II especially sections pp. What i have to say will appear in the mention of Monica in Bk. Ii which is our focus for to day. In the first part, he confesses to his inordinate lust or concupiscence and vaunting ambition pp. Indeed, when at the bathhouse my father saw that I was showing signs of virility and the stirrings of adolescence, he was overjoyed to suppose that he would be having grandchildren, and told my mother so.
And his father sacrificed much financially so that his son could have the best education and he took great pride in his brilliant, accomplished and highly favored son. My family did not try to extricate me from my headlong course by means of marriage. There only concern was that I should learn to speak as effectively as possible and carry conviction by my oratory.
Matthews, California U. Press, , pp. Peter Brown makes what some of us might think is a strange, even wrong Judgement. Augustine turns to his adolescence and describes his sins of lust. At sixteen, he came home from school for a year while his father tried to raise money to send him to a better school in Carthage. Augustine was by then sexually mature, which made his father happy, but worried his mother, who cautioned him against committing fornication and adultery.
Augustine scoffed at her advice and enjoyed boasting to his friends about his sexual exploits, even if he had to exaggerate for effect. His mother could have arranged a marriage for him to give him a legitimate outlet for his sexual urges, but she feared that marriage at that time would hurt his chances for a successful career.
Augustine's account of his sexual sins is one of the most famous features of the Confessions, and that account begins here in Book 2, as Augustine becomes a teenager. Augustine's attitude toward his sexual urges is always deeply problematic, and a reluctance to give up sex is one of the last, painful obstacles to his full conversion.
Here, however, Augustine gives a typically nuanced analysis of his sexual sins. His initial impulse, to love and be loved in return, is a good one, but once again, his good impulses are misdirected toward bad ends. The essence of his stance is illustrated in an episode in , following the imperial Edict of Unity, which branded the Donatists as heretics. Even after the legal battles were won, Augustine never stopped trying to convince his opponents of what he believed to be the truth.
I n Rome was occupied by hostile forces for the first time in centuries. Pagans blamed the Christian God for failing to protect the city. To frame his argument, the bishop discusses not only Roman religious practices, but also the most sophisticated thinking of its most eminent philosophers: Porphyry and Plotinus, usually called Neo—Platonists.
At the end of the third century, Porphyry had written a book titled Philosophy from Oracles , in which he compiled religious lore from many peoples of the ancient world. Ostensibly he hoped to discover a way of approaching God that was universal, embracing all peoples and times, and not dependent on particular historical events.
Judged on this basis, Christianity like all other foreign religions Porphyry encountered failed. How could Christ, he asked, a man who had appeared only late in history, be the universal savior? Augustine had great respect for Porphyry and Plotinus.
As reported in the Confessions , their books helped Augustine on his journey to Christianity. Your donations support the continuation of this ministry. What Would Augustine Say? Married second-class Augustine nevertheless viewed sex and marriage as inferior to the celibate life, in contrast to Jovian, a fourth-century monk who taught that marriage and celibacy were equal and whose views were condemned by Ambrose and Pope Siricius. Holmes T he fall of Rome in was a calamity of staggering proportions to the citizens of the Roman Empire.
Robert Louis Wilken I n Rome was occupied by hostile forces for the first time in centuries. Bruce L. Next articles. Peter E. Maartje M. Jan Hus. As he records his conversion in the Confessions , he describes being torn between marriage and chaste devotion to God. He decided it could be only the latter for him. After his conversion, he had much to say about sex and marriage. The fall of Adam, he taught, drastically affected human sexuality.
In particular, human nature had fallen under the compulsive power of concupiscence, or lust, which he understood as the passionate, uncontrolled element in sexuality. Augustine believed that all sexual intercourse—even within the bounds of Christian marriage—involved concupiscence. But Augustine did not altogether disparage matrimony. But to him, celibacy was better. He even went so far as to recommend sexual abstinence for married couples—if they mutually agreed to it.
If we look closely at the writings of Augustine, we can better understand why Roman Catholics believe that the chief end of marriage is procreation, that divorce and birth control are impermissible, and that continence is the ideal for sexual self-discipline. Click here for reprint information on Christian History. Sections Home.
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