Denys Klimyentyev Filled with a desire to enact vengeance upon the Spanish, the infamous English corsair Sir Francis Drake and his crew set sail for the Spanish colonies in North America and the Caribbean. He gained a fearsome reputation when he captured Santo Domingo and Cartagena, two very well defended and lucrative possessions in quick succession. Though at the time Drake seemed like an all conquering corsair, he met his match and was surprisingly repulsed by the Spanish in the relatively minor colony of St. Augustine in La Florida. In the work Drake Destroys St. Augustine, James A. Covington describes this part of Drake’s adventures.
St. Augustine is a city located in St. Johns county in northeastern Florida and is most known for being the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States, having been colonized by Spain in 1565. Prior to the 1513 landing of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León (who christened the peninsula which he mistook for an island “La Florida” and claimed it for Spain), the area of land that is now called “St. Augustine” was inhabited by a population of natives known as the Timucua people. After the initial arrival of Juan Ponce de León in 1513, the Spanish would go on to make several unsuccessful attempts at colonization in Florida over the following 51 years. The Spanish were not alone in their pursuit to annex and settle land on the peninsula.
God’s people were warned again and again by the prophets to stop sinning – to restrain their greed and lusts – or the Lord would send them into captivity. This dramatic result of the total loss of liberty occurred as a result of a total lack of restraint vividly explicates the truth. Tacitus confirms the wisdom of Daniel Webster when he writes The Annals of Imperial Rome, Chapter 6, “Corruption reached its climax, and legislation
Before the rise of Christianity, the Roman Empire was ruled by a series of emperors who were often corrupt and authoritarian. However, with the introduction of Christianity, a new moral code was introduced that placed a greater emphasis on the value of individuals and the importance of serving the common good. This new moral code had a significant impact on the way that the Roman Empire was governed, and helped to create a more just and equitable
1. One of the main themes of Augustine’s books is the inherent sinfulness of the human heart. For instance, Augustine confesses that he loved evil even if it served no purpose. Do you agree to Augustine’s view of human nature?
Everything is judged at first by its appearance at first. Later something might be reexamined for its content. Augustine did this with arguments. During the first part of his life he put a heavy emphasis on form but as he grew older he found that form did not satisfy him as a reader. He then began to analyze the substance of arguments and had his questions answered.
Throughout the history, humankind was consistently concerned with the basic nature of the human beings. Consequently, there has always been a debate on the attitudes of the philosophers and scientists towards competing ideas that whether humans are intrinsically good or evil, whether humans are natured or nurtured, whether humans are fundamentally selfish or altruistic, whether it is all about our inner states that make us to behave in a certain way or it is mostly associated with external factors such as our environment that shape our identity. In this paper, compelling arguments of the above-mentioned different schools will be analyzed, evaluated, discussed and concluded. The initial school of thought suggests that, humans are inherently bad, selfish and egoistic beings. Origin of this view roots back to ancient times.
In his first article on war, he expresses that was is entirely justifiable and not sinful. However, while Aquinas claims war is not always sinful, there must be a set of three circumstances that are present for force to be justified. This goes into more depth than Augustine, as Aquinas says the three necessary requirements are “the authority of the sovereign by whose command the war is to be waged… a just cause is required… [and] the belligerents should have a rightful intention”. Both Aquinas and Augustine believe that there must be a good intention for the war, whether it be to reinforce the good, or eliminate the bad. Both Augustine and Aquinas have a very similar viewpoint of peace and how to obtain it.
In “Confessions”, based off Augustine’s biography, the family had an influential role for the Roman society. “Confessions” allows the reader to see that families during this time were not there to discipline their children instead they gave them goals and impressed upon them values. Augustine recounts his parents ideals noting that each parent was, “unduly eager for me to learn, my father because he gave next to no thought to you and only shallow thought to me, and my mother because she thought the usual course of study would certainly not hinder me…” (Augustine 47). Both parents had goals set in place for their son which aligned under the umbrella of education however outside of this goal Augustine was given free rein.
Augustine’s philosophy on natural and moral evil is the prime explanation as to why he would not consider a gun to be “evil”. Thus, justifying moral evil as being a direct result of free will. Having this ideology in mind, a person is to acquire responsibility for the actions in which they choose to condone, therefore if a man engages in such a ghastly behavior, than he himself implements the wickedness of murder. To better explain Augustine’s opposition to the existence of a natural evil; he renders that a gun is in itself just an object, ergo is unable too achieve the actions in which are required to kill someone, without first being conducted by a movable being. This concludes that based on the principals in which moral and natural evil
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, in his work The Perfection of Human Righteousness, combatted the heresy of Pelagianism as described by Caelestius in his treatise, The Definitions Attributed to Caelestius. Following Pelagius, Caelestius by logic and Scripture argued that the Fall did not destroy man’s natural capability to do right. Caelestius argued that God made us free to do the good and thus we all have the power not to sin, and that both the devil and Adam’s original sin are unable to destroy this power. As proof Caelestius gave examples of Old Testament saints who he claimed lived holy lives.
Augustine’s conception of the sin in The Confessions is vastly different from today’s version of sin. In the modern world, Christian sin is mainly focused on the seven deadliest whereas Saint Augustine added more onto this list. The book mainly explores St. Augustine’s struggle for celibacy and converting himself to Christianity. Augustine also created a concept he termed as original sin. Original sin states that sin is inherently within all of us, we are all born evil and thus have to fight to be good.
His ethics is based on treating people with dignity just as we would want to be treated and the command by Christ to love others and love God with our strength, mind, soul and heart. Augustine is a virtuous, moral and philosophical human being. The Problem of Evil According to Augustine, the free will in human beings is the cause of evil.
The Problem of Evil “Evil has no positive nature but the loss of good has received the name of evil” said St. Augustine. The problem comes from the fact that if there is a deity that is all good, all knowing and all powerful, how can evil exist? The problem of evil (or argument from evil) is the problem of reconciling the existence of the evil in the world with the existence of an omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful) and perfectly good God. The argument from evil is the atheistic argument that the existence of such evil cannot be reconciled with, and so disproves, the existence of such a God. Therefore, the “problem of evil” presents a significant issue.
