Augustine’s Confessions

In this autobiography of Augustine’s confessions, we are brought face-to-face with sin and the conversion of St. Augustine. In this paper, I will try and give an explanation on Augustine’s understanding of sin and also explain Augustine’s understanding of conversion.

Sin was not unusual to Augustine, even as a young boy. In the second book, Augustine reveals that he and some of his friends stole some pears from a neighbor’s tree. They took the pears and threw them to the pigs. Augustine just got a thrill out of doing what was wrong. He said, “My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing but merely the excitement of thieving and the doing of what was wrong”. (II.iv.9)

Later in his life, Augustine resorts to some more “sinful” pleasures. He begins to find sexual activity appealing. He said,”The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness”. (II.ii.2) He did not understand the difference between emotional love and physical love. Augustine then took a concubine as his partner.

Augustine did not believe these acts to be sinful but merely the lesser good from a larger good. Some goods were simply better than others. There is no evil.

The conversion of Augustine took place in two separate themes; the Intellectual conversion and the Moral conversion. Augustine’s thoughts on conversion were thoughts of a total reverse of lifestyle. He would have to give up all his sinful pleasures and fully accept God.

Augustine’s intellectual conversion has to do with how he thinks about God and being able to use his mind properly. After his time with the Manichees, Augustine began to read books of the Platonists and found God again through those readings. He struggled with different aspects of God and Christ for a while but eventually came to the conclusion that Christ is God. Now that he had that straightened out, he could begin to work on his moral conversion.

Augustine is still struggling with his sexual desire. Augustine was known for the quote “Give me chastity and continence, but not yet”. His will is divided into the new, which is complete devotion to God, and the old, which is his sexual desire. Here is a quote from Augustine: “The new will, which was beginning to be within me a will to serve you freely and to enjoy you, God, the only source of pleasure, was not yet strong enough to conquer my older will, which had the strength