The incredible religion of Christianity is an area of study that requires an extensive amount of effort to master. Even with my encompassing knowledge of Christian history and theology which I gained through advanced religious study classes throughout my life, I still gained valuable and stupendous information regarding the faith. I absorbed very quickly that there is always new information that can be attained even about material that one already has cultured from previous studies. In particular three matters of study highly intrigued me in my search for new knowledge of Christianity. These matters include the remarkable story of St. Augustine’s life and the example he set for modern Christians, the Protestant reformation of Roman Catholic
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He lived a life drastically different from other saints in the Roman Catholic Church. Saint Augustine was born in Thagaste, Rome in 354 C.E. to a Christian mother and a father who worshiped old Roman Pagan Gods (Augustine PP p.2-3). For the majority of Augustine’s life, his mother tried to convince Augustine to convert to Christianity, however, until later in his life he rejected his mother’s proposition (Aug. PP p.3). The fascinating aspect of St. Augustine life is the fact that he didn’t live a very moral life for a long period of time. He committed many serious sins in his lifetime. St. Augustine even had a son named Adeodatus, out of wedlock with a mistress (Aug. PP p.4). St. Augustine eventually decided to become a Christian because he was tremendously unhappy in life and heard a voice that instructed him to read the bible (Aug. PP p.6). He listened to the request from the voice and had an epiphany (Aug. PP p.6). From this point on St. Augustine changed his life around and sought forgiveness for his sins. The lessons we learn from his life are immensely important for all Christians to understand along with any party studying the faith. His life story is very insightful on how Christians view salvation in modern times, it displays the Christian belief that if you commit sinful actions, …show more content…
Judaism is so central to the Christian faith because Jesus Christ the founder of the faith was a Jew (Weaver 138). Additionally, early Christians kept the Old Testament in the Christian bible to understand this important connection (Weaver 138). In fact, the first Christians were mostly all Jewish and converted to accept Jesus teachings on top of Jewish law (Weaver, p.139). Some of these early Christians followed all of Jewish law, however not all did (Weaver, p.139). Gentiles or people that were not of the Jewish faith originally, used Christianity as a way to get away from following the many Jewish Laws they disliked, especially the Jewish practice of circumcision (Weaver, p.138). This started the first substantial conflict among the first followers of Christ. Due to the fact that nearly all early Christians were Jewish and followed Jewish practices many early Christians believed that you needed to become a Jew first to become a Christian (Weaver, p.138). In spite of this Gentiles disagreed and believed that it was not necessary to become Jewish first to join Christianity (Weaver, p.138). Gentiles wanted to join the new faith and distant themselves from practicing full Jewish Law (Weaver, p.138). Eventfully, the result of this immense conflict was the acceptance of Gentiles into the
He lived a life drastically different from other saints in the Roman Catholic Church. Saint Augustine was born in Thagaste, Rome in 354 C.E. to a Christian mother and a father who worshiped old Roman Pagan Gods (Augustine PP p.2-3). For the majority of Augustine’s life, his mother tried to convince Augustine to convert to Christianity, however, until later in his life he rejected his mother’s proposition (Aug. PP p.3). The fascinating aspect of St. Augustine life is the fact that he didn’t live a very moral life for a long period of time. He committed many serious sins in his lifetime. St. Augustine even had a son named Adeodatus, out of wedlock with a mistress (Aug. PP p.4). St. Augustine eventually decided to become a Christian because he was tremendously unhappy in life and heard a voice that instructed him to read the bible (Aug. PP p.6). He listened to the request from the voice and had an epiphany (Aug. PP p.6). From this point on St. Augustine changed his life around and sought forgiveness for his sins. The lessons we learn from his life are immensely important for all Christians to understand along with any party studying the faith. His life story is very insightful on how Christians view salvation in modern times, it displays the Christian belief that if you commit sinful actions, …show more content…
Judaism is so central to the Christian faith because Jesus Christ the founder of the faith was a Jew (Weaver 138). Additionally, early Christians kept the Old Testament in the Christian bible to understand this important connection (Weaver 138). In fact, the first Christians were mostly all Jewish and converted to accept Jesus teachings on top of Jewish law (Weaver, p.139). Some of these early Christians followed all of Jewish law, however not all did (Weaver, p.139). Gentiles or people that were not of the Jewish faith originally, used Christianity as a way to get away from following the many Jewish Laws they disliked, especially the Jewish practice of circumcision (Weaver, p.138). This started the first substantial conflict among the first followers of Christ. Due to the fact that nearly all early Christians were Jewish and followed Jewish practices many early Christians believed that you needed to become a Jew first to become a Christian (Weaver, p.138). In spite of this Gentiles disagreed and believed that it was not necessary to become Jewish first to join Christianity (Weaver, p.138). Gentiles wanted to join the new faith and distant themselves from practicing full Jewish Law (Weaver, p.138). Eventfully, the result of this immense conflict was the acceptance of Gentiles into the