St. Augustine

1
St. Augustine

• Confessions

2
Biography Augustine (354-430)

• Single greatest influence on formation of the
  Christian faith, after the Apostle Paul
• Born in Thagaste, northern Africa studied in
  Carthage
• Moved eventually to Milan, encountered Bishop
  Ambrose
• Parents of administrative class, not wealthy
• Mother Monica, a Christian father Patricius, a
  pagan who converted on deathbed
• Augustine pursued career as teacher of rhetoric
  similar to becoming a law professor today.

3
Sexual history

• Followed a typical path
• Sexually active in his teens
• Settled into long-term cohabitation with
  lower-class woman, had a son
• Marriage would be delayed until he was able to
  get a good match
• Became engaged to a girl too young for marriage
• Ended his union, but took a second mistress
• These details are important because of the
  significance that a commitment to chastity would
  have in his conversion

4
Intellectual and Spiritual Development

• Encounter with Ciceros Hortensius gave him a
  taste for a commitment to virtue
• Early attempts at reading scripture left him cold
• Joined a sect called the Manichees in youth
• Saw this as intellectually compelling
• Became disenchanted when a famous Manichee,
  Faustus, could not answer his questions
• Found Platonist philosophers attractive
• St. Ambrose taught him to read allegorically

5
Conversion

• Monicas efforts
• Ambroses mentoring
• Scene in garden Book VIII
• What holds him back? Fear of living a life of
  continence
• Vision of Lady Continence
• Pick up and read Romans 1313-14
• Monicas death
• Reflections on earthly attachments to mother,
  spouse, friends

6
Career

• Retired for a time to a monastery
• Became Bishop of Hippo in North Africa
• Doctrinal writings
• On Christian Doctrine
• City of God
• On the Trinity
• Numerous sermons, letters
• Attitudes toward women, sexuality
• Political theory
• Doctrine of the elect

7
Question 1

• Could Augustine's Confessions be used to support
  the thesis that Christianity undermined
  classical, Graeco-Roman culture? What does
  Augustine think, for example, of the merits of
  Greek philosophy relative to Christianity? What
  does he think of his society's stress on fine
  Latin style? How did this stress, according to
  Augustine, influence his attitude toward the
  Bible when he first read it? How does he weigh
  secular matters compared with the divine?

8
Question 2

• What implications does the thesis that Augutine's
  time saw a fusion between Christianity and
  Graeco-Roman culture have for the above
  questions? Could Augustine's Confessions serve as
  evidence of such a fusion?

9
Question 3

• Augustine has been called "Plato baptized." Why
  might one draw this conclusion?

10
Question 4

• What sort of social role did high classical
  culture play in Augustine's time? How might a
  young man from the provinces "get ahead"? What
  role did rhetoric play in such endeavors?

11
Question 5

• To judge from Augustine's relations with, and
  attitudes toward, the women in his life, and
  toward virginity, was Christianity a liberating
  force for women by Augustine's time? An
  equalizing force?