We all sin at least once in our lifetimes. After committing the sin, we look for forgiveness from God and a way to correct it. Then we move on from that sin and usually forget that it ever even happened. However, Saint Augustine did not accept this. He spent his entire life trying to understand where sin came from and how God played a role in it. He examined multiple philosophical and theological schools of thought to find the true source of sin. Saint Augustine was a very spiritual man whose views differed from other popular beliefs such as the Greeks and Romans. What he learned from Neo-Platonism, Christian belief, and all his experiences in his early life allowed him to truly grasp what grace meant and how God’s omnipotence affected human…
In Augustine’s Confessions, books I-IX describes Augustine’s life and places an emphasis on his idea of contemptu mundi, and the soul’s journey is back to heaven. In Augustine’s On Christian…
Augustine fell into the trap of worshipping people because of their works, instead of worshipping God, whom all the works truly come from. In book 4 of The Confessions, Augustine explains that he had written his own book on beauty, which he dedicated to a Roman orator, Hierius. Augustine further states that Hierius, “was the sort of man [Augustine] loved in the sense of wanting to be like him” (Augustine, 70). Augustine worshipped Hierius, and many other famous rhetoricians like him. Unfamiliar with God, Augustine was in constant search of approval from other humans whom he admired. He details that if he did not find approval, “a heart vain and empty of [God’s] solid strength would be wounded” (Augustine, 71). Augustine failed to prioritize God over these other worldly “celebrities”, for…
The Bhagavad-Gita is an essential part of Hinduism. Hinduism is one of the oldest belief systems in the world. The Hindu culture is very complex and diverse because of how many gods and different core foundational beliefs they follow and live by. Their sacred texts are referred to as Vedas, which are considered to be a vital part in their traditions. The Vedas are seen as much more than just religious writings. They are seen as deeply rooted in the history and culture of India The Hindu culture has other books filled with poems, hymns, stories that the Hindus believe in whole-heartedly. Like Christians believe God is three in one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit the Hindus believe their supreme god named Brahma is Vishnu and Shiva…
The story in the Bhagavad Gita with Arjuna and Krishna has many teachings of Krishna about renunciation, selfless services, and meditation. It’s also important why Arjuna doesn’t want to wage war. There are many things that Krishna tells Arjuna. All of this will be brought up throughout the essay.…
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Vishnu presents three qualities of nature that are bind within a person’s inner self, atman, which are sattva, rajas, and tamas. In the Bhagavad-Gita translated by Barabara Stoler Miller, she translated in the fourteenth teaching, verse five, that sattva, rajas, and tamas were lucidity, passion, and dark inertia respectively. The first quality of nature, sattva, is portrayed as the good and light in humans. However, according to the Merriam-Webster, lucidity means the clearness of thought or style. I believe that the usage of the word lucidity has less impact and focus on the good nature of humans but more on the clearness and one-dimensional thought of being neither good nor evil. The second…
For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants,’” [Galatians, 5:16-17]. The material world represents the “evil” master, and Augustine’s inner weakness expresses the “good” slave. Book II of Confessions focuses on his sexual sins from his adolescent years. In Augustine’s time, complete celibacy was the ultimate goal. Marriage was for the weak who could not fully control their sexual desires, but sex was used only for the conception of children never pleasure. His urges become problematic, and his final obstacle to conversion is giving up sex. His parents only see success for their son in the shallow material world. His love and ease for learning drive both of his parents’ actions. They insist on sacrificing financial obligations to put him the best school only to drive his success. When confesses his sexual sins, they feel the need to marry him off as soon as possible. But they soon realize marriage will only affect his studies. Augustine’s rejection for the material world’s impulses leads toward his acceptance of Christianity. In essence, this realization symbolizes a Nietzschean “slave…
The amazing thing about religion is through the thousands of years it has existed; we see hardly any change in its core values and traditions. In the the story the Epic of Giglamesh, we embark on a journey with a hardheaded ruler named Giglamesh. As we follow his voyage, we are introduced to the many traditions and beliefs of his society. There are numerous God’s with different purposes that guide Giglamesh’s path and leave the readers confident that every aspect of his life has direction. We as readers may not be used to some of these religious ideas, but if we read further we may be surprised. The Gods depicted in the Epic of Giglamesh share some of the same prominent…
This short excerpt from St. Augustine of Hippo’s autobiography, Confessions, describes an incident in which Augustine uses to evaluate the nature of virtue and sin. He attributes this event from his youth as a proposal for the need to find God in order to find grace and turn away from sin. Augustine shows profound honesty when he confesses that he stole the pears not because he wanted or needed them, but because he enjoyed the lustful, immoral and wicked feeling he obtained from the act of stealing and that he had a deep, subconscious desire to sin. Augustine tells this tale as if he is reconciling for his actions. It is presented with such rectitude and reconciliation that it feels more like a prayer than a forthright autobiography.…
The Confessions, written by St. Augustine, have a large part of theology in today’s world because of the great deal of contemplation and conversion that Augustine experiences throughout his lifetime. While these are both true, there are major flaws in Augustine’s understanding of God due to a multitude of reasons. Augustine even makes this claim in his own writings, stating that he continues to have a restless heart even after the book was written. Because he believes that God is greatly superior in which humans cannot begin to understand Him because of our great inferiority, Augustine fails to develop his own personal relationship with God because he sees too much of a distance between himself and God, explaining why he continues to have…
Through his conversion to Christianity, Augustine developed a consummate love for God. In Confessions he writes to God, using terms of reverence such as his “late-won Joy” (1118) and “supremely lovely, supremely luminous Truth” (1120). He recognizes God’s ultimate omnipotence with passages such as:…
Think of the phrase “finding yourself”. What does that truly mean? What makes it possible for a man to be able to find out who he himself is? Must we all be peaceful? Ghandi said, “Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” In the Bhagavad Gita, we learn the lesson of finding our inner selves (“twin”) first before answering questions of others. According to the God Krishna, our desires are what cause our evil deeds, and in order for us to be free, we must control our desires. This can only be done through practice.…
Augustine viewed human nature in only one way: good and evil. Augustine lived in an era when the pillar of strength and stability, the Roman Empire, was being shattered, and his own life, too was filled with turmoil and loss. To believe in God, he had to find an answer to why, if God is all-powerful and purely good, he still allowed suffering to exist. Augustine believed that evil existed because all men on earth was granted, at birth, the power of free will. He states that God enables humans to freely choose their actions and deeds, and through our own action and choices evil is established. Even natural evils, such as disease, are indirectly related to…
The Bhagavad Gita’s purpose is to deliver mankind from the shadows of material existence. Each and every one of us has adversities in many ways. We try to exist in the material world but the atmosphere of this material world ceases to exist. Our existence is eternal and is not to be threatened by nonexistence. Lord Krishna says that for the soul there is neither birth nor death at any point. It has not come, does not come, and will not come into being. It is unborn, eternal, and primeval. The body and the soul are two different entities. The body is subjected to six transformations, starting from birth and ending at death. The soul does not go through these changes because it is not born and takes on a material body. When…
Christians of today are often firm believers in the idea of Armageddon. The very idea of a battle wherein they must face friends, family, and strangers divided on moral basis instills fear in some, and joy in others. How is this possible? Luckily, Christianity isn’t the only religion to face such a predicament or idea. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the Hindu sacred texts following the epic Mahabharata. The story told is of the torn hero Arjuna as he faces this very predicament and can answer that question. Krishna teaches him of the battle between good and evil, the secret of life, the secret of wisdom, and expounds the mysteries of divinity. Throughout his explanation, the nature of man and their ways of approaching dilemmas such as that of Armageddon are expounded. In this paper I will discuss these lessons and explain the attributes produced in relation to each one and how they seem to adversely affect believers of the religion.…