Abstract
Saint Augustine presented the idea that faith and understanding (in the broad and narrow senses) go hand in hand. Because of this, his teachings were that to understand life, one must have faith, and to have faith, one must pursue an understanding of life. Augustine has proved to be one of the most influential thinkers in European and western history. While still a teenager, Augustine converted, became a priest, then the leader of the Church in North Africa, and, before he became Bishop and his writing career was virtually choked off, Augustine was a prolific producer of scriptural scholarly works. The "City of God", which was written between the years 413 and 426, was Augustine's response to the criticism leveled at Christianity by the pagans after they had sacked Rome in 410. This work represents Augustine's most significant contribution to Western religious thought and, like many personalized texts, takes on the Aristotelian method of posing questions to the self in an argumentative fashion and systematically refuting and explaining away each.

Tags:augustine, city, god

Abstract
This essay examines to what extent Platonism shapes Augustine's theory of knowledge. To this end, the writer examines the influence of Neo-Platonism, and then shows that what Augustine rejects is exactly in line with where Neo-Platonism departs from Platonism. The writer first of all distinguishes between knowledge and beatitude, showing that neo-Platonism reveres material knowledge whereas Augustine reveres beatitude. The writer then shows how Augustine overcomes scepticism through his denial that evil has a real existence. The writer then discusses the central role that memory plays in the acquisition of experiential knowledge, comparing this to Plato's assertion that all knowledge is mere remembrance of "pre-knowledge". The writer then goes on to show how memory works in conjunction with creativity and free will to deliver wisdom, and explains why Augustine calls this composite faculty the grace of God. In each stage of this analysis it is shown where Augustine departs from Neo-Platonism and is in accord with Platonism.

Outline:
Introduction
Knowledge and Beatitude
Against Scepticism
Nature of Sensation and Experiential Knowledge
Divine Ideas
Illumination and Abstraction
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Much of Augustine's writing appears to be a direct reaction to Neo-Platonism, as it appears in the works of Plotinus and Porphyry. Neo-Platonism derives from the ideas found in the dialogues of Plato, but goes on to develop them into an elaborate cosmology. Augustine takes a highly ambivalent stance towards Neo-Platonism. On the one hand, he is palpably in awe of the explanatory power contained in this philosophy. All the greatest insights which go to make "Augustine's theory of knowledge can be easily traced to Neo-Platonist metaphysical constructs. However, he is still highly critical of the Neo-Platonist themselves, judging them to have identified the goal correctly, but not the path that would lead towards it. As Augustine saw it, the path is through wisdom, and that which is only granted through the grace of God. In the parlance of Catholicism, the path is only through Christ, who is wisdom incarnate. This is posited against the Neo-Platonist adherence to a metaphysical construct, and a moral framework that derives from it."

Tags:Neo-Platonism, Augustine, of, Hippo, Confessions, beatitude, memory

Abstract
This paper posits that knowing Augustine as a church leader and a saint, it would be almost impossible to believe that St. Augustine began his life as a pagan without having read his Confessions. According to the paper, Augustine was a strong and wise man who, for all his strength and wisdom, was frequently consumed by doubts in his search for perfection. The paper suggests that perhaps this quest for perfection came because he perceived his fall to be so low, that the only way to redeem himself would be to seek impossible heights. The paper asserts that even today, St. Augustine is a thinker like few others in the church, and with good reason, his works have endured for centuries after his death.

From the Paper
"To the student of history, the early life of Saint Augustine provides a close look at life in the fourth and fifth century A.D. To the student of Christianity, it is a dramatic tale of a life brought to God from paganism. By any account, The Confessions of Saint Augustine is a complex study of a single man's life. Although it does not cover the majority of his life, describing events only until St. Augustine is in his forties, it offers the reader an in-depth view at his early and middle life. The single publication that forms "The Confessions of Saint Augustine", with which we are familiar was not written in that form. Rather, it was..."

Tags:st. augustine, catholic, philosophy

Abstract
This paper describes and compares two different portraits of Saint Augustine: the one drawn in his "Confessions" and the one in a modern biography of Augustine, written by Peter Brown. The paper presents the historical context for the life and work of Augustine. Then the paper examines Brown's evaluation of Augustine's place in the evolution of Christianity's spiritual content and its ecclesiastical structures.

From the Paper
"The purpose of this research is to compare the portrait of Augustine of Hippo presented in Peter Brown's modern biography with the portrait that Augustine himself presents in the 'Confessions'. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical context..."

Tags:Augustine, Manichaeanism, Christianity

Abstract
This essay is an exploration of the reasons why Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote one of his most famous works, "The Confessions." "The Confessions" is a combination autobiography and personal conversion story, written after Augustine had converted to Christianity, been brought into the priesthood, and been made Bishop of Hippo. The essay also stresses the political situation the Church encountered during this dangerous period.

From the Paper
AUGUSTINE'S PURPOSES IN WRITING THE CONFESSIONS At several points in The Confessions, Saint Augustine offers explanations for why he has chosen to compose this remarkable and relatively unprecedented work. One of his clearer statements of why he wrote this work occurs in book ix, in which he describes his final conversion to Christianity, his baptism, and the death of his mother, Monica. He hoped that by presenting his own story in The Confessions he could guide others to Christ, so that what my mother at her end asked of me may be fulfilled more richly in the prayers of so many gained for her by my Confessions than by my

Tags:augustine, confessions, rome

Abstract
This paper discusses St. Augustine's sin of stealing the pears and what made him do so. It details the commentary on this, what was going through St. Augustine's head, and what were the consequences of his act. It describes how St. Augustine became one of the greatest doctors of the Catholic Church and details his great achievements despite this incident.

From the Paper
"St. Augustine's account of his stealing the pears is a starkly honest confrontation of his "and man's" wretchedness without God. He freely admits that stealing is against God's law, which is inherently etched in the heart of man, a law which not even sin can erase. Nonetheless, man steals -- and Augustine stole those pears, not out of want for something to eat or any other need for them, nor for the desire to own the fruits because of their exceptional quality, such as color or taste. Augustine writes that he stole simply because he "lusted to thieve" (p 4 par 4). He revealed that the act came out of being habituated to sin, "a pamperedness of iniquity." (p 4 par 4), which inclined him to no other pattern of acts but the wrong ones. He said it exactly and clearly but in repentance, that it was out of a joy for the evil that he sinned by stealing: "It was foul, and I loved it." (p 5 par 1). It was doing something wrong for the preference and enjoyment of evil."

Tags:St., Augustine, God, stealing, law, lust, evil, Catholic, Church, doctor, sin

Abstract
This paper shows how, in his "Confessions", Augustine reflects back on his life, particularly his memories of Monica, his mother and Adeodatus, his son, and interprets their meanings as God working through daily intervention to change the way Augustine thinks and feels.

From the Paper
"The Confessions is St. Augustine's reflection back on his life, and his search for God during it. He chronicles his experiences from birth until the present time, and explains the deeper meaning that he now sees in each one. Through his reflection, his is able to deeper understand the ways in which God works, and is able to unite with God in spirit. It is through this deeper understanding that in the time he was searching for God in earthly ideas and objects, God was within him all along. Augustine did not find God while searching for him, God revealed himself to Augustine through Augustine's personal history and experience."

Tags:anthropology, augustine, confessions, god, religious

Abstract
This paper examines St. Augustine's criticism of his study of classical learning. The author points out st. Augustine's disdain of classical studies because they fed his vanity, pride and ambition.

From the Paper
"In Book I of the "Confessions", St. Augustine sharply criticizes his experience with what is today called classical learning. He confesses that he is not overfond of Homer but that he did enjoy Virgil. He is also fully conversant with the Roman playwrights citing ..."

Tags:St., Augustine, St., Ambrose, Manichaeanism, Classical, studies

Abstract
Tracing the life of Augustine, this paper aims to identify the stages of conversion as noted by Augustine himself in his Confessions. The writer examines reasons for his conversion and the historical significance of the conversion itself.

From the Paper
"Fourth century Rome was a time of many changes. Writers and common society alike pointed out many of the problems within the framework of the Empire. Although many writers, such as Aristides, were quick to point out the virtues of Rome, there were definite undercurrents of uneasiness throughout the empire. Many citizens, fearing the growing climate of immorality and desiring deeper spirituality, turned to a new power: Christianity. There is no work which tells better the allure of Christianity than St. Augustine s Confessions a work in which a man tells of the stages of his conversion to the religion which was to be the most influential factor in the development of European history. Augustine s main purpose in writing the confessions was to praise God, to extol the wisdom of God and to search for God through prayer. In his Confessions, Augustine describes five stages in his conversion to Christianity: his love of philosophy, sparked by the readings of Cicero s Hortensius; his conversion to and disenchantment with Manichaenism; his meeting of St. Ambrose; his conversion to Platonism, and a final mystical experience which led to his total conversion in 386."

Tags:ancient, augustine, christianity, conversion, history, religion, rome

Abstract
In St. Augustine's fourth century text, "Confessions," his mother, Monica's devoted and exemplary relationships with the men in her life ironically deny her the status of a respected individual in society. This essay uses Monica to analyze the role of the early Christian woman in her society. Additionally, it uses the works of feminist anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner to provide a framework for the analysis. Specific examples from Augustine's "Confessions" are also used.

From the Paper
"Additionally, Ortner believes that women's inferiority is partially due to their association with domestic tasks such as raising children, beings far removed from culture (77-8). Augustine has very little interaction with his father, especially in regards to the cultural construct of Christianity. His religious devotion is the realm of his mother, giving her significant influence over his future societal relations. This close interaction, following Ortner's theory, degrades Monica despite its cultural nature. Thus, ironically, Monica's relationship with Augustine devalues her in the eyes of men, an opinion that Augustine also adopts. Meanwhile, her efforts in raising him to become a Christian, a cultural classification, are overlooked."

Tags:conversion, Augustine, Patricius