The Confessions - Book VIII

Augustine continues to struggle to make a full commitment to Christianity, mostly centered around his passion for sexual sin, but also in his concept of God given his previous experience and thought in the Manichean (Gnostic) religion. He feels paralyzed and unable to move forward to fully embrace Christianity. He is especially embarrassed when some of his intelligent friends not only embrace Christianity, but commit to a chaste lifestyle. Augustine feels torn by his two natures, though at the same time he tries to reject the dualism inherent in Manicheanism, especially since he feels the promptings of "Lady Continence" and moves off to a bench in a garden to weep.

At this point, one of the most poignant moments in literature, philosophy, and the Christian Church occurs. Augustine hears the voice of a child next door saying in a sing-song refrain, "Pick it up and read it." After pondering what this might be, Augustine concluded it's the voice of God that he should open his Bible and read the first chapter he found. He found, "Not in riotousness and drunkenness, not in lewdness and wantonness, not in strife and rivalry,: but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its lusts. (Romans 13:13-14.) Augustine remarks he didn't need to read more. "No sooner than had I finished the sentence than it was as if the light of steadfast trust poured into my heart, and all the shadows of hesitation fled away."

On to Book IX

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The Confessions - Book VII

Though by now Augustine has somewhat abandoned a dualistic (good and evil are equal combatants) Manichaeism, and though he is dealing with Christianity as he hears it through Ambrsose' sermons, and as he begins to read Scripture, he is also trying to deal with it in the context of the current Neo-Platonic philsophy he is now reading.

He sort of understands that Scripture teaches that God is all spirit, and not any part material. However, since both Manichaeism and Neo-Platonism teaches that God is at least part material, Augustine mightily struggles on this point.

He also mightly struggles on the problem of evil - how to account for evil in the world? He finally reaches the point of believing that God created everything good, and that the evil we see today, including sinful man, is a corruption of the original good that a good and holy God made.

As Augustine studies more Scripture, he begins to realize much that the Neo-Platonists have left out in explaining all of what is around us. For example, they left out any explanation about how Jesus Christ is God in human form, the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. They leave out any praise to God. Worse, they tend to believe in more than one God (polytheism). He did heed their advise to turn inward, and there, inspired by reading Scripture, he found a powerful vision of God, seeing a light "higher than my mind." However, Augustine finds that the weight of sin drags him back from this vision, and a lack of humility keeps him from enjoying God and putting his full faith in Christ.

While Augustine was certainly aware of Neo-Platonism, and certainly influenced by its thoughts, his writings here certainly indicate that he did not accept it whole cloth, and tended to accept its thoughts only so far as he could find it accorded with Scripture.


On to Book VIII
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