Augustines Confessions

Augustine’s Confession

Augustine on his own view stole the fruit for the mere enjoyment of the sin and theft that the stealing involved. He says in (II,4)

“Behold, now let my heart tell you what it looked for there, that I should be evil without purpose and there should be no cause for my evil, but evil itself. Foul was the evil, and I loved it.';

Augustine knew that what he was doing at the time of the crime but he did not care to think about the outcome of his actions. Augustine only cared that the deed which he participated in was indeed forbidden. Himself and his companions stole the fruit even if they had more desirable fruit to eat at their own homes.

Augustine states this in his Confessions (II,4) that

“For I stole a thing of which I had plenty of my own and much better quality. Nor did

I wish to enjoy the thing which I desired to gain by theft, but rather to enjoy the actual theft and sin of theft.';

The mere thrill of the theft and sin was more desirable than the fruit which they stole. The fruit was sought as an opportunity to be deceitful and to gain self enjoyment from it.

Augustine, however realizes that the theft that he committed for the enjoyment of the sin of the crime was indeed unlawful. He thinks of why couldn’t he have received enjoyment by committing a more lawful act. In Augustines Confessions (II,6) He states:

“ O rottenness! O monstrous life and deepest death! Could a thing give pleasure which could not be done lawfully, and which was

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...of mind, just like that of the person who drank and got behind the wheel of an automobile. If Augustine’s state of mind was clear, he would have acted more rationally.

Throughout the Confessions of Augustine we see his constant struggle of what is the ratinal way to behave as an individual and what is the irration way of behaving. Many examples are given from actions of vice to actions brought on by thae ways of “peer pressure'; and conforming with a group. To say the least,

Augustine at the end of his tale of the stolen fruit regreted his sin. He went from a person who received sheer enjoyment and gratification at the time of the crime to a man later in life realized the right and wrong of his actions. the only regret that he has is that that moment in his life is gone forever, not to be replaced. Augustine had to live with hi immoral choice the rest of his days.

Work Cited

Augustine, St. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Trans.

John K. Ryan. New York: Doubleday, 1960.

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics. Trans.

Martin Oswald. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1962.