Will And Will In Augustine's Confessions By Augustine

In Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine examines will and the effect it had on his conversion to the Catholic faith. This is further developed by Augustine’s concentration on how human beings act in a social environment. During the stories from his youth, this is increasingly valuable to understand. Building from this, it is important to question how will and sin are affiliated. Inevitably, this leads into the analysis of how the human will is inherently connected to the problem of evil. Augustine uses his personal reflection as a means of exploring these subjects in his own life, thus finding the link between temptation and will, enabling him to discover what he must do to finally convert to the Catholic faith. Will is an extremely important part of Augustine’s discussion because he considers how freedom of choice, as a matter of course, leads to desire. Eventually, this leads to Augustine’s self deprecation in book eight as he ponders how Ponticianus’ friends were able to let go of their wills, and he is not able to, at the time. In this sequence, Augustine is more impressed with the friends’ abilities to release their wills and less with their abilities to give up

Sin, on many accounts, has stemmed from temptation, but this does not make them equal. For instance, Augustine felt the power of temptation in accordance with his moments of weakness. These moments include his stealing of the pears and his relationship with a concubine. The temptation of these acts, being in a group with friends and sexual desire, respectively, led to the sins he committed. Despite that, temptation and sin have different relationships with will. In theory, when temptation overcomes will, a sin is born. In essence, the presence of sins can be controlled by ones will, whereas temptation is bound to exist; although there exists the matter of how one acts, or does not act, upon this