Augustines confessions

Question 1

(Pages 179-81), who is Augustine writing to? who is this text written for?

Answer 1

• Key theme: self reflection
• HIMSELF, ARROGANT PEOPLE, GOD
• anti-arrogance
• ‘the self will be known through God’s eye’
• ‘Dependence on grace produces awareness of ones weakness’
• the think you know least is yourself
• why does he need god to understand himself, and why is God so far away from him? ‘how do I know you’

Question 2

(page 182) What does Augustine mean by ‘I am a child’

Answer 2

• Vulnerability, ignorance, fragility of will
• child of God?
• Child of Adam? seminal presence and thus fragility of will
• ‘father sufficient to guard me’ -grace
• dislocation from himself.

Question 3

(pages, 183-184) Quotes contemplating God

Answer 3

• ‘when I love you what do I love?’
• we are not God, god made us’
• ‘God is the life of your life’
• ‘animates’

Question 4

(page, 184) what separates animals from Humans?

Answer 4

• reason and judgement

- beauty can be seen by animals but they cannot question and make judgement about them

Question 5

(page, 184) what does ‘God is the life of your life’ mean?

Answer 5

• animates us
• animates the mass of our body, no other human can do this
• (page 196) ‘mu soul derives life from you’

Question 6

what qualities of the memory does he pick out?

Answer 6

-sing without sound
-produce colour in the dark
-sound in a quiet room
experience things by trusting other peoples accounts
imagine future events

Question 7

(Page 189) how does Augustine describe the process of learning?

Answer 7

• gathering together jumbled up things in the mind and rearranging them into order
• things which are hidden in the mind are easily brought forward through this process
• things which aren’t gathered/ used for long periods of time have to be learnt as new

Question 8

what is peculiar about Augustines choice to lament?

Answer 8

that surely God will already be aware of everything he is saying anyway

Question 9

what is the difference between human knowledge and God’s knowledge?

Answer 9

Humans know hardly anything about themselves but God know everything about humans

Question 10

(183) what does Augustine say about his love for God?

Answer 10

-his love isn’t sensual

‘my love for you is not an uncertain feeling but a matter of conscious certainty’

Question 11

what is unusual and confusing about Augustines understanding of God?

Answer 11

seems to think that God is transcendent and beyond human feeling but God seems imminent in his consciousness.

• if god is not a feeling which can be felt then how can Augustine know/ remember God
• categorical error

Question 12

why can humans know God and animals can’t?

Answer 12

• we are different to animals and have God given memory to allow us to know God
• this is what makes us distinctive
• Animals just have habitual memory

Question 13

why does Augustine find himself hard to grasp?

Answer 13

• he doesn’t understand the power of memory
• he remembers forgetfulness which he finds contradicting
• forgetfulness is not physical but destroys what we remember in the mind and non physical concepts

Question 14

is joy and happiness only found in God? (198)

Answer 14

• what is true happiness, have we ever experienced it?
• happiness is subjective and some people would be most unhappy if it was found in God e.g. atheists
• does God owning happiness make it universal?
• can people who don’t embrace God ever be happy?

Question 15

(202) why does Augustine think that ‘human life on earth is a trail in which there is no respite’/ ‘an immense jungle full of traps and dangers’

Answer 15

• he is stuck with memories which he feels guilty about
• suffering is showing no benefit to him
• in prosperous times he fears adversity
• evil is everywhere and we are surrounded by temptation

Question 16

(204) why should food be treated as medicine?

Answer 16

medicine is used to keep us alive and not to be indulged upon. food should be treated the same, Augustine finds himself guilty of seeking pleasure in and taking advantage of food. allusion to asceticism

• indulgent personality
• lack of resilience caused guilt

Question 17

(208) ‘in your eyes I have become a problem to myself and that is my sickness’

Answer 17

• his suffering is not god’s fault but his own toxic mindset
• torture of not giving into natural instincts
• original sin

Question 18

what is augustines attitude towards the pleasure of the eyes? (209-11)

Answer 18

‘seining’ is beyond physically seeing something

• visions of knowledge
• memory, knowledge, God are beyond the senses
• seeing is a way of gaining knowledge and insight
• physical seeing works by a seductive and dangerous sweetness

Question 19

what is the problem with Human judgement?(214)

Answer 19

• we admire people to make them feel admired or resemble ourselves, even when people shouldn’t be admired
• God’s praise is more honest and honourable
• those who are ‘praised by human judgement’ are ‘blamed’ by God
• ‘the human tongue is our daily furnace’

Question 20

what is augustines point about human merit? (217)

Answer 20

‘people who are pleased with themselves grow in vanity though fail to please other people or actually annoy other people’
- hard to strike balance between dreadful hate of oneself and self admiration