The ConfessionsSt. Augustine (354-430

CE)

Prepared by:Dr. Kay Picart

Assistant Professor of English & Humanities

Biography/Historical Backdrop

Born in Thagaste Trained as a rhetorician product of a religiously mixed

marriage Monnica (Catholic) and Patricius

(agnostic) initially a hedonist

Augustine’s parents deliver him to the schoolmaster

Additional Sites

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine(Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Saint Augustine

Biography/Historical Backdrop

Lived with an unnamed woman, had a son, “Adeodatus” (“gift of Baal”)

attracted to Manicheism--founded by Mani (Babylonian; claimed to be the Holy Spirit; crucified as a heretic)

The Problem of Evil

How can one reconcile the presence of a Christian God who is:• Omnipotent (all powerful)• Omniscient (all knowing)• Omnibenevolent (all caring)• with Evil in the world?

The Problem of Evil

Perhaps He is not omnipotent even if he were omniscient and omnibenevolent

Mani’s dualism: the principles of light & darkness

asceticism: the barest necessities

Augustine’s Conversion

Foreshadowing:

Augustine’s primary sins:

Augustine’s Conversion

child’s voice:

Similarities: Plato & Augustine

The two wills

Guide Questions for Dante’s Inferno (Jan. 31, NOT Jan. 29):

Do you see any similarities/differences b/w Dante’s vision of hell and the movie, Seven?

Do you see any similarities between Dante and Augustine (hint: they are both confessions of sins in some senses)?