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Title: Philosophical Essay
Augustine was a great Christian philosopher of Ancient times. He was a saint of the Catholic Church and has made a lasting and most profound influence in theology and Christianity. The views of Augustine on freedom, sin, sexuality, and grace would be hardly overvalued. He has spent years analyzing human life and his relationship with God. However, he has spent his life in transformation, and that is the reason he has received criticism from humanists and liberals in the twenty-first century ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). He has spent a lifetime analyzing the life and cultural features of Western civilization. He has great knowledge regarding ancient philosophy and cultural traditions. He has escaped from life to understand the cultural ideals and has spent a life of celibacy. He was a great philosopher and has provided his views and opinions on theology, philosophy, and culture, particularly prevailed in Western. This paper will describe the early modern philosophical readings of Augustine, and the evaluation of beliefs and faith would be discussed from an ethical point of view.
Life of Augustine
Born in year 354 AD in the Roman prince of Numidia, Augustine has spent a life in a family that was called as Berber by the scholars. His mother was a sincere Christian, and his father was a pagan. He has no desires for his father, or he considers him a stranger in his home ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). These ethnic groups were indigenous to North Africa. He has lived a life of honor, pride, and honoring God. He has deep thoughts regarding the human heart and desires. He often called this a matter of selection in which man selects desires of the impatient heart ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). He said human beings should have to prefer to obey sincerely to their God. His family preferred to speak Latin at home and considered it as a matter of pride that they are retaining their culture ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). Various studies have shown that the life of Augustine was not stable and has suffered many defamation and interruption from pagans in this regard.
Augustine was a free and open man at the time of his teens. He was impressed by his mother and her sincerity to Christianity. She was the reason Augustine converted himself into a saint and struggled to become a good Christian. He had a great desire to learn and explore the human relationship with God and has strong feelings for his religious wisdom. He selected philosophy and theology to explore because of his religious wisdom, beliefs, faith, and threatening ambiguous relationship with his parents. He also sought to reintroduce the gospel of human's absolute necessity and the copious grace of God.
Confessions
The life of infancy was reflected as full of violent behaviors and childhood. He has described his life in detail in a book Confessions ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). It was a book of traditional autobiography, but this book is considered as the most recommended book for autobiography in a modern age by scholars. He said childhood is a period full of joy and violent behaviors ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). He started literature and scripture in adulthood. He explored Christianity through scripture and literature. He has committed various kinds of sins that have been mentioned in the book ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). Augustine considered punishment received from parents and teachers was because of his sins. He has mentioned in his book that he and his friends used to steal peers from gardens. He confessed that he has Godless lust in his childhood period.
Human Philosophy
He discussed in his book that Godless behaviors and life would ultimately punish those people in the world. Later he developed a love for God and struggled very hard to spend his life in complete obedience of God. Augustine has described Human psychology as pessimistic since the age of Eve and Adam. He has explained that it is in the human psyche that they cannot control their feelings. Adam and Even have spent their extraordinary life in heaven in obeying their God; however, because of human nature, they were not able to control their desires and ultimately sin. He has associated his thoughts and opinions with the human philosophy linked with the original sin ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). He has described concepts regarding the philosophy of human nature that they are rebellions and will be punished for their evil deeds. However, he has argued that God would not punish people for such feelings that they were not able to control.
Love of God and Faith
Augustine has reflected Love of God as the supreme most power that he loves his creation; therefore, he would not punish people for such things as it would be His Omnibenevolent ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"TgtCxBrW","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Elshtain)","plainCitation":"(Elshtain)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1107,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/3Q7WVSJD"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/3Q7WVSJD"],"itemData":{"id":1107,"type":"article-journal","title":"Augustine","container-title":"The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology","page":"41-53","author":[{"family":"Elshtain","given":"Jean Bethke"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Elshtain). Augustine has emphasized in the texts that humans cannot preordained for natural sins, and only God can. According to roman 7, that states 'Humans want to do good deeds, but because of their nature, they usually do not carry it" ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). This statement represents that human nature is weak, and therefore, they have to ask for redemption and forgiveness from God, and it represents the faith of Augustine.
Augustine’s Platonism
Augustine expresses his views regarding the age of eighteen Cicero’s protreptic discourse Hortensius irritated him for viewpoint that he has read Aristotle’s and that his transformation was significantly advanced by his Neoplatonic comprehensions also by the literature of Paul. He is additionally believed about Manichean manuscripts, from around 390s forwards the Bible becomes significant for his feelings, in specific Genesis, the Psalms and the Pauline and Johannine texts (however his exegesis rests theoretically saturated), and the developed principle of elegance appears to have developed from a new appraisal of Paul ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau).
Cosmology and Ethics
Augustine has described that the human body is a composition of body and soul. According to ancient philosophers, the human body is flesh, and the actual life-giving element is the soul. Human behaviors are the modification and adaptation of the environment and society. By nature, the human being is pure though they are predestined and are associated with the original sin. This is a soul that controls desires and feelings, and it produces such emotions ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). It is human nature to observe some behaviors of humans, and how they will interpret or perceive depends on human nature. God is the Supreme Good, and the Supreme Being and humans will ultimately become wise if they obey honestly to their God ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau). It has been suggested in the texts of Augustine and ancient scriptures that the soul is a part or segment of God, and it will remain forever ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8M0MJJMC","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Niebuhr)","plainCitation":"(Niebuhr)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1105,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/LKH665WS"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/LKH665WS"],"itemData":{"id":1105,"type":"chapter","title":"Augustine’s political realism","container-title":"Augustine and Modern Law","publisher":"Routledge","page":"273-298","author":[{"family":"Niebuhr","given":"Reinhold"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Niebuhr). A human being is impatient by nature; however, it is not impossible to control one's thoughts and feelings to direct them towards God. Therefore, Augustine has described his faith that he was an impatient and violent person at the start, but he has ultimately started the struggle to become an obedient person. He has inspired many people through his book Confessions, and the texts were impressive and helpful in the conversion of people to become a sincere Christian ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau).
The simple assembly of Augustine's morals is that of antique eudemonism. Nonetheless, he accedes pleasure to the hereafter and blames the early ethicists for the conceited belief that resulted from their unawareness of the tumbled form of humanity. It states that they could spread pleasure in this life by ethical endeavor ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"79HVHBTj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tornau)","plainCitation":"(Tornau)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1104,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/p8kwKNoG/items/9ANDS9LC"],"itemData":{"id":1104,"type":"chapter","title":"Saint Augustine","container-title":"The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","publisher":"Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University","edition":"Winter 2019","source":"Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy","abstract":"Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquityand certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lastinginfluence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority intheological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Agesand remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtuallyuncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views onsin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly beoverrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancientphilosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fiercecriticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, beenvigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries fromvarious (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosopherskeep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas onlanguage, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, onfreedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and,last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, whichis—though of course committed to the truth of biblicalrevelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit ofrelentless inquiry. His most famous work, the Confessiones,is unique in the ancient literary tradition but greatly influenced themodern tradition of autobiography; it is an intriguing piece ofphilosophy from a first-person perspective. Because of his importancefor the philosophical tradition of the Middle Ages he is often listedas the first medieval philosopher. But even though he was born severaldecades after the emperor Constantine I had terminated theanti-Christian persecutions and, in his mature years, saw theanti-pagan and anti-heretic legislation of Theodosius I and his sons,which virtually made Catholic (i.e., Nicene) Christianity the officialreligion of the Roman Empire, Augustine did not live in a“medieval” Christian world. Pagan religious, cultural andsocial traditions were much alive in his congregation, as he oftendeplores in his sermons, and his own cultural outlook was, like thatof most of his learned upper-class contemporaries, shaped by theclassical Latin authors, poets and philosophers whom he studied in theschools of grammar and rhetoric long before he encountered the Bibleand Christian writers. Throughout his work he engages with pre- andnon-Christian philosophy, much of which he knew from firsthand.Platonism in particular remained a decisive ingredient of his thought.He is therefore best read as a Christian philosopher of late antiquityshaped by and in constant dialogue with the classical tradition., Translations from Greek or Latin texts in this entry are by theauthor, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are translatedfrom Augustine’s Latin version; these may differ from the Greekor Hebrew original and/or from the Latin Vulgate.","URL":"https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/","author":[{"family":"Tornau","given":"Christian"}],"editor":[{"family":"Zalta","given":"Edward N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tornau).
Works Cited
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Elshtain, Jean Bethke. “Augustine.” The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, 2019, pp. 41–53.
Niebuhr, Reinhold. “Augustine’s Political Realism.” Augustine and Modern Law, Routledge, 2017, pp. 273–98.
Tornau, Christian. “Saint Augustine.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta, Winter 2019, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2019. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/augustine/.
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