Transformation: Augustine's Journey to Christianity

You prompt us yourself to find satisfaction in appraising you, since you made us tilted toward you, and our heart is unstable until stabilized in you. Quintessentially, this quote from Confessions symbolizes Augustine’s perilous journey towards Christianity. Although appearing earlier in what is colloquially known as the “first autobiography”, Augustine expounds on this very idea throughout his writings. Whether that includes his attraction and disdain for Manichaeism or his affinity with Neo-Platonism, one could argue this quote acted as the foundation of his inquisitions of these pre-modern dogmatic sects. Augustine, despite his perils with intellectual paradoxes, sought to understand these rigid entities that seemed to have variant positions on God’s goodness and temporal nature. Although Augustine eventually found refuge in Catholicism, nevertheless, he continued to explore the relationship between Gods benevolence and human dependence, even until his death.

Born in the year 354 on African soil, Augustine spent his earlier years in the care of his Christian mother, Monnica. He spent his time blissfully living the life of any normal child; doing mischievous deeds and remaining apathetic to life’s worries. He despised Greek education, and by extension, those who attempted to mandate a need to obtain one. But not for superficial reasons, rather, Augustine’s animosity towards his instructors was related to irrelevant subjects taught in the schools. According to him, Greek instructors failed to adequately expound on topics that hold honest meaning. One was fiction, which Augustine found to be quite contradictory to one who hoped to escape the sin of lying. However, Augustine did give positive feedback on Greek scholar’s inst...

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Wills, Garry . "Vocation." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 163-165

Wills, Garry . "Milan." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 111

Wills, Garry . "Materialism." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 93

Wills, Garry . "Materialism." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 149

Ibid

Wills, Garry . "Manichaeism." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 49

Wills, Garry . "Manichaeism." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 47

Wills, Garry Confessions: Saint Augustine, (New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006), chap. 2

Wills, Garry . "Manichaeism." In Confessions: Saint Augustine New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2006. 41-43.

Ibid