Confessions continue

  • Repeatedly almost gets baptized until he is finally converted→ does get baptized→ more significant, like how baptisms were back then, renewal

Difference of interpretations

  • sinful babies- ppl thought that only if you were baptized can you participate in eternal afterlife, otherwise you would go to Hell (at the time, represented nothingness like in the Odyssey, not torment yet until Dante)

    • othering in the afterlife

    • these were the only 2 options once you have been exposed to the knowledge of Christ

    • infant mortalities were high→ if these kids aren’t baptized might go to hell→ though Augustine believed in getting baptized when you are old enough to have a choice, most Christians moved over to the idea of infant baptism

    • Some Christians thought these baptized babies would end up in Limbo→ nothingness, Hell=torment, others thought they would go straight to Heaven b/c of this

  • Go through process of acquiring knowledge, but knowledge only takes you so far→ need faith

    • learn to speak

    • reading (schooling)

      • talks about this being problematic b/c they would learn how to read Latin and Greek (Greek eventually dropped out)→ his teachers would beat him all the time (might be an over exaggeration but he wants to pain himself as the bad kid)

      • If you are learning b/c you want to learn, it will be more efficient, but if you don’t want to learn something and are forced to you won’t like it

      • He didn’t care about the content, only the emotional effects, like Dido’s story (she’s in Carthage, he’s in Carthage)→ content vs packaging

      • He says he was best at rhetoric, being persuasive, but he didn’t think he needed real content for that

      • says he cheated at games all the time→ every kid cheats

  • His parents just wanted to be educated, his mom would give him warnings but not follow up→ he’s blaming his parents

  • Says the worst thing he ever did was steal a bunch of pears from the shopkeeper

    • he didn’t even eat them himself, threw them to the pigs→ waste

    • symbolic point→ demonstration of concupiscence b/c he did this just to do something bad

    • tree + fruits but he doesn’t eat it

  • A lot of religions take intent + deliberation into consideration when it comes to sin, but for a long time, Catholicism stuck to the idea that ignorance does not make something less of a sin

  • He used to love the theatre and hung out with the gang (the Wreckers) that would do more violent things than he and he would feel guilt for not doing bad→ like serpent pressuring Eve to eat the fruit

  • He starts to care more about content→ this text, Hortensius by Cicero (now lost) was the first thing he read where the style and content both called to him

Big Detour- Manichees

  • was a thing around this time, spread really quickly

  • Mani was a jew living in Persia, like a Universalist/Unitarian, tried to bring together a lot of different influences

  • Romans did not want to allow it, tried to make it illegal but people did this openly in Carthage, around until medieval period

  • in the beginning, there was this dichotomy of good and evil, light and dark, but then some of the evil conquered some of the good and mixed, kinda like how Gnostics believed that material had more bad than good, especially in animals and humans→ no eating flesh

  • Even though vegetables had more light and dark, still bad to harvest, would only eat foods non-Manichees harvested b/c didn’t want to do it themselves

  • Didn’t like marriage b/c procreation = partaking in desires of the flesh

  • some denied Christ had been crucified, that he was holy? idk didn’t support him

  • Manichees himself seems to have been crucified, maybe upside down, stuffed w/ straw as he decayed to make him seem like more of a person→ more of a warning

Turning Point:

  • supposed great speaker Faustus but Augustine thought it was meh

  • realized content is also important, styles w/o content is not good enough anymore

  • questioning Manicheeism, was a teacher at this point b/c was a great student b/4

  • hates his students→ decided to move to Rome

  • leaves in the middle of the night to go to Rome w/o warning, like Aeneas→ positive of what Aeneas becomes but also his flaws, like how Aeneas was subject to desires, wants to become a better person

  • omits details of the story until more relevant→ pops out that he’s had several mistresses, has a kid

  • still hanging out w/ Manichees a little but starts to become subjected to philosopy

    • Neoplatonism, more metaphorical twist, look for Plato’s ideas in other literature

      • had art representations of a good individual, light, with darkness all around them

      • would take stories about Greek gods and say the gods themselves weren’t doing all that but that they said things about the world

    • looking for truth and beauty everywhere

  • hates teaching in Rome b/c good students but they stop coming to lectures on day when tuition is due→ free education

  • likes Epicureanism despite others not liking it, says he doesn’t like that soul dies in Epicureanism

  • Alypius’ vice is the games, like Augustine’s is carnal desire

  • Augustine plans to get married but ends up broken off

  • his mom shows up and we start to see her development

  • Ambrose (sometimes called a saint) is a Christian centered guy, the dominant Christian authority at the time and Augustine ends up working with him a lot, Ambrose is one of few people at the time that can read silently

  • Main problem with Christianity is how Christ and also God could be human, none of the philosophy he has read gives him a good enough answer→ keeps him from having faith

  • his mom has also had a transformation→ drinks wine all the time but Ambrose is against wine in Church except in communion→ instantly changes her life (counts as one of her miracles but shows transformation in Christianity)

  • He prays to God for chastity and continence “but not yet”

  • one day, sitting underneath fig tree and crying→ fig trees often connected w/ faith→ hears a child singing “take it and read” → reads Paul’s letters b/c first thing available to him→ becomes a convert

    • seems random but long passage

    • goes to Alypius, who also reads a passage and becomes a convert

    • moved to country and starts writing

    • eventually gets baptized with his son