Saint Augustine's Confessions

Saint Augustine (d. 430) was one of the most influential members of the early Christian church. He was skilled at oration, learned in the liberal arts, and was fond of the philosophies of Neo-Platonism. In the year 397, Augustine began the work Confessions, an autobiography, which depicted his conversion to Christianity. His conversion to Christianity follows the path of one searching for truth. His account in Confessions relies heavily on the Bible. Throughout his life, the Bible meant different things to him. Although Augustine view of the Bible changed throughout his life, the Bible ultimately shapes Augustine’s account of his conversion to be spiritually motivated. This essay will look at Augustine’s view of the Bible as a Manichaean, …show more content…
Augustine had issues with Christians taking the Bible as scripture. On of his problems was: “When I thought of you, my mental image was not of anything solid and firm; it was not you but a vain phantom.” This describes one of the confusions that the Manicheans had with the Bible. It was difficult to have a God without form when “God created man in his own image.” This, to the Manicheans, showed that God had a form after which humans were based. This comes from the reading of the Bible through a literal lens. Looking through this one lens caused the Manicheans to see the world in a different light than the Christians. Additionally, the use of the words ‘vain phantom’ demonstrate what Augustine has issues with. He imagines God as a phantom, not of reality, but this phantom has power and might over reality. This highlights the problem that Augustine had as a Manichean, because he saw God as above this world and formless, but the Bible told him otherwise. Augustine was confused spiritually as to what he should believe in, so he viewed the Bible as in the wrong, and his beliefs as correct. This became the truth to him, and he believed it. However, he did eventually come to doubt the teachings of Mani. Augustine came to doubt “whether Mani’s words offered a possible explanation consistent with the changes of longer and shorter days and nights.” In this passage, Augustine begins to really doubt whether Mani’s teachings correctly explain the world, as Augustine had studied philosophers who provided the equations by which one could determine when celestial events would happen without the intervention of faith. Since Augustine comes to doubt Mani’s teaching, he at one point he believed them. This means that he did not view the Bible as scripture since according to Mani it was not scripture. Augustine had his spirituality thrown into the