Confessions
...ent basic beliefs. Unlike the Christians, Manichean’s believed that god was not omnipotent, but rather that he struggled against the forces of evil in the world, to which they were opposed. They worshipped God’s creations more than God himself as Augustine accounts “…they served me up the sun and moon, beautiful works of Yours” (39). He was taught that God was a “luminous immeasurable body and [he] a kind of particle broken from that body” (65). They challenged Christian teachings that God is all powerful, arguing that if God is present in everything, and has control over everything, then why is there evil in the first place? This refuting of basic Christian teachings is important later in Augustine’s life when he is able to counter the Manichean arguments with arguments of his own. So even though Augustine eventually realized that this philosophy of God was wrong, they still had merit in that he would be able to refute all their claims with Christian teachings and philosophy of his own. For 10 years Augustine practiced this religion, something that he very much regrets because he eventually came to realize that he was in fact mislead by this faith. The time spent studying their teachings does however lead him towards his path to God as he is able to question them and find out what it is he is really looking for. Augustine eventually leaves Carthage and heads to Rome, which he finds disgusting. He takes a job in Milan as a teacher where he meets St. Ambrose, who would baptize him and play a major role in his conversion. It is because of St. Ambrose that Augustine comes to another stage in his conversion, in where he hears the Old Testament recounted in a way that is more figurative and metaphorical than he has previously heard. It is because the recantation is spoken so well and in a non-literal sense that Augustine seriously contemplates what is being said and begins to see the error of his beliefs. This event is very important because it allows him to see the value of Christian teachings, and that they can be defended well against the claims of the Manichean. He is not wholly satisfied though, and does not convert right away because of this because he “did not yet feel that the Catholic way was to be followed” (83). He still has questions that he wishes to discuss with someone more learned in Christian teachings, but from now on would go on as a “catechumen”, someone who is waiting for a sign from God that he should become Christian. One of the final events that helped Augustine convert to Christianity was his reading of Neoplatonic philosophy. At this time Augustine was struggling with his conception of God. He had completely rejected the dualism of Manichaean philosophy but was still unable to get a firm grasp at what God was, as he still “could not but think of [God] as some corporeal substance, occupying all space” (107). With his inability to represent God in his mind, Augustine was unable to answer the question of why there is evil and what its origin was. He became to think of God as “a sea, infinite and immeasurable everywhere…and within it there were some mighty but not infinite sponge” (111). The sponge seems to be all of God’s creation, but since God’s creation is full of him, Augustine questioned how evil came into being and what its source was. He found the answers to these two internal conflicts by reading Neoplatonic philosophy. It was the bridge between his desire for wisdom through philosophy, and his rising devotion to Christianity. Much of the philosophy of Neoplatonism matches the teachings of Christianity, and completely denounces those of Machinaeaism. This helped him take the final step into understanding what God was and how evil was present in the world, essentially the two main questions keeping him from completely accepting Christian reasoning. He was finally able to perceive God as something that did not take up space, but was a being instead of an object. From his readings he was able to come to the conclusion that to God “evil utterly is not…to [God’s] whole creation likewise, evil is not” (119). What this means is that there is no real evil that God has created, everything is essentially good. Things that turn away from God greatly are what we consider to be evil, even though they are made good. Now that Augustine has these questions answered he has completely accepted the Christian faith. However he feels that he is not ready to fully give himself to God because of some internal issues. He has found that he at last has “loved [God] and not some phantom instead of [him]” (121), but does not yet have the strength to convert. There were still issues, such as his sexual habbits and his Neoplatonic view of Christ as only a man with great knowledge of God, that kept him from converting. The problem facing Augustine was an internal one. There were no more obstacles that stood in his was of converting except those of his own willingness to give up his connection to the material world. It was hard for him to completely denounce the pleasures that he got from such things as sex. In an instant however, this...