In Augustine's Confessions, Augustine accounts his journey through his conversion to Christianity. On this journey, he discovers his own free-will has blocked him from loving God above all things. Free-will also proves to be what blocks Plato’s dream of an ideal society. Augustine believes evil originates from the fall of Adam, creating the original sin of pride within all humans. This original sin would be the downfall of Plato’s ideal society because the Guardians would fall into the trap of pride.
To understand where evil arose from one first must understand what evil is. According to Augustine evil is not a substance, evil is nothing in itself. God is all good and all powerful so everything he makes is good because if he created evil …show more content…
Any action done with pride will not serve any satisfaction to its beholder. In life, humans want purpose and happiness and search for this in their careers, relationships, recognition and otherworldly things. By loving people and things before God humans would remain forever restless because everything on this earth dies while they love of God lasts forever, “Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee” (3). This is shown in the story of Marius Victorinus told by Simplicianus to imitate Augustine’s life. Victorinus declares he is a Christian after reading Christian books but his pride from publicly professing keeps him out of the church because it takes humility to partake in the sacraments. Victorinus believes he can fulfill himself and doesn’t need God or the sacraments to be fulfilled; his pride blinds him of having the humility to know he needs God’s saving grace to be fulfilled in …show more content…
Pride from intelligence according to Augustine is what would destroy Plato’s dream of building an ideal society. Plato’s ideal society is one where knowledge is everything. The city will be united as one because it will be ruled by the Guardians who will rule by their rational just souls because they have knowledge of the Form of good. To Plato, if people know what is good they will do it. To Augustine this is false. Augustine believes that the Guardians are helpless to fall into the trap of pride because they have original sin. Original sin will cause conflict between their mind and will. Even if people know what is good that doesn’t mean they will do it, “There is no one who wants to be asleep always, for every sound judgement holds that it is best to be awake, yet a man often postpones the effort of shaking himself awake when he feels a sluggish heaviness in his limbs, and settles pleasurably into another doze though he knows he should not” (148). Through free-will humans can become less free and become a slave to their desires by valuing themselves over what is truly good for them, God. This inner pride is within every human, which would eventually cause the Guardians to choose themselves over their city making it
To understand where evil arose from one first must understand what evil is. According to Augustine evil is not a substance, evil is nothing in itself. God is all good and all powerful so everything he makes is good because if he created evil …show more content…
Any action done with pride will not serve any satisfaction to its beholder. In life, humans want purpose and happiness and search for this in their careers, relationships, recognition and otherworldly things. By loving people and things before God humans would remain forever restless because everything on this earth dies while they love of God lasts forever, “Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee” (3). This is shown in the story of Marius Victorinus told by Simplicianus to imitate Augustine’s life. Victorinus declares he is a Christian after reading Christian books but his pride from publicly professing keeps him out of the church because it takes humility to partake in the sacraments. Victorinus believes he can fulfill himself and doesn’t need God or the sacraments to be fulfilled; his pride blinds him of having the humility to know he needs God’s saving grace to be fulfilled in …show more content…
Pride from intelligence according to Augustine is what would destroy Plato’s dream of building an ideal society. Plato’s ideal society is one where knowledge is everything. The city will be united as one because it will be ruled by the Guardians who will rule by their rational just souls because they have knowledge of the Form of good. To Plato, if people know what is good they will do it. To Augustine this is false. Augustine believes that the Guardians are helpless to fall into the trap of pride because they have original sin. Original sin will cause conflict between their mind and will. Even if people know what is good that doesn’t mean they will do it, “There is no one who wants to be asleep always, for every sound judgement holds that it is best to be awake, yet a man often postpones the effort of shaking himself awake when he feels a sluggish heaviness in his limbs, and settles pleasurably into another doze though he knows he should not” (148). Through free-will humans can become less free and become a slave to their desires by valuing themselves over what is truly good for them, God. This inner pride is within every human, which would eventually cause the Guardians to choose themselves over their city making it