Augustine. On Christian Doctrine. Translated by X. X. Xxxxxxxxx. Indianapolis, IN: Xxxxx- Xxxxxxx, 1993.
Augustine. Reflecting on his spiritual development in the Confessions, Augustine spends significant energy recounting his life apart from God’s law. He dismissed the Christian faith as a young adult, seeking the approval of crowds in rhetorical competitions while indulging sensual lusts. He writes of the latter pleasures that “I went with the flood-tide of my nature and abandoned [God]. I swept across your laws,” turning himself over to cravings at odds with obedience.”151 Looking back on this time, Augustine sees how God’s wrath hung over him though he was unaware of it. Augustine realized the emptiness of worldly accomplishment and pleasure while living in Milan. Here he met Xxxxxxx, a pivotal figure in the church whose preaching and acquaintance awakened Augustine to the Christian gospel in xxxxxxx, directing his mind and heart to the slavery to lust that distanced him from God. Seeing the futility of worldly ways of life, it became clear to Augustine “how miserable I was,” and how God brought him to see his pitiable state.152 Augustine began, in short, to feel guilt. For this guilt to result in conversion, it had to surpass the annoyance of a nagging conscience on its way to “a still more dangerous condition – a crisis” that 151. conf., II.ii.4. 152. conf., VI.vi.9. demanded a change of habit.153 Venturing into a Milanese garden after hearing a story of men converted to Christianity, Augustine faced the full force of his sin. “As this deep meditation dredged up all my wretchedness from the secret profundity of my being and heaped it all together before the eyes of my heart,” he writes, “a storm blew up within me and brought on a heavy rain of tears.” He then exclaimed: “O Lord, how long? How long? Will you be angry forever?” Augustine succumbed to desperation, facing the intransigence of his sin and knowing his will divided and prone to a fell persuasion, his nature an acknowledged prisoner to disobedience and subject to the law’s curse. He concludes the description of his agony in the garden with a passage from Scripture read with a friend. After hearing a voice directing him to take up and read, he grabbed the Bible, opened it, and read: “Not in dissipation and drunkenness, nor in debauchery and lewdness, nor in arguing and jealousy; but put on the Lord Xxxxx Xxxxxx, and make no provision for the flesh or the gratification of your desires.”154 With this statement Augustine’s heart turns, leaving behind the fear of wrath under the law in order to be subsumed in ...
Augustine. Though both Xxxxxxxx and, as we will later see, Xxxxxxx also refer to curiosity as a “vice,” Xxxxxxxxx was the most explicit and severe in his condemnation of curiosity. He continues curiosity’s associations with both useless and illicit knowledge, and at various points in the Confessions even refers to curiosity as “sacrilegious”103 and a “poison.”104 His reasons for denouncing it are twofold: First, it turns us away from the contemplation and worship of God. Our attention and activity is focused not on Him but on the world, and correspondingly our notions of how and where to find knowledge and truth also rest in the world rather than in God. Because of this, we are led into “error” and learn only what is empty and vain. Second, curiosity elevates us above our station; it is an attempt to know things that should belong to God alone. However, through a careful reading we can also see that Xxxxxxxxx does not ignore the fact that curiosity is a powerful agent when it comes to learning. Though his staunchly Christian position leads him to decry the objects toward which it is directed and the consequences this has for our humility, he nevertheless allows that it is at least an effective tool when it comes to education. Xxxxxxxxx’x perspective on curiosity is grounded in his Christian commitment to limit the scope of knowledge in favor of modesty and “enlightened ignorance.”105 He claims that it is God’s will that we praise Him for what we do not know,106 and that “the modesty of a mind admitting incapacity is a finer thing than the knowledge I was in search of.”107 We should seek truth in God rather than the world around us;108 otherwise, we will be led inevitably to error.109 103 Xxxxxxxxx, Confessions, 3.3.5, 39. 104 Ibid., 13.21.30, 307-8. 105 Ibid., 12.5.5. 106 Ibid., 1.6.9-10, 7. 107 Ibid., 5.7.12, 82. 108 Ibid., 1.20.31. 109 Ibid., 4.15.25, 2.5.10. See 1.20.31, 4.15.25 for the corresponding sins of each of the three souls (see below footnote) and the specific harmful effects of a disordered state for each. Xxxxxxxxx states: “Curiosity may be regarded as a desire for knowledge, whereas You supremely know all things.”110 The common assumption that curiosity seeks knowledge is for Xxxxxxxxx mistaken—curiosity can indeed lead to the acquisition of skills and facts, but true knowledge will forever be beyond its reach, resting in its purest and most complete form in God. Xxxxxxxxx separates three branches of sin: “lust of the flesh,” “lust of the eyes,” and “t...
Augustine. In the above sections, we have looked at two modern approaches to modelling memory as a rational system. In this section, we will take a brief leap backwards in time, to look – in a whistle-stop manner – at the thoughts of Xxxxxxxxx. We saw Xxxxxxxxx in the introduction as the philosopher who performed the most insightful early study of memory. Here I wish to look in a little more detail at some of his key observations and thoughts, since they will act to inform some of the directions we take during the development of a new model in the following chapter. The aim for that model will be primarily to identify which kinds of things should be well remembered, and which should be poorly remembered (or forgotten altogether). We shall therefore focus on the points from Xxxxxxxxx’x writings that are most suggestive in this direction. 11Although Xxxxxxxx’x approach incorporates ‘probabilities’, these really serve only to as- semble a deterministic ranking for items in memory – there is nothing actually probabilistic about his model. Observe step 4 in the description of his model above. It is worth stating already at this point that my usage of Xxxxxxxxx when we come to develop the model will be both anachronistic and, to some extent, cherry-picked. To some extent this is a necessary evil, given that the primary aim is to develop a credible and useful modern model, rather than to perform a precise exegesis of Xxxxxxxxx’x writings. Nevertheless, it will hopefully be of some interest to see the extent to which Xxxxxxxxx’x thinking is able to interlock with our modern viewpoint. To this end, we will largely neglect the theological underpinning of his analysis, with an awareness that this may do some violence to his original intentions. I believe that we can attempt, in a sense, to skim off his key empirical and psychological insights, without needing to particularly twist his words.
Augustine. This is true of many parishes, especially those in thinly-stretched rural areas. I will follow Xxxxxx Xxxxxx and use the term, ‘catechetical education’ as it better represents what we are doing in the parish.3 We use a variety of approaches to instruct, but we also form youth in the faith and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church through prayers, activities, and events. The parish has always been intimately linked with education, beginning as a chapel in an orphanage and manual training school. There does not appear to be a lack of desire for education and formation, but practices have not always been consistent with the variety of changes in the parish and wider community. Religious education has been reduced to mostly a program for first through ninth grade youth. Senior high students participate in youth group and a leadership development program known as Peer Ministers. There has been nothing consistent for adults in many years, although there is a committee—the Evangelization Committee—confronting that issue. As for young 2 Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church: Revised in Accordance with the Official Latin Text Promulgated by Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx XX, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), no. 2223; See also Canon 226, paragraph 2 in “Code of Canon Law - Book II - The People of God - Part I. (Xxxx. 208-329),” accessed December 21, 2019, xxxx://xxx.xxxxxxx.xx/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann208- 329_en.html#TITLE_II.
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Augustine. Marriage as a Prison But why was marriage so important to the Catholic Church? What motivation did the church have for taking over control of marriage? Catholic understandings of marriage during these early transitory times revolved around a short, inflammatory, three letter word: s-e-x. And who better to inform the masses then the sultan of sex himself, St.
Augustine. Augustine is one of the most noteworthy theologians to write about marriage containing sex. He developed a theology about sex and marriage that became fixed into Christian dogma, making “the moral theology of what we call western Christianity—the medieval “Catholic” church and all the European churches that descended from it—is strictly inconceivable without Augustine.”39 As Jordan points out, it was Augustine’s understanding of moral theology—namely sex—that facilitated the Church’s acquisition of marriage. Augustine’s personal experience with sex informs his negative understanding of sexuality. In his Confessions and Soliloquies, Augustine finds nothing spiritual, rational, or gracious in his acts of sexually relating with his partners. During a conversation with “Reason,” Reason asks Augustine, “What about a wife? Would not it be nice sometimes to have a beautiful, modest compliant woman, one who is well-read or whom you could easily teach, one without too much of a dowry.”40 Despite the enticing offer, Augustine 39 Xxxxxx, Xxxx X. The Ethics of Sex (New Dimensions to Religious Ethics). Grand Rapids: Xxxxxxxxx Limited, 2002. 109 40 Xxxxxx, Xxxxx. The Catholic Church on Marital Intercourse: From St. Xxxx to Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx XX. Xxxxxx: Lexington, 2009. 33 responds, “I have decided that there is nothing I should avoid as much as sex.”41 According to Augustine, humans should avoid sex if possible. Augustine’s biggest qualm about sex was that people who have sex gave into the pleasures of the flesh. He believed that focusing on bodily pleasures distracted Christians from their relationships with God. By the end of the fifth century, Augustine calcified the strict doctrine that only procreative sexual intercourse was acceptable. If the only acceptable form of sex was procreative, and procreation existed almost exclusively within marriage, then Augustine came to the natural conclusion that sex belonged within marriage. Augustine suggests, “Christians can enter into marriage for the sake of procreating children and in order to enjoy the special bond between husband and wife.”42 Augustine argued that sex was a social problem that should be limited. However as Xxxx Xxxxxx points out, even “Sex within marriage escapes sin only so far as it satisfies a complex set of criteria. These criteria are meant to remove from sex the sinfulness of unbridled lust, the effects of disordered eros.”43 Like a prison keeps dangerous criminals separated from innocent people, Augusti...
Augustine. The City of God Against the Pagans, edited and translated by X. X. Xxxxx. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. , “On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Infants.” In Vol. 5 of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, edited by Xxxxxx Xxxxxx. Peabody, MA: Xxxxxxxxxxx Publishers, 2004. , “On the Spirit and the Letter.” In Vol. 5 of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, edited by Xxxxxx Xxxxxx. Peabody, MA: Xxxxxxxxxxx Publishers, 2004. Xxxxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxx. Ethics. Edited by Xxxxxxxx X. Xxxxx. Translated by Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxx X. Xxxx and Xxxxxxx X. Xxxxx. Vol 6 of Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Works, edited by Xxxxx Xxxxxxx Xxxxx Xx. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009. Xxxxx, Xxxx and Xxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxx. Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War. Boston: Beacon Press, 2012. Xxxxxx, Xxxxx. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Baltimore, John’s Xxxxxxx University Press, 1996. Xxxxx, Xxxxxx and Solomon, Zahaya. “Secondary Traumatization Among Wives of War Veterans with PTSD.” In Combat Stress Injury: Theory, Research and Management, Edited by Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx and Xxxxxxx Xxxx. New York: Routledge, 2007. Xxxxxx, Xxxxx. Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion: A Contemporary Theodicy. Louisville: Westminster/Xxxx Xxxx Press, 1990. Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxx and Xxxx, Xxxx. Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History. New York: Routledge Press, 1992. Xxxxxxx, Xxxxxxx. No More Heroes: Madness and Psychiatry in War. New York: Hill and Wang Publishers, 1987. Xxxxxx, Xxxx. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx. Baltimore: John’s Xxxxxxx University Press, 1977. Xxxxxxx of Nyssa. “On the Making of Man.” In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol 5, edited by Xxxxxx Xxxxxx and Xxxxx Xxxx. Peabody, MA: Xxxxxxxxxxx Publishers, 2004. Xxxxxxxx, Xxxx. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. New York: Back Bay Books, 1995. Xxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxx. War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity. Grand Rapids, MI: Xxxxx Academic Publishing, 2011. Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxx and Xxxx, Xxx Xxxxxxxxx. “Suicide and Guilt as Manifestations of PTSD in Vietnam Combat Veterans.” American Journal of Psychiatry 148, vol. 5 (1991): 586-591. Xxxxxxx, Xxxxx. A Terrible Love of War. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
