Friendship in St. Augustine's "Confessions"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, by all accounts, Augustine was both a very sociable individual and a deeply committed friend; but, despite valuing friendship very highly, Augustine seems to see friendship as a potential source and expression of evil. The author points out that Augustine obviously has a great deal of interest and respect for friendship, to the point that he considered living with all his friends in something of a religious commune, and that he was willing to encourage Alypius to go against his father's wishes to remain friends with Augustine. The paper relates that Augustine sees that friendships can lead one, through peer pressure and mutual encouragement of the baser instincts, into sin; he believes that, when a relationship is based entirely on the physical, then that friendship cannot only lead one into evil, but also be evil in itself.

From the Paper:

"Augustine's opinions on friendship date back to his own adolescent experiences. The issue and the story from which it springs arise in the course of a meditation of the cause of evil. Plato has said, and many have since believed, that evil is something that no person pursues for its own merits -- rather, people do evil things in the pursuit of other, baser good things. For example, the evil of adultery might be committed in pursuit of the good of love and pleasure, or the evil of theft might be committed in pursuit of the good of food or the good of having physical comfort. However, Augustine suggests that people may also act in an evil fashion without hope to gain some other good."

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