Humanity by Augustine

A detailed Summary of Humanity by Augustine

In Augustine?s Confessions he describes the trials and tribulations that took place in his life on his journey to Christianity. He writes now years later, able to see the mistakes and errors he made as an adolescent and throughout his life. His writings are a way to relate him to all humans and their way of thinking. He stresses that God is the creator of all, in which He installed the choice of free will into every human so that they can chose what to do with their lives. In return we have sin. In which, many people choose to sin for no other reason than the mere fact that they want to.

Augustine begins with questions about the nature of his mind. He tries to answer these through the consideration of material things, the soul, and reason itself. He goes through a reasonable chain of thought to deliberate his conclusions. Augustine stresses the idea that humans owe their lives to God. He states ?Yet it was not my mother or my nurses who stored their breasts for me: it was Yourself, using them?set by You at every level of creation?(1133). He believed that God brought being into this world out of nothing, so that all things owe their existence to God. Humans tend to forget that it was God that cre

Augustine?s view of humans differs in a great extent to that of the ?tragic sense of like? portrayed in Oedipus Rex and Medea. Augustine thoroughly explains that God chose to give us life and though He guides us and comforts us he does not choose our destiny upon us. We as humans choose which road we want to travel. He does however know what the future holds for us. As did the Greek Gods that played a magnificent role in the ?tragic sense of life.? In these tragedies only wealthy and well-known high-class people were portrayed. Oracles and prophets told them their futures and they had their lives planned from the get go. Oedipus had no choice in what was destined to happen to him, nor did Medea. Since the Gods chose their lives, they could not escape their divined destiny. Nor, could they in any way change the outcome, they were doomed from birth, or as some sort of punishment. Oedipus could not have overcome the fact that he killed his father, married his mother, and bared children that were also kin to him. No matter what he did to avoid his destiny being fulfilled, in the end, he was damned and condemned. He as an individual did nothing to ask for these consequences to be put upon him, he merely tried to do the right thing for his people. Medea did everything in her power for Jason because she loved him. Only to be betrayed by him. Tragedies were told to have sorrowful endings. Aug

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Approximate Word count = 949
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion