by turning to God. He saw the human will as being able to be reformed and strengthened through a process of moral

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2121 Words | 9 Pages

The Confessions is a literary work that tells Augustine’s life from boyhood to adulthood and list his sins. He confesses things he had did wrong. Confessions can also be used as a way for us, the reader, to see Augustine’s journey to becoming a Christian. The Confessions is very interesting and relatable autobiography about Augustine’s life. We can see the struggles and the conflictions he faces throughout his life in the Confessions.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

Growing up the son of two very Christian parents, I have heard my fair share of sermons, with varying ranges of quality. The most common traits among the more successful communicators include passion, demonstration of thought, carefully crafted diction, and the ability to include believable personal testimony. From the beginning of Confessions, St. Augustine demonstrates the validity of his convictions, in a manner akin to a devoted pastor in today’s Church environment. Although some of Augustine’s notions are outdated, he voices the magnitude of his commitment to the God as his savior in a similar rhetorical fashion as a spokesman/woman for a Church would today, showing that he laid a foundation for the field of theology today. Even though

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716 Words | 3 Pages

That part of the heavenly city which dwells on earth seeks earthly peace as well, but only when it complements their ultimate goal of peace under God". The quote exemplifies the lack of belief in God in the city of man. In Augustine's view earthly peace will never reach their goal. Only believing in heavenly divine will can one find peace.

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1600 Words | 7 Pages

Moreover, Augustine argues, since it is “God who made human beings good, it is God, not human beings, who restores human beings so that they are good. He sets them free from the evil that they have brought upon themselves, if they will it, believe, and call upon him.” Since we have by our own will brought upon ourselves sin; we cannot be healed from our sin without the grace of

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931 Words | 4 Pages

How can it be grace, if it is given in payment of a debt? 4 How can that be true which the apostle says, “It is not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph.2:8, 9)…. What greater gift, or even what similar gift could grace itself bestow on any man, if he has already without grace been able to make himself one spirit with the Lord by no other power than that of his own free will ”. Ultimately, what is so powerful around Augustine’s take on evil is that he continuously sought God’s will in the process and looked for reason in the midst.

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770 Words | 4 Pages

Augustine dedicated his life to Christ after reading the epistles of Paul.         Original sin was a disputed topic for the Church and had many sides to it. Augustine’s argument about original sin disagreed with Pelagius’, a philosopher in the church. He argued that sin has been passed down from the start when Adam and Eve first ate from the tree of knowledge.

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1117 Words | 5 Pages

Thus, he understood that his sins were being perceived. Augustine started out the seventh book by showing how he evolved from his previous shameful sins. “I did not think of you, my God, in the shape of a human body, for I had rejected this idea ever since I had first begun to study philosophy, and I was glad to find that our spiritual mother, your Catholic Church, also rejected such beliefs.” (Book VII, Section 1, Page 133) This shows that Augustine is beginning to think more about God and how his sins have been watched throughout his whole life.

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