Augustine's Confessions Book III Response

Augustine’s Confessions Book III Response In Book Three of Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine recounts what he considers to be the lowest point in his life, the “climax of [his] enjoyment(CH1)”. He recalls how malicious influences continued to haunt him, and that even when he found good influences, he found something in them inexcusably dissatisfying. Augustine is now around the age of eighteen and in Carthage. He has fallen even farther down the slippery slope of lust and sinful indulgence, while also attending tragedies, which he attributes to the further depression of his status. Eventually, he realized that he needed to look at his philosophy and try to figure out how to be satisfied with himself. He finds encouragement in the essay Hortensius, and it produced in him the desire for wisdom that is philosophy. The fatal flaw that he found in Cicero’s work, though, was that it made no mention of God or Christ whatsoever. At this point, he finally turns to the Bible, but finds it inexorably boring and distastefully mysterious. Thus he makes the worst decision of his life and joins the sect of the Manichees. …show more content…
It’s hard to research such things without first hand experience, which is why it is so easy to fall into the snare of their views. I have not attempted this because of my subconscious fear that I will be attracted by the initial appearance of beauty and energy that each has to keep me for a while, if they have some point for which I am not prepared. In other ways, I am curious how I would fair against an onslaught of my faith. What if my passion is in arguing for God? How will I know if I never go out of my comfort zone to refine my philosophy? I could spend hours in my Bible, and be satisfied myself in my own philosophy as an individual, but if my ideas are limited, I will be ignorant of an issue which is ultra-present in others