Augustine finishes Book 1 by confessing that he was actively vain, licentious, quarrelsome, stubborn, and that he wasted the many gifts God had given him. He was greatly admired by his peers as a talented orator and a lover of poetry and theatre. He explains that evil was celebrated in these crafts according to the role that you took on and how well you played it. The adoration of his peers and superiors was paramount to him and so he put forth all his skill and passion to outdo them in acts of evil according to the parts played. He stole, he sought dishonest victories, he bested everyone he could in the arena of barbarism, and his peers and teachers loved him for it.
He concludes by confessing that his real problem was that while he was softened by friendship, shunned sorrow, meanness, and ignorance, he put his delight and his striving not towards God but towards creatures, himself, his peers, his teachers and thus fell into all manner of evils. He praises God for sustaining him and confesses that God is now his joy, pride, and confidence.
And so completes book one.
This took longer than I thought it would. Life got busy. My mind lost focus. I think I will continue with a summary of book 1 and then just move on to a summary of book 2 and skip writing about individual chapters unless something pops out that really strikes me.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Augustine's Confession Book 1: Chapter 16 - Reflections
It is clear that Augustine sees very little (if anything) good about culture. He rebukes it as a torrent of hell that drags everyone toward damnation. Jove (Zeus) was the renowned thunderer and adulterer and Augustine claims that the poets did not ascribe sinfulness to the gods but rather turned sinful men into gods and so encourage everyone to sin and to sin proudly. Furthermore, people pay good money to learn this vileness and are accounted wise when they do.
This was how Augustine was educated as a child and he confesses that he learned it willingly and with delight. I think that he saw the sin of the world as his own sin in a stronger way than we live with our doctrine of original sin.
I think that I always just accepted that the world was sinful and that I ought not to follow it and that I was also sinful which was why I needed Jesus. I've been a believer my whole life and so I have been saved from a lot of bad whereas Augustine was a notorious and very proud sinner until he came to faith.
It is very good that the Lord redeemed Augustine's sinful life and inspired him to do great works of faith and so lay so much foundation for western Christianity but it makes me stop and wonder for a second if it is better off to have come to faith after being a notorious proud sinner than to have just always had faith. I say "stop and wonder for a second" because the answer immediately comes to me, "no." While the Lord can redeem a sinful life to great ends for his kingdom (Augustine's groundbreaking theological work for instance) it need not be this way. God can just as easily inspire one who has always been faithful. Furthermore works, as desirable as they may be, do not make one any more or less loved, accepted, or saved by God. Further still the rewards of heaven for faithfulness will be greater than the rewards on earth for good works. Faithfulness and wisdom are to be pursued and it is antithetical to pine after a worse life of sin to give you life experience before you came to faith.
This was how Augustine was educated as a child and he confesses that he learned it willingly and with delight. I think that he saw the sin of the world as his own sin in a stronger way than we live with our doctrine of original sin.
I think that I always just accepted that the world was sinful and that I ought not to follow it and that I was also sinful which was why I needed Jesus. I've been a believer my whole life and so I have been saved from a lot of bad whereas Augustine was a notorious and very proud sinner until he came to faith.
It is very good that the Lord redeemed Augustine's sinful life and inspired him to do great works of faith and so lay so much foundation for western Christianity but it makes me stop and wonder for a second if it is better off to have come to faith after being a notorious proud sinner than to have just always had faith. I say "stop and wonder for a second" because the answer immediately comes to me, "no." While the Lord can redeem a sinful life to great ends for his kingdom (Augustine's groundbreaking theological work for instance) it need not be this way. God can just as easily inspire one who has always been faithful. Furthermore works, as desirable as they may be, do not make one any more or less loved, accepted, or saved by God. Further still the rewards of heaven for faithfulness will be greater than the rewards on earth for good works. Faithfulness and wisdom are to be pursued and it is antithetical to pine after a worse life of sin to give you life experience before you came to faith.