Augustine
"I loved the happy life but I feared to find it in Your house and so I ran from it even as I sought after it. I thought that I would be miserable if I were kept from a woman's arms. I did not believe that a cure for this disease lay in Your mercy; I had no experience of such a cure. I believed that continence was within a man's own powers, though I was unaware of such a power within me. I was a fool and did not know - as it is written [in Scripture] - that no man can be continent unless You grant it to him. And this You surely would have given to me if, with inward groanings, I had knocked at your ears and with a firm faith had cast my many cares upon You."(from The Confessions, Book 6, Chapter 11, circa 397-400 A.D.) Augustine was born in A.D. 354 in the town of Thagaste in Algeria. His father was a pagan and his mother was a devout Christian. Augustine was educated as a rhetorician in the former North African cities of Tagaste, Madaura, and Carthage. Augustine died in A.D. 430 identifying himself as the supreme "doctor of grace." Augustine is, arguably, the greatest theologian-philosopher of all time.Some elements of Platonism can be seen in Augustine's teaching. His view of the world is Platonic,
There is no aspect of Him that is lacking, false, or not good. This explains the existence of evil in God's creation without threatening either omnipotence, or His goodness. "fL Therefore, the world has always been changing since it is under the influence of time. The possession of Truth is happiness, and beatitude is the enjoyment of Truth. The question then arises, "Is God under the influence of time?" Obviously not, because if God the Creator of everything was under time that would violate the "law of non-contradiction. If God is the author of all things in this world, and he is good, theists must then ask themselves what is evil and where it came from. Augustine believes that evil came into the world when Adam and Eve sinned. Rather evil is a reduction of good. Time cannot exist without something to be under it and the world cannot exist without being under time. By concluding this, Augustine says that sinning is now (since the fall) has clouded the inherited good that humans once possessed. Augustine's success in unifying Christianity allowed it to become the religion of medieval Europe, and created a theology (especially from The City of God) that has remained basic to Western Christianity, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, ever since. By Him it was created and in Him exists" (4. For Augustine, God is good because everything He made is good. " By doing this, Augustine seems to violate the maxim Ex nihilo, nihil fit, "Out of nothing, nothing comes.
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Acceptance Essays
