Faith and Community in the Confessions
While Saint Augustine is able to form some superficial relationships with his peers while he is not a practicing Catholic, all of his deeper connections with those around him have roots in his devotion to and relationship with God. In fact, Augustine even goes as far as to say that everyone who has expressed kindness towards him has only done so because of God’s love flowing through them. Because of this belief, Augustine is only able to form lasting connections with others once he has attained religious fulfillment and solidified his relationship with God. In this paper, I will argue that Augustine’s Catholicism is the key that allows him to form community and interpersonal bonds in the Confessions. …show more content…
It was she who had him baptized, and she who was his primary caregiver during the course of his childhood. While describing the ways in which she cared for him, Augustine also is sure to note that her good deeds were really the works of God being transmitted through her, claiming that “good which came to [him] from [her]…was not from [her] but through [her]” because “all good things come from…God” (Augustine 8-9). He also asserts that his mother (as a Christian) was his father’s “moral superior”, and all throughout his boyhood, Monica is the only figure towards whom Augustine shows any real affection (Augustine 11). As he becomes a teenager and starts becoming more interested in Earthly pleasures, Augustine describes how God speaks through his mother to warn him of the dangers of an immoral lifestyle, and the impact such a lifestyle would have on his soul. However, Augustine does not heed this advice, and goes on to join the Manichees and drift further from God. As he distances himself from his religion, he also distances himself from his mother, at one point even abandoning her in Carthage to set sail for Rome in pursuit of his “ambitious desires”, and leaving her “crazed with grief” and “groaning for the child she had …show more content…
Though both men are Manichees, their bond is evidently very strong, contradicting the relationship between strong connections and strong Christian beliefs that Augustine sets up. Upon his death, Augustine is distraught, dedicating pages of the Confessions to describing the grief that he feels, describing how it “darkened his heart” (Augustine 57) and how he “was in misery and had lost the source of [his] joy” (Augustine 58). However, while Augustine admits his strong attachment to him, he describes their bond as “less than a true friendship”, which is impossible “unless you bond together those who cleave to one another by the love which is ‘poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’”, and later notes that he loved him “on the basis of human judgment, not [God’s] judgment” (Augustine 56, 65). He also goes on to claim that the reason for his attachment to his friend was because he saw a part of God in him, claiming that “if souls please [him], they are being loved in God” because “‘Him we love; he made these things and is not far distant’” (Augustine 63). This theory is partially supported by the fact that his friend was baptized and had accepted Christianity a few days prior to his death. Much like Augustine desired the pears that he stole in his youth because they were the work of
While Saint Augustine is able to form some superficial relationships with his peers while he is not a practicing Catholic, all of his deeper connections with those around him have roots in his devotion to and relationship with God. In fact, Augustine even goes as far as to say that everyone who has expressed kindness towards him has only done so because of God’s love flowing through them. Because of this belief, Augustine is only able to form lasting connections with others once he has attained religious fulfillment and solidified his relationship with God. In this paper, I will argue that Augustine’s Catholicism is the key that allows him to form community and interpersonal bonds in the Confessions. …show more content…
It was she who had him baptized, and she who was his primary caregiver during the course of his childhood. While describing the ways in which she cared for him, Augustine also is sure to note that her good deeds were really the works of God being transmitted through her, claiming that “good which came to [him] from [her]…was not from [her] but through [her]” because “all good things come from…God” (Augustine 8-9). He also asserts that his mother (as a Christian) was his father’s “moral superior”, and all throughout his boyhood, Monica is the only figure towards whom Augustine shows any real affection (Augustine 11). As he becomes a teenager and starts becoming more interested in Earthly pleasures, Augustine describes how God speaks through his mother to warn him of the dangers of an immoral lifestyle, and the impact such a lifestyle would have on his soul. However, Augustine does not heed this advice, and goes on to join the Manichees and drift further from God. As he distances himself from his religion, he also distances himself from his mother, at one point even abandoning her in Carthage to set sail for Rome in pursuit of his “ambitious desires”, and leaving her “crazed with grief” and “groaning for the child she had …show more content…
Though both men are Manichees, their bond is evidently very strong, contradicting the relationship between strong connections and strong Christian beliefs that Augustine sets up. Upon his death, Augustine is distraught, dedicating pages of the Confessions to describing the grief that he feels, describing how it “darkened his heart” (Augustine 57) and how he “was in misery and had lost the source of [his] joy” (Augustine 58). However, while Augustine admits his strong attachment to him, he describes their bond as “less than a true friendship”, which is impossible “unless you bond together those who cleave to one another by the love which is ‘poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’”, and later notes that he loved him “on the basis of human judgment, not [God’s] judgment” (Augustine 56, 65). He also goes on to claim that the reason for his attachment to his friend was because he saw a part of God in him, claiming that “if souls please [him], they are being loved in God” because “‘Him we love; he made these things and is not far distant’” (Augustine 63). This theory is partially supported by the fact that his friend was baptized and had accepted Christianity a few days prior to his death. Much like Augustine desired the pears that he stole in his youth because they were the work of