Augustine's Confessions

Tonight I had the pleasure of sitting down with excerpts from Augustine's Confesseions, over which I will be quizzed tomorrow morning in my World Literature class. This selection is by far my favorite of the semester so far; I love seeing Augustine's desire for God as well as the struggles of his spiritual journey. Here are some of the points/quotes I found interesting:

-It seems that Augustine's spiritual struggle was not only or even primarily with the intellectual issues of faith. His struggles were with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life--all of which are obvious as he recounts his boyhood life and pre-conversion adulthood.

-Augustine speaks clearly of the superiority of God to all earthly pleasures. He goes through a list of sins, showing their deception and God's supremacy over them. "Ambition seeks honor and glory, although You alone are to be honored before all and glorious forever...The caresses by which the lustful seduce are seeking for love: but nothing is more caressing than Your charity, nor is anything more healthfully loved than Your supremely lovely, supremely luminous Truth...Sloth pretends that it wants quietude: but what sure rest is there save the Lord? Luxuriousness would be called abundance and completeness; but You are the fullness and inexhaustible abundance of incorruptible delight." Even about seemingly good and beautiful things, Augustine writes, "These lower things have their delights but not such as my God has, for He made them all: and in Him doth the righteous delight, and He is the joy of the upright of heart."

Not a bad night of homework...