St. Augustine Essay

As I read St. Augustine’s Confessions, I noticed a strong recurring theme. In everything that Augustine did or tried, he was accompanied by misery. Even in things that gave him joy, he found a unexplainable bitterness. Augustine’s question for his misery was in fact answered within the very first paragraph of the work. Looking back on his life, Augustine remarks, “You [God] stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests…

Sophocles Concept of Eternal Law and Goods Shown in Antigone and Into the Wild In The Problem of Free Choice, St. Augustine describes two types of laws, temporal and eternal. Augustine believes temporal laws are made by the state and can change overtime. In contrast, eternal laws are laws that came about through reason. They can never be changed. There are also two types of goods, temporal and eternal. Temporal goods are not permanent, but eternal goods are. The concept of eternal law and…

as it was turning into the medieval period, Augustine lived in the “late antiquity” days. He is a fascinating figure who brings together almost four centuries of debate and consolidation concerning Christian doctrine, while stemming from teachings of Plato, making himself a pivotal philosopher. He had a yearn for happiness and introspection, which is evidence to how powerful his mind truly is. With contribution entirely to the grace of God, Augustine created the mold that other great minds…

Theologian and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225, Roccasecca, Italy. There is no exact date recorded of his birth, all we have is the year. He was the youngest of eight siblings and his family members were descendants the emperors Frederick I and Henry VI. He died on March 7, 1274 at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanova, near Terracina, Latium, Papal States, Italy. As for his education, he attended university of Paris and University of Naples Federico II. He received the…

The first nine books are autobiographical and the other four are commentary. Although it is hard for historians to know exactly why Saint Augustine wrote this work, it is clear to understand that the work was offered as a form of guideline for how to convert to Christianity. St Augustine evidently needed some self-justification which perhaps could be a possible motivation for the books. This is because he had a rapid ascension from priest to bishop, meaning that…

Petrarch imagines one side of his personality to be self-disciplined and judgmental similar to St Augustine, and his alter ego Franciscus, who he recognized as much more mortal and imperfect, much more humanistic. Through his inner struggle he brings up his most inner battles, how he knows he has done wrong but he must devoutly desire to no longer do…

the ‘classics’. However, just because the applicability of Classical Political Thought is not always glaringly obvious, this does not result in an absence of all relevance. In fact, the thoughts of ‘classical’ philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Augustine…

We live in a world where our possessions are a symbol of success. The bigger the car the louder that speaks about your bank account. Most people buy things as just something to do here in America. We are a particularly wasteful society. There is an uneven distribution of wealth and the poor can live right in the same neighborhood as the ultra rich. Most of the people here plan their lives around what will make them successful. They use the word success as a way of saying “well off enough to buy…

the world. A way to show devotion to God was to humble themselves and have humility. They would put themselves at a very low rank in comparison to God. They were not to be prideful, but humble. “The first grade of humility is obedience without delay” (St. Benedict, Cp.1 pg.8). This quote shows that having humility, the desire to lower one’s own importance, is a big way to show loyalty to God which makes one good. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic priest, had another way of showing people how to be…

Peppers-Bates Paper #1 November 3, 2017 Malebranche: Occasional Causation Nicolas Malebranche, a French Catholic theologian, was a philosopher who was both highly admired and criticized. His works, which stemmed and expanded upon his mentors St. Augustine and Descartes, attempted to demonstrate and explain the active role God plays in every aspect of the world. Malebranche is best known for his doctrines: Occasionalism - which states that God is the only genuine causal agent in the universe,…