His teachers would often punish him for not knowing the correct answers. Finally, he discovered that he loved the Latin language. He worked very hard to study Latin and showed everyone he was actually very intelligent. Patricius wanted his son to be a teacher and have a good job with the Roman government. Augustine tried this, but really wanted to teach in Milan, Italy. In Milan, he thought, the students wanted to learn, and they respected their teachers and education.
While Augustine was in Milan, he met Bishop Ambrose. Augustine liked the way Ambrose explained things and because of this, Augustine decided to become a Catholic. For more than 30 years after his conversion in , Augustine said and wrote many important things that helped people understand God and how they could have a personal relationship with God.
North Africa was part of the Roman Empire, though it was considered something of a backwater, far from the centers of imperial power. Augustine's father, Patricius or Patrick , was a decurio, a minor official of the Roman empire. The position was far from glamorous, however, because a decurio was required to act as a patron for his community and to make up any shortfalls in taxes collected from the region.
This responsibility probably kept a constant strain on the family's finances and may account for Augustine's assertions that his family was poor. Augustine had at least one brother, Navigius, and at least one sister, but little information is available about his siblings. Patricius was a pagan, an adherent of the Roman civic religion.
Augustine's mother, Monica sometimes spelled Monnica , had been raised as a Christian. Although Patricius was only lukewarm about Christianity, he allowed Monica to raise the couple's children as Christians, and he finally converted to Christianity before his death. The example of his mother's fervent faith was a strong influence on young Augustine, one that would follow him throughout his life. In contrast, Patricius had relatively little influence on Augustine's character, and Patricius appears in the Confessions as a distant and vague figure.
Augustine showed early promise in school and, consequently, his parents scrimped and saved to buy their son a good Roman education, in the hope of ensuring him a prosperous career. He was sent to the nearby town of Madaura for further studies, but a lack of money forced him back home to Thagaste for a year, while his father tried to save more money for tuition.
Augustine describes himself as a dissolute young man, unrestrained by his parents, who were more concerned with his success in school than his personal behavior. When Augustine was about 16, his parents sent him to the university at Carthage, the largest city in the region.
There he studied literature and poetry, in preparation for a career as a rhetor, a professional public speaker and teacher of rhetoric.
Soon after Augustine came to Carthage, his father died, leaving Augustine as the nominal head of the family. In Carthage, he set up a household with a concubine, the mother of his son, Adeodatus, born about During this period, he read the book that began his spiritual journey: Cicero's Hortensius, which he says inspired him with the desire to seek the truth, in whatever form he might find it.
In Carthage, Augustine also encountered Manichaeism, the religion that dominated his life for the following decade. Augustine was attracted to Manichaeism's clear dividing line between good and evil, its highly intellectual mythology, and its strict moral standards. After Augustine finished his studies, he briefly returned to Thagaste to teach, but soon went back to Carthage, where opportunities were more plentiful.
Augustine became a successful public speaker and teacher. Encouraged by wealthy Manichee friends, he moved on to Rome in , hoping to advance his career. Rome proved to be disappointing, but Augustine's talents caught the eye of a Roman official who recommended Augustine for the position of public orator for the imperial city of Milan.
In , Augustine moved to Milan, where he heard the preaching of Bishop Ambrose. Augustine had always considered Christianity intellectually lacking, but Ambrose's application of Neo-Platonic ideas to the interpretation of Christian scripture, presented with Ambrose's famous eloquence, captured Augustine's interest. Augustine had been growing steadily dissatisfied with Manichaeism, and Ambrose's influence encouraged him to make a break with the Manichees.
Augustine read the works of the Neo-Platonists himself, and this reading revolutionized his understanding of Christianity. Meanwhile, Augustine's career was flourishing, and his worldly prospects were bright. His mother had followed him to Milan, and she arranged an advantageous marriage to a Christian girl from a good family, requiring Augustine to send his concubine away. In the fall of , he had a conversion experience that convinced him to renounce his career and his marriage prospects in order to dedicate his life to God.
He spent the winter with a group of like-minded friends, withdrawn from the world, reading and discussing Christianity. At Easter , he was finally baptized by Bishop Ambrose. Perhaps his most well-known work in philosophy is City of God. Augustine composed City of God as a response, both rebutting this position and offering a Christian view of history. In the work he lays out a theological framework which contrasts what he calls the City of God with the city of the world, outlining the teleology of each.
Most centrally, this work offers insight into the proximate nature of what can be accomplished in earthly government, colored with both realism and optimism. Exact matches only. Search in title. Search in content. Search in excerpt. Search in posts.
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