## Question #1: Reflect on Augustine’s writings on love, lust, and the stage.
Augustine writes about his predilection for bodily pleasures at a time when he should have been focused on “the moderate way of the love of mind to mind.” I have what may be quite a unique perspective on Augustine’s confession of carnal lust. Having been surrounded from childhood by individuals who pursue the same lusts as Augustine, I can see the pain and suffering caused by the sin of fornication. I am not claiming to be free from sin, by any means, but I will stick with my reflections on love, lust, and the stage from the perspective of chastity. In my eyes, from the frame of reference of adolescence, it appears to me that lust is simply an incarnation of the stage. One desires to be lusted after and to be seen as being ‘lust-worthy’. Both of these extremes avoid the middle path of love. It is possible for love to remain on the “bright path of friendship”, as Augustine describes, but this seems difficult to attain, especially in current times. What most people call love has become th
e center stage for a game to determine who can be the most sinful without appearing to be sinful. I myself have struggled all of my life to maintain what I feel to be pure affection wherever I find it, however there are those who are willing to shortcut pure love in exchange for passion. This makes it very difficult to find true love, and ironically, easier to be a virtuous person on the condition that one doesn’t become impatient. Love would then be seen as a virtue from an Aristotelian perspective of virtue as a mean between extremes of seriousness and passion.
## Question #2: What does sin teach us about morality and social responsibility?
Augustine‘s writing about sin enlightened me about the nature of sin. Some sins are for shame others are for some other motive. Most sins are committed in mischevious company. One thing that Augustine didn’t seem to mention was the influence of the deceiver of hearts. He mentions that “our hearts were tickled at the thought of deceiving the owners” but he doesn’t take it another step further and try to discover why his heart was ‘tickled’. Did he feel that it was some inherent problem with his soul? The doctrine of Original Sin was around during his time and so this might be a likely reason. He had no reason to suspect that anything other than his very soul was in error and that It was his duty to love god in exchange for god’s forgiveness. What if the error wasn’t in his soul, but rather in which tickles of the heart he listened to? It seems to me that it is our social responsibility to guard ourselves against listening to the mischevious tickles of the heart and to open our heart
s to the more just of tickles.
## Question #3: Reflect on present day carnal entertainment.
Rome went through momentous upheaval while gladiatorial games were in heavy swing. Julius Caesar utilized the gladiatorial games to promote his politics to the people of Rome. Bacchus cults were also popular at the time. Today, drinking and UFC fights are gaining in popularity. It is clear that gladiatorial combat and drinking both stir the lower emotions, bring a haze over intellectualization, and debase many moral standards. That is not to even describe the spiritual detriment of promoting cruelty and heavy intoxication. Gladiatorial combat and drinking go against the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. It is not wise to depart very far from temperance for it leads to injustice and the lack of courage to stand for the other cardinal virtues due to the peer pressures such as those faced by Alypius. Indeed, even the combatants themselves are being vain in their pursuit of being the best.
## Question #6: Compare the happiness of the drunken beggar to the happiness of Augustine.
The drunk had a sort of happiness that stems from bodily pleasure whereas Augustine, at that time, was seeking after a happiness that stemmed from ambition for glory. The drunk had attained his happiness and was content, whereas Augustine was still discontent due to his “cares and alarms.” Whereas the drunk would sober up before the night would be over, Augustine would fall asleep and wake up drunk from his drinking. The story also served the purpose of demonstrating the completeness of simple happiness compared to the pursuit of prideful glory. The drunk was complete in his happiness whereas Augustine was anxious due to his worries. Augustine included the story of the drunk to distinguish between bodily joy and true joy which Augustine said could only be found in god. He noted that both the drunk’s joy and his own glory in rhetoric were both far from the true joy of glory in god.
## Question #13: Explain any personal changes caused by reading Confessions.
Reading Confessions by Augustine did cause some changes in my mind. It was my first exposure to the writings of a Christian Saint. I have read parts of the Bible and all of the Old Testament, so I am not completely unfamiliar with the framework within which Augustine lived. It was interesting to notice that many of the questions Augustine had about god were similar to those I have had. It seems likely that those very questions are asked by many people who consider the true nature of reality. I enjoyed reading his analysis of the nature of god and our relationship to him. I loved to read what Augustine had to say about the non-dogmatic ways in which persons should conduct themselves in regards to god. “… the only human society that is righteous is one which obeys you.” As for any personal changes from reading this book: I have learned to appreciate the opportunities that every individual have, throughout the course of their lives, to return to god and to know what he commands for them. Augustin
e said “blessed are those who know what you command” for good reason – it is nearly impossible for most contemporary people (especially considering the amount of distraction available to us now) to know what actions would fit most in line with what god would command in any given scenario. This concept has lead me to delve deeper into my own religion so that I may learn better what it is that god asks of us. Another interesting thing I have noticed, after reading Confessions, is that I have to expend more effort to speak in a manner that fits in with parts of our culture that think “god is dead.” In fact, I would love for Confessions to be shared with juvenile prison inmates so that they may have the chance to see that their situations are not that dissimilar from a man who is considered a saint.
## Question #7: Knowing oneself and its relation to Augustine.
If one does not examine one’s own life, one can never completely know where one has come from nor where one is going. Without those two central elements no person’s life would be self-directed and therefore would not likely end up producing any feeling of self-worth. Such a life would not be worth living. Augustine, throughout his book, was examining his life and how he had reached the point at which he came to accept god. Apparently, it was not until he had reached that point that he felt his life had any true worth. He understood his previous searches for glory and joy as not being full enough: “Nearly nine years passed in which I wallowed in the mud of that deep pit and in the darkness of falsehood, striving often to rise, but being all the more heavily dashed down.” Merton’s quote “one must confront the false self before coming to know the true self” speaks directly to the sort of life experience that Augustine had. He had to come to a realization that he was a creature in god’s c
reation and that he had a purpose above worldly attainment. The search for worldly glory could be considered the desire of the false self and the desire for god’s glory could be considered the true self. The entire book could then be considered as Augustine’s quest to discover his true self.
## Question #10: What do you think of Augustine’s life journey?
I truly like Augustine – his story would be worthy reading for many people. His life reflects the life of many people in contemporary times. Augustine succumbed to the temptations that test everyone in our times. He intoxicated himself, fell to lust, sought vain glory, and sinned solely for the sake of sinning. Interestingly, one thing that I did not notice at all in Confessions (especially considering the religious content of the book) was a dogmatic explanation for why he was sinning. He described his theft of pears as being a sin for sins sake, but why would he want to sin in the first place? He said all it took was someone saying “let’s do it” but he did not consider from where even that motive came from. Much emphasis was placed by Augustine on his acknowledgement of having committed sin and his explanation of his own motives for committing sin. What I found to be missing was the source of all temptation to do wrong, which ultimately comes from a source external to the self. It is odd t
o me that the very same entity that tempted Adam and Eve and angered god was not mentioned as a possible cause for the temptations of Augustine (or anyone). It seems to me that it would be quite difficult to resist the temptation to do wrong if one were to consider only the outcome of the sin and quite easy to forget the consequences of the sin without remembering that there is a source of temptation that speaks from within and is not yet part of the self. This would likely only make sense in a religious sense. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist” is a quote I have heard before and I do not know the original author of the quote. It is much easier, in my opinion, to be on guard against temptation if one knows that one’s own desires are being taking advantage of, rather than a built in human error. If we had no free will we would be no different from a mountain, which serves only the purpose it was created to fill. Humans were created in such a
way that we can choose which purpose to serve. Augustine’s life journey, to me, ought to be a classical study of the ways in which humans can swerve from a higher purpose and yet have the chance to redeem themselves by returning to that higher purpose.
## Question #8: What does the call to holiness mean to you?
The call to holiness means to strive to do that which god asks of us - to be spiritually pure, to do good deeds, and to remember god. These three things seem to be the easiest route to having an ethical society. For the many that do not agree with the concept of god or are confused about god and therefore cannot remember god, it becomes much more difficult follow the call to holiness. In such a case, the call to holiness becomes a call to “know ourselves” and to live according to that which preserves the self without corrupting others
