Among the ideas that the Enlightenment brought was the idea of a secular government. The hierarchy of the Church was not in favor of this at all, the Austria was one of the first countries to push secularization. It happened when “Joseph II denounced the existing concordat and moved energetically to restrict the rights of the church, seeking to build a modern, secular state … similar attacks on Church authority put the hierarchy on the defensive, and the prestige of the papacy suffered” (130). Because of Europe’s social changes, and its changing ideals of the role of the Church in government, from an overarching, imposing role, to a nonexistent role, the Church found itself under attack, and Pius IX saw his power diminished. The idea that the Church was to lose its power did not bode well with those at the highest levels within the Catholic Church.…
Introduction The appeal of spiritual leaders is displayed by their life and the impact on others, based on that life that they live. This can be determined by their families first, then their congregations, and lastly the impact that they leave. Aurelius Augustinus’ life was not at all perfect. However, he has had a positive impact on numerous theologians and philosophers.…
In a Catholic institution, theology acts as a department for finding truths within human comprehension; these truths are found based on God’s “self-revelation [and] ‘understanding’ what God has revealed” as opposed to just Scripture since not all of the ancient texts are universally accepted and had to go through intense examination if they are (Cavadini…
It is important to note that Augustine wrote “Confessions” after he had been ordained a bishop. He was not simply writing it to tell his story, but as a deliberate act of evangelization, hoping to lead his people into deeper faith through it. The book itself has a unique genre, although normally classified as an autobiography, it is actaully written as an extended prayer. This is apparent from the beginning lines which question and proclaim the human condition as in relation to God.…
In Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine presents his mother as the perfect model of a devout Christian. From the moment Augustine is born, she assumes a strong involvement in her son’s life in order to ensure his conversion to Christianity. However, this heavy involvement works against her at times. Although Augustine may portray Monica as a pious model of faith on the surface, through the passion she expresses for her son’s salvation, he also notes certain flaws stemming from that passionate care, namely her underlying obsession to see him achieve worldly success, ultimately revealing Monica to occasionally serve as an obstacle inhibiting Augustine’s spiritual enlightenment.…
The Incomplete Characterization of Motives In Confessions, Augustine stated that the motive behind all actions was lust of different types. He divided lust into three categories: lust for domination, lust of the eyes, and lust for sensuality. Augustine defined lust for domination as the desire to control people or properties. Lust of the eyes was the desire to satiate the senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing.…
In The Humanistic Tradition the author, Gloria Fiero presents Martin Luther as the voice of the religious reform movement against the abuses of the Church of Rome. Martin Luther's revolt against the church was an attempt to put an end to “the misery and wretchedness of Christendom” (Friero, Pg. 475). Hence he insisted that the way to find peace with God was through having heartful faith in God. Thus this idea contradicted some of the corrupt behaviors that the church was practicing such as indulgences. Consequently, Martin Luther’s attempt to reform Catholicism through his work…
Hitchcock, James. History of the Catholic Church. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012. Jones, A.H.M. Constantine and the Conversion of Europe. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.…
The recent disasters in Rome in 410, is reflected in Saint Augustine works from the City of God. These works will be discussed and analysis in order to gain a clearer picture of Augustine’s response to the Pagans, who suggest that the Christian faith had caused the recent disasters in Rome. However, Augustine does not go into too much detail of the recent disaster itself, but he does use Rome’s disaster as an example of the sins committed by the Romans Empire from the past, in order to make his case against the Pagans. Saint Augustine was born in the North Africa town of Thagate. When he got older, he was set to Cartage to study, there he got involved in with the Manichees.…
St. Augustine has had an enormous impact in the shaping of Western Christianity. In On Free Choice of the Will, Augustine describes the effects of human agency on inherent truth and emphasizes the idea that humans are bound by certain truths but are free to interpret them as they please. Perhaps the most influential aspect of Augustine’s writing was his insistence on using reason to prove his ideas, a concept that was contrary to the traditional Christian method of inquiry. Through his ideas of God and the nature of wisdom, he heavily influenced Christianity.…
In the first part of The Confessions, Augustine starts by a prayer to God. I found this part usually because many people do not start a book by a prayer. This also shows that Augustine is going to be religious because he is in the search of God. Right away, this sets a difference between Socrates and him because Socrates was not religious and he not question the existence of God or was in search of him.…
Book X marks the transition in the Confessions from autobiography to the direct analysis of philosophical and theological issues. It is also noteworthy that the length of the Books begins to increase dramatically here (Book X is more than twice the length of most of the previous Books). Although this is a sudden transition in form and content, Augustine is following an underlying structure. This structure depends mainly on his view (which is not explicitly mentioned in the work) that the story of a soul's return to God is essentially the same as the story of the return to God of creation as a whole. Thus, the last four Books of the Confessions, in their deep vindication of Christianity, focus primarily on details of the world's existence in…
Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my purpose? What happens when I die? These are four fundamental questions that everyone on earth have asked themselves and have tried to understand.…
Abelard and Augustine: Devout Sinners and Christians Abelard and St. Augustine felt compelled to write of their mistakes and misfortunes reflective of their lives. Despite the fact they did so in efforts to confess their sins, the two differ in a multitude of ways. Some of which include their approach for convincing people religion can provide them with salvation, or their attitudes towards religion in their earlier life. St. Augustine wrote within the first century where Christianity was a competitor when it came to religion. Up until this time, Roman Paganism was undoubtedly the main religion within Europe.…
Augustine makes it very clear that life is a journey. Within the journey that is life, we have individual journeys that can either impact our lives positively, or completely lead us to self destruction. A journey that Augustine has so well written down for us to read is his spiritual journey. His journey, like most, was not always easy. He faced death, separation, anger, abandonment and so many other circumstances.…