Augustine

Iliad and Confessions

[Achilles said] when we’ve sated ourselves with grief, we’ll un-harness them and eat together here.’ Then Achilles led them as they raised their voices as one, in lament. Three times, in their grief, they drove their long-maned horses round the corpse... The sand and their armour were wet with tears, so great a warrior was the man they mourned. And the son of Peleus was loudest in the strident lament, laying his man-killing hands on his comrade’s breast (Book 23, Lines 1-20)

But in Your ears, where none of them could hear, I accused the emotion in me as weakness; and returned with fresh violence, not with any pouring of tears or change of countenance: but I knew what I was crushing down in my heart. I was very much ashamed that these human emotions could have such power over me-- though it belongs to the due order and the lot of our earthly condition that they should come to us--and I felt a new grief at my grief and so was afflicted with a two-fold sorrow (1200)

Compare and contrast the mourning that occurs in the Iliad and Confessions. How are these passages representative of the cultures from which they originate?

Immoral Motives

For I had any number of better pears of my own, and plucked those only that I might steal. For once I had gathered them I threw them away, tasting only my own sin and savouring that with delight (1185)

For I stole things which I already had in plenty and of better quality. Nor had I any desire to enjoy the things I stole, bu only the stealing of them and the sin (1184)

I loved the evil in me--not the thing for which I did the evil, simply the evil: my soul was depraved, and hurled itself down from security in You into utter destruction, seeking no profit from wickedness but only to be wicked (1184)

How do these passages blend an internal perspective, the pursuit of knowledge, and morality?

The Pear Tree

I propose now to set down my past wickedness and the carnal corruptions of my soul, not for love of them but that I may love Thee, O my God. (1183)

There was a pear tree near our vineyard, heavy with fruit, but fruit that was not particularly tempting either to look at or to taste. A group of young blackguards, and I among them, went out to knock down the pears and carry them off late one night, for it was our bad habit to carry on our games in the streets till very late. We carried off an immense load of pears, not to eat--for we barely tasted them before throwing them to the hogs (1184)

Why did Augustine steal the pears if they weren't "tempting either to look at or taste" and if he merely threw them away?

The Dichotomy: Internal versus External

Education

How does the focus of Augustine's work reflect a Judeo-Christian worldview?

[After Augustine's conversion] she [Augustine's mother] was filled with triumphant exultation, and praised You who are mighty beyond what we ask or conceive: for she saw that You had given her more than with all her pitiful weeping she had ever asked. For You converted me to Yourself... (1194)

What kind of transition elicits this "Triumphant exultation" ?

Over the entrance of these grammar schools hangs a curtain: but this should be seen not as lending honor to the mysteries, but as a cloak to the errors taught within. Let not those masters--who have now lost their terrors for me --cry out against me, because I confess to You, my God, the desire of my soul, and find soul's rest in blaming my evil ways that I may love Your holy ways. Let not the buyers or sellers of book-learning cry out against me (1182-1183)

What is the purpose of education?

Life and Exploration

Education and Morals

... I still did wrong, by writing or reading or studying less than my set tasks. It was not, Lord, that I lacked mind or memory, for You had given me as much of these as my age required; but the one thing I revelled in was play; and for this I was punished by men who after all were doing exactly the same things themselves...Perhaps an unbiased observer would hold that I was rightly punished as a boy for playing with a ball: because this hindered my progress in studies--studies which would give me the opportunity as a man to play at things more degraded. And what difference was there between me and the master who flogged me? For if on some trifling point he had the worst of the argument with some fellow-master, he was more torn with angry vanity than I when I was beaten in a game of ball (1181)

According to Augustine, is education morally good or bad?

How do cultural "norms" affect the way we view life?

The Purpose of Knowledge

It [the task] was to declaim the words uttered by Juno in her rage and grief when she could not keep the Trojan prince from coming to Italy... In this exercise that boy won most applause in whom the passions of grief and rage were expressed most powerfully and in the language most adequate to the majesty of the personage represented. What could all this mean to me, O My true Life, My God?... Was not the whole business so much smoke and wind? Surely some other matter could have been found to exercise mind and tongue. Thy praises, Lord, might have upheld the fresh young shoot of my heart, so that it might not have been whirled away by empty trifles, defiled, a prey to the spirits of the air. (1183)

Morality

What was Augustine prompted to recite? What were his feelings regarding this exercise?

Internal

The Pursuit of Knowledge

For now I was not an infant, without speech, but a boy, speaking...But of my own motion using the mind which You, my God, gave me, I strove with cries and various sounds and much moving of my limbs to utter the feelings of my heart--all this in order to get my own way...So, as I heard the same words again and again properly used in different phrases, I came gradually to grasp what things they signified (1180)

What tension exists within this passage concerning the source of knowledge and the reason Augustine learned to speak?

Knowledge

Conclusion

What are the primary differences between the Greek/Roman works we have read and Augustine's confessions?

How are these differences related to the tenets of Judeo-Christian faith?

How have these tenets influenced contemporary culture?

Augustine: Confessions

Influence of Christianity

Objectives

• To examine how Biblical, Judeo-Christian principles influence our perception of ourselves, knowledge, and morals