Augustine's Confessions - Essay Example

Augustines Confessions St. Augustine is philosopher from the 14th century who is better known for his exceptional work which intertwined Neo-Platonism with the Christian doctrine. He’s made a mark in history for having an unparalleled knowledge as a catholic theologian along with his agnostic views and their impact on the Western philosophy. St. Augustine is widely regarded as the most important theologian of the ancient church and his confessions, a seminal work. His confession is a spiritual auto biography, which covered the initial 35 years of the saint’s life. The work takes a deeper look on how Augustine developed his spiritual side and how he came to accept Christianity as his chosen faith. The work i.e. Augustine’s Confessions is an extremely varied mixture of not just philosophy and theology but also Augustine’s autobiographical accounts along with an acute exegesis of the Bible. The confessions are further categorized into 13 different volumes. The first nine books delve into Augustine’s life and his story. The 10th book is his exploration of memory while the 11th book takes an analytical look at the very first verse found in the Genesis where God began the creation of the world. The 12th book follows up with a deeper look at the second verse from the Genesis with a particularly heavily focus on the word Christ. It also looks into how the scripture can be understood and deduced. The 13th and last book talks about the seven days which were taken to create the world. For Augustine, we are depraved sinner deserving of eternal damnation. Our sinful and self-serving nature was a consequence of Adam and eves sin against God. The saint’s work is an insightful account of the inner workings of a human’s mind and basic human psychology. It gives us a better idea and basis for all human guilt and suffering by allowing that it is because of their deeds that human beings actually deserve whatever bad happens to them. “Human beings deserve to suffer because the first parents sinned. And since humanity deserves the bad things it gets, humanity can comfort itself with the idea that it has a just rather than an unjust God. This made the presence of evil in the world easier to understand, and answered the question of why a benevolent God would allow such a state of affairs to exist.” (Warner, p.63) I disagree with the theory given by Augustine after reading his all autobiographies, he says that “evil is the absence of good and then he says that God who is supposed to be good is everywhere. By saying, evil is the absence of good, Augustine is implying that there is such a thing as evil and that it does exist, and that it exists when good is absent. Now what he is saying is that evil exists and it exists when good is not present. So he is saying that there is such a place which is ‘not-good’ and if it is ‘not-good’ then it is also not-God, meaning that God is not everywhere, or that evil is a part of God, or that evil has an independent existence from God. And then he says, God is perfect and would not create evil as an independent entity, as that would contradict his nature” (OUP, p. 44). Muslim believes that Allah is everywhere there is no one except Allah. According to Qurans view there is no private conversation of three except that He is the forth of them, nor are there five but that He is sixth of them and no less than that and no except that He is with them where ever they are. Augustine said or justified sin after saying human beings deserve to suffer because the first parents sinned. I also disagree this argument because in Islam Muslims believe that God gave freewill to human beings so that they could use their own judgment before acting. If a man chooses to go against God and to abuse this freedom that God has given him then he will have to face the consequences and his actions will be registered as evil acts i.e. sins. The way we act and the freedom that we demonstrate affects others around us and vice versa. If we read Islamic history, one will come to know that many prophets embraced Islam after rejecting their forefather religion who worshiped statues. For example prophet Ibrahim his father was a well known idol sculpture and worshiper of these statues himself, but prophet Ibrahim in search for the truth he found the right way of life, he embraced Islam and rejected his forefathers religion. Mosses spent his childhood at the Pharaohs palace but was a follower of one God, so we can say God give sense to man differentiate between the good and evil, so there is no justification to do evil as St. Augustine portrayed in his books. Judaism also puts forth that all humans are essentially created with freewill, as in, they are allowed to make decision on their own after coming to a conclusion with their own common sense. They are created in a morally neutral state and it is their choice which way the pendulum of their personality decides to swing. Human beings are created with the ability to distinguish good from bad and right from wrong and ergo can make decisions as to the path they want to walk in life. At this point it is important to acknowledge that though teaching good maybe hard, it is not impossible. There’s almost always a way for a person to return to good if he/she wants it badly enough. (James, p. 23) Buddhist school of thought on the other hand preaches an approach which focuses more on the consequences of one’s action rather than focusing on one’s action against or duty towards a divine entity. The main idea behind Buddhism is that there should be compassion in one’s heart for all sentient beings. One should avoid causing suffering for others and take it upon themselves to do good because it is these good deeds that will result in their own ultimate happiness. This is the path that leads them to nirvana. Buddhism is closely linked to secular ideals. There is no concept of sin in actuality in Buddhism as the faith relies more on consequences. One cannot find Abraham’s equivalent of a sin in Buddhism. By law of Buddhism we are introduced to the theory of karma which basically works as a balancer bringing good to those who have been good and bringing bad fortune to those who haven’t been good. The idea is to infuse selflessness in place of greed and build upon compassion and wisdom. (Charles, p. 11) If we summarize Bible perspective on human nature, it says that human nature does not have a singular nature; if it is good then it is also bad. Humanity in entirety has a nature which provokes it to sin. This basically means that humanity has a characteristic which shows disobedience to God. Humans do have freewill which means that they have a choice when it comes to both good and bad deeds. God has bestowed freewill on all able humans. Human can decide whether they want to be good and follow the path that Jesus Christ set out for them; and accept that he was sent as a blessing to all of mankind and as a savior. In the end according to my understanding I think Augustine point of view on human nature is closer to that of the Bible but still I favor the Islamic point of view in which Quran dictates that it was God i.e. Allah that created man from nothing but a clot of blood. It is the same Allah that brought to life the jinn from the depths of fire. The Quran asserts that as per Islam, humans are the greatest of all of God’s creations (including the jinn) because they have been created with free will. It is this free will that makes them unique (Quran, 96:1-3). Allah (one God) created man with sense to differentiate between the good and bad. This world is a place where humans are testified to select between the good and evil the way of good is difficult and trouble but the way of evil is attractive and easy. The way of good is the way to God and the way of evil (committing sin) takes man away from God and the way to Hell. It is the human pride that makes them try and place themselves on an equal footing as God, and therefore devalue the unilateral position of God. In terms of Islam, Pride is the worst of all sins and is in fact the cardinal sin. The cardinal virtue on the other hand has more to do with complete submission to God. References Charles, G. 2009. “Consequences of Compassion: An interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics” Oxford University Press James, K., 2000.”The first book of Moses called Genesis” New York American Bible Society Press. Oxford dictionary of the Christian church 2005.”original sin” Oxford University press. Qur’an 20:122-23, 57:4,58:7,7:23,7:25,96:1-3 Warner, R. 1963. "The Confessions of St. Augustine” New York :Penguin Books. Read More