Saint Augustine Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Saint Augustine - Term Paper Example He attended school in both Thagaste and Carhage (Musick 11). The social life he experienced as a teenager was full of sins. The children were taught to value material things from the time they were in school. Augustine grew in this world, and this made him encounter sexual behavior at an early age (Augustine 7). Augustine also engaged in false philosophies. As a teenager, he valued material things rather than God and religion. However, he explains how his uncouth behavior was punished through having a disorderly, confused and full of grief life. Nevertheless, the youthful Augustine creates a passion for the quest of philosophical truth. He also developed an interest in learning the â€Å"doctrines of manichaeism, skepticism and neoplatonism† (Wills 23). In his confessions, he incorporated catholic theology with neoplatonic concepts. Augustine’s movements from Thagate and Carthage and between Rome and Milan did not free him from doubts about Catholicism and its doctrines. He joined the catholic religion because his mother was from a catholic faith (Wills 24). Filled with doubts about the catholic religion he pursues a career in teaching of rhetoric, he later resented this job claiming that it was a waste of ideas. He also condemns his habit of being involved in sexual behavior at an early age and other sinful activities. When he visited Milan, he decided to embark on Catholicism as his only true faith (Wills 24). Nonetheless, the subject of baptism and abstinence from sex was still difficult for him. He had difficulties in devoting himself fully into the catholic faith. However, he gets full change in his Milan garden and he converts to a staunch and faithful catholic (Musick 12). The final four chapters of his book were based mostly on religious and philosophical concepts of â€Å"memory (Book X), time and eternity (Book XI), and the explanation of the Book of Genesis (Books XII and XIII)†. Even though, he changes the