Confessions
St. Augustine
Ch. 1
In order to fully embrace Christ Augustine's heart, "had to be purged of the old leaven".
Something held Augustine back. That something was temporal (the idea of marriage) and it left him at unease.
Ch. 2
Augustine visits Simplicianus, the mentor of Ambrose.
Simplicianus thanks God that Augustine had received philosophical instruction from the Platonists and not other philosophers. The Platonists' teachings lead to the path that leads to God.
Simplicianus relates the conversion of the Roman philosopher, Victorinus. This conversion had a powerful impact on Augustine.
Ch. 3
The Lord rejoices more in the repentance of the one than in the just of the ninety-nine who do not need repentance.
"The greater the peril of the battle, the more joy of the triumph".
Ch. 4
"For when many rejoice together the joy of each one is fuller, in that they warm one another, catch fire from each other; moreover, those who are well-known influence many toward salvation and take the lead with many to follow them".
Ch. 5
Victorinus gave up teaching when Emperor Julian made it illegal for Christians to teach literature or rhetoric. Augustine claimed that Victorinus was not so much brave in this act as he now had a reason for giving his full time to God.
"For out of the perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, not resisted became necessity"
Habit became Augustine's enemy: "because I had willingly come to be what I unwillingly found myself to be"
"The law of sins is the tyranny of habit, by which the mind is drawn and held, even against its will"
Ch. 6
Augustine meets Ponticianus, who relates to him the life of St. Anthony and introduces Augustine to Monastic Christianity.
Ch. 7
The search for God and truth is worth more than all the kingdoms of this world.
Augustine still struggled to convert wholly for both love of earthly pleasures (though he knew by now that they eternal ones were far superior) and because he was fighting against habit.
Ch. 8
Augustine became frustrated that even through 10 years of striving he had not achieved the peace that less educated men and women had attained by following Christ.
The distance to God is not great. It is at hand. One only needs the will to go and be unwavering in that will.
Ch. 9
Augustine had two will fighting in him and could not fully commit because of it.
Ch. 10
Two wills does not mean a good will and an evil will. That is a false, Manichean doctrine.
When the goods of heaven attract man from above and the earthly goods pull from below then the man without a single will, will find himself in torment of the soul. His will is partial and incomplete and moved only by custom or habit.
Ch. 11
"I hesitated to die to death and live to life. And the worse way, to which I was habituated, was stronger in me than the better, which I had not tried.
Ch. 12
In his deepest sorrow Augustine read Romans 13:13. Alypius was with him and read further on through Romans 14:1. Both were converted fully in that moment and went and told Monica. She rejoiced in God's answering her prayers for Augustine's salvation
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Notes on Confessions Book VII
Confessions
St. Augustine
Book Seven
Ch. 1
Augustine struggles to move from a materialistic view of the world to get to a perfect God.
Ch. 2
Augustine struggles with how to understand the Incarnation with an adherence to materialism. It can't be done though because it would inevitably limit God to some extent, which is impossible.
Ch. 3
Augustine struggles with the problem of Evil. If God made the angels and an angel can fall to become the devil then is God the author of evil? No, that is self-evidently false.
Ch. 4
Augustine is convinced that God is incorruptible. He comes to this by a sort of ontological argument. Thus, from God's incorruptible nature he defines evil as a corruption of nature.
Ch. 5
Augustine still struggles with the problem of evil but the faith of Jesus Christ at the heart of Catholic Christianity began to take root in his heart.
Ch. 6
Augustine argues against astrology and reduces it from an art to a mere game of chance.
Ch. 7
Pride separated Augustine from God.
Ch. 8
The Lord is compassionate and heals the broken man.
Ch. 9
Augustine studied the Platonists and while he found wisdom in them he didn't find the gospel message, the Truth.
Ch. 10
Augustine came to the Truth about God's being through a mystical experience. Augustine asked a question, what is truth? God answered, "I AM" and Augustine understood that God is Truth and Truth is real.
Ch. 11
All things not God are both real and unreal. They are real insofar as they are created God. They are unreal insofar as they are not God.
Ch. 12
All things, insofar as they exist are good. They cannot be all-evil because then they would not exist. Evil then is a corruption resulting in the privation of a good in something.
Ch. 13
Augustine states it is above our station to critique the things that exist because while we can pray that our surroundings be better the very fact of having surroundings at all should move us to thank God.
Ch. 14
"There is no health in those who find fault with any part of thy creation". That's a strong statement, but one that bears true.
Once Augustine stopped critiquing creation he became contented in it and no longer struggled with these material distractions.
Ch. 15
God exists outside of time.
Ch. 16
"And I asked what wickedness was, and I found that it was no substance, but a perversion of the will bent aside from thee, O God, the supreme substance, toward these lower things, casting away its inmost treasure and becoming bloated with external good"
Ch. 17
Augustine struggled with having mentally arrived at the truth and now bending his will to it.
Ch. 18
It took the mediation of Christ to truly connect Augustine to God. Try as he could, he could not reach God through mental activity.
One must forsake pride, lowering it, so that love may be heightened in order for one to throw one's self upon God and be lifted up.
Ch. 19
Augustine struggled then with Christological heresies. He and Alypius each embraced opposite ends of the nature of Christ that were heretical, focusing too much on either the human nature or the divine nature in Jesus before both finally being converted to the Catholic faith.
Ch. 20
Augustine followed the Platonists in searching for the incorporeal Truth. It led him to note that the invisible things of God were made visible to him by Creation.
The Platonists sort of primed the pump for Augustine to study Scripture.
Ch. 21
Augustine found he now enjoyed the Scriptures, especially the writings of Paul.
In reading Paul he found the truth he read in the Platonists had been elevated with the exaltation of God's Grace.
Augustine seems to have held the Platonists as being on the right track but insufficient because of their lack of Christ.
St. Augustine
Book Seven
Ch. 1
Augustine struggles to move from a materialistic view of the world to get to a perfect God.
Ch. 2
Augustine struggles with how to understand the Incarnation with an adherence to materialism. It can't be done though because it would inevitably limit God to some extent, which is impossible.
Ch. 3
Augustine struggles with the problem of Evil. If God made the angels and an angel can fall to become the devil then is God the author of evil? No, that is self-evidently false.
Ch. 4
Augustine is convinced that God is incorruptible. He comes to this by a sort of ontological argument. Thus, from God's incorruptible nature he defines evil as a corruption of nature.
Ch. 5
Augustine still struggles with the problem of evil but the faith of Jesus Christ at the heart of Catholic Christianity began to take root in his heart.
Ch. 6
Augustine argues against astrology and reduces it from an art to a mere game of chance.
Ch. 7
Pride separated Augustine from God.
Ch. 8
The Lord is compassionate and heals the broken man.
Ch. 9
Augustine studied the Platonists and while he found wisdom in them he didn't find the gospel message, the Truth.
Ch. 10
Augustine came to the Truth about God's being through a mystical experience. Augustine asked a question, what is truth? God answered, "I AM" and Augustine understood that God is Truth and Truth is real.
Ch. 11
All things not God are both real and unreal. They are real insofar as they are created God. They are unreal insofar as they are not God.
Ch. 12
All things, insofar as they exist are good. They cannot be all-evil because then they would not exist. Evil then is a corruption resulting in the privation of a good in something.
Ch. 13
Augustine states it is above our station to critique the things that exist because while we can pray that our surroundings be better the very fact of having surroundings at all should move us to thank God.
Ch. 14
"There is no health in those who find fault with any part of thy creation". That's a strong statement, but one that bears true.
Once Augustine stopped critiquing creation he became contented in it and no longer struggled with these material distractions.
Ch. 15
God exists outside of time.
Ch. 16
"And I asked what wickedness was, and I found that it was no substance, but a perversion of the will bent aside from thee, O God, the supreme substance, toward these lower things, casting away its inmost treasure and becoming bloated with external good"
Ch. 17
Augustine struggled with having mentally arrived at the truth and now bending his will to it.
Ch. 18
It took the mediation of Christ to truly connect Augustine to God. Try as he could, he could not reach God through mental activity.
One must forsake pride, lowering it, so that love may be heightened in order for one to throw one's self upon God and be lifted up.
Ch. 19
Augustine struggled then with Christological heresies. He and Alypius each embraced opposite ends of the nature of Christ that were heretical, focusing too much on either the human nature or the divine nature in Jesus before both finally being converted to the Catholic faith.
Ch. 20
Augustine followed the Platonists in searching for the incorporeal Truth. It led him to note that the invisible things of God were made visible to him by Creation.
The Platonists sort of primed the pump for Augustine to study Scripture.
Ch. 21
Augustine found he now enjoyed the Scriptures, especially the writings of Paul.
In reading Paul he found the truth he read in the Platonists had been elevated with the exaltation of God's Grace.
Augustine seems to have held the Platonists as being on the right track but insufficient because of their lack of Christ.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Notes on Confessions Book VI
Confessions
St. Augustine
Book VI
Ch.1
Augustine's mother, Monica, is portrayed as a devout Christian, unsurprised by God answering her prayers yet still devoted to praying for the final salvation of her son.
Ch. 2
Again Monica is shown to be a devout Christian, giving up a custom that involved her venerating the saints (as she had learned in North Africa). She gave it up because Ambrose had forbidden it, for fear it would lead other, living saints into sin (drunkenness) and that it appeared to close to other pagan traditions.
Ch. 3
Augustine learns that some of his mistrust of Christian theology stemmed from his own misconceptions of what Christian's believed, not the true faith in Christ.
Ch. 4
Ambrose preached the spirit of Christianity, invoking 2 Corinthians 3:6, "The letter kills, but the spirit gives live".
Augustine uses an analogy of a bad and good physician to illuminate the status of his soul at this post-Manichean, pre-Catholic experience: It was as if having been to a bad physician (Manichean teaching) he was afraid of the cure (faith) lest he believe again in error. Thus, having had the experience of the bad physician he was hesitant to place his fate in the hands of a good physician (Christianity) and thus, refusing to accept the cure (faith in Jesus).
Ch. 5
Augustine gradually accepted the Catholic faith, choosing to listen more to the pious believers who felt assured of things rather than the faithless who asked blasphemous questions for the sake of being blasphemous.
At this point Augustine begins his transformation and changes his view on the Holy Scriptures he once reviled. "Thus, since we are too weak by unaided reason to find out truth, and since, because of this, we need the authority of the Holy Writings, I had now begun to believe that thou wouldst not, under any circumstances, have given such eminent authority to those Scriptures throughout all lands if it had not been that through them thy will may be believed in and that thou mightest be sought"
Ch. 6
Augustine thanks God for not letting anything but God himself grow sweet in Augustine's acquisitions. Thus, he was forced to continue pursuing God.
Augustine relates an experience he had with a beggar. The beggar was happy, probably because he was full and drunk. Augustine at the moment of seeing him was miserable, wracked with struggles. He notes though, if one were to ask him whether he would prefer to be happy or miserable he would choose to be happy. Yet, if one were to ask him whether he would prefer to be himself or the beggar he would choose to be himself. Of course, he notes, that the drunkard would sober up and no longer be happy, but he had attained the momentary happiness by begging and in all of Augustine's struggles he had not achieved happiness. Was all his searching in vain? Was all his searching done from a standpoint of vanity?
Ch. 7
God uses the things we do both wittingly and unwittingly towards his ends.
Ch. 8
This chapter deals with how Alypius, a younger friend/contemporary of Augustine's became obsessed with the Gladiatorial games. It's a good section to look at on how one can slip into sin or even into addiction.
Ch. 9
This chapter deals with how Alypius was falsely accused of theft and how God brought about him being proven innocent with no witnesses.
Ch. 10
Alypius and Nebridius joined Augustine in Milan and all three sought the truth but were miserable because they sought it apart from God. They sought the beauty and truth of the created things not the creator.
Ch. 11
If life perished with the body then God would not have gone to such extremes to save the souls of men.
Ch. 12
Augustine argues with Alypius stating that he doesn't want to be celibate. Even though Alypius was correct, the lust in Augustine was too strong to be denounced and abandoned. He wanted to be married to satisfy his lust and give his lust a presentable veneer.
Ch. 13
Monica agreed that Augustine should be married but she didn't get the same conviction from God about it as she had received regarding her son's eventual conversion. She offered motherly advice but nothing forceful or strong, stating, "For she always said that she could distinguish, by a certain feeling impossible to describe, between thy revelation and the dreams of her own soul.
Ch. 14
Augustine tried to get his buddies up to about a group of ten to form a commune to study and learn the truth. This never made it past the planning stages.
Ch. 15
Augustine loses his mistress and mother of his child to prepare for a marriage. It grieved him and he soon took another mistress to satiate his lust.
Ch. 16
"Woe to the audacious soul which hoped that by forsaking thee it would find some better thing!"
St. Augustine
Book VI
Ch.1
Augustine's mother, Monica, is portrayed as a devout Christian, unsurprised by God answering her prayers yet still devoted to praying for the final salvation of her son.
Ch. 2
Again Monica is shown to be a devout Christian, giving up a custom that involved her venerating the saints (as she had learned in North Africa). She gave it up because Ambrose had forbidden it, for fear it would lead other, living saints into sin (drunkenness) and that it appeared to close to other pagan traditions.
Ch. 3
Augustine learns that some of his mistrust of Christian theology stemmed from his own misconceptions of what Christian's believed, not the true faith in Christ.
Ch. 4
Ambrose preached the spirit of Christianity, invoking 2 Corinthians 3:6, "The letter kills, but the spirit gives live".
Augustine uses an analogy of a bad and good physician to illuminate the status of his soul at this post-Manichean, pre-Catholic experience: It was as if having been to a bad physician (Manichean teaching) he was afraid of the cure (faith) lest he believe again in error. Thus, having had the experience of the bad physician he was hesitant to place his fate in the hands of a good physician (Christianity) and thus, refusing to accept the cure (faith in Jesus).
Ch. 5
Augustine gradually accepted the Catholic faith, choosing to listen more to the pious believers who felt assured of things rather than the faithless who asked blasphemous questions for the sake of being blasphemous.
At this point Augustine begins his transformation and changes his view on the Holy Scriptures he once reviled. "Thus, since we are too weak by unaided reason to find out truth, and since, because of this, we need the authority of the Holy Writings, I had now begun to believe that thou wouldst not, under any circumstances, have given such eminent authority to those Scriptures throughout all lands if it had not been that through them thy will may be believed in and that thou mightest be sought"
Ch. 6
Augustine thanks God for not letting anything but God himself grow sweet in Augustine's acquisitions. Thus, he was forced to continue pursuing God.
Augustine relates an experience he had with a beggar. The beggar was happy, probably because he was full and drunk. Augustine at the moment of seeing him was miserable, wracked with struggles. He notes though, if one were to ask him whether he would prefer to be happy or miserable he would choose to be happy. Yet, if one were to ask him whether he would prefer to be himself or the beggar he would choose to be himself. Of course, he notes, that the drunkard would sober up and no longer be happy, but he had attained the momentary happiness by begging and in all of Augustine's struggles he had not achieved happiness. Was all his searching in vain? Was all his searching done from a standpoint of vanity?
Ch. 7
God uses the things we do both wittingly and unwittingly towards his ends.
Ch. 8
This chapter deals with how Alypius, a younger friend/contemporary of Augustine's became obsessed with the Gladiatorial games. It's a good section to look at on how one can slip into sin or even into addiction.
Ch. 9
This chapter deals with how Alypius was falsely accused of theft and how God brought about him being proven innocent with no witnesses.
Ch. 10
Alypius and Nebridius joined Augustine in Milan and all three sought the truth but were miserable because they sought it apart from God. They sought the beauty and truth of the created things not the creator.
Ch. 11
If life perished with the body then God would not have gone to such extremes to save the souls of men.
Ch. 12
Augustine argues with Alypius stating that he doesn't want to be celibate. Even though Alypius was correct, the lust in Augustine was too strong to be denounced and abandoned. He wanted to be married to satisfy his lust and give his lust a presentable veneer.
Ch. 13
Monica agreed that Augustine should be married but she didn't get the same conviction from God about it as she had received regarding her son's eventual conversion. She offered motherly advice but nothing forceful or strong, stating, "For she always said that she could distinguish, by a certain feeling impossible to describe, between thy revelation and the dreams of her own soul.
Ch. 14
Augustine tried to get his buddies up to about a group of ten to form a commune to study and learn the truth. This never made it past the planning stages.
Ch. 15
Augustine loses his mistress and mother of his child to prepare for a marriage. It grieved him and he soon took another mistress to satiate his lust.
Ch. 16
"Woe to the audacious soul which hoped that by forsaking thee it would find some better thing!"
Notes on Confessions Book V
Confessions
St. Augustine
Book V
Ch. 1
The Lord sees into all hearts, even the hard and closed ones. He will soften and heal those hearts according to His will.
Ch. 2
The wicked flee God's gentleness to collide with His justice.
"Thou art near even to those who go farthest from thee"
"Thou art the Lord, who canst remake what thou didst make and can comfort them"
Ch. 3
Religious men ask, "what is the source of the intelligence by which they investigate?" The prideful discover many true things about creation without learning the Truth of the Creator.
Ch. 4
God isn't pleased by the man who knows a lot but doesn't know Him.
Ch. 5
Augustine attacks Mani for presuming to teach what he does not know. He condemns Mani for impersonating the Holy Spirit falsely.
Ch. 6
An eloquence, when unfettered from truth, is like a gaudy chalice with a drink that doesn't quench the thirst.
Ch. 7
Augustine's interaction with the Manichean Bishop, Faustus, and Faustus' inability to help Augustine understand why Manicheism was preferable to other belief systems served as the final breaking point between Augustine and Manicheism.
Ch. 8
Augustine leaves Carthage and heads for Rome.
Augustine points out that his mother's prayers were not answered in the way she hoped for (he still left Carthage for Rome). God did not let her temporary request undermine His work and end goal for Augustine.
Ch. 9
The fetter of original sin is that we all die in Adam. But we can be forgiven in Christ.
Ch. 10
Sin was all the more uncurable because Augustine would not confess it.
Augustine even rejected the true faith because of his dualistic leanings. That dualism caused him many numerous problems.
Ch. 11
The dualism and belief in a great evil that makes God finite allowed him to twist and to fall prey to twisted theology.
Ch. 12
Rome did not turn out to be the paradise that Augustine had hoped for.
Ch. 13
Augustine goes to Milan and meets Ambrose. He is attracted to Ambrose because of his nature, even if Augustine was unwilling as of yet to hear Ambrose's message.
Ch. 14
Ambrose's teachings slowly changed Augustine.
Augustine joined the Catholic faith because the philosophers, in all their wisdom, could not offer the cure, they had not the salvation of Christ.
St. Augustine
Book V
Ch. 1
The Lord sees into all hearts, even the hard and closed ones. He will soften and heal those hearts according to His will.
Ch. 2
The wicked flee God's gentleness to collide with His justice.
"Thou art near even to those who go farthest from thee"
"Thou art the Lord, who canst remake what thou didst make and can comfort them"
Ch. 3
Religious men ask, "what is the source of the intelligence by which they investigate?" The prideful discover many true things about creation without learning the Truth of the Creator.
Ch. 4
God isn't pleased by the man who knows a lot but doesn't know Him.
Ch. 5
Augustine attacks Mani for presuming to teach what he does not know. He condemns Mani for impersonating the Holy Spirit falsely.
Ch. 6
An eloquence, when unfettered from truth, is like a gaudy chalice with a drink that doesn't quench the thirst.
Ch. 7
Augustine's interaction with the Manichean Bishop, Faustus, and Faustus' inability to help Augustine understand why Manicheism was preferable to other belief systems served as the final breaking point between Augustine and Manicheism.
Ch. 8
Augustine leaves Carthage and heads for Rome.
Augustine points out that his mother's prayers were not answered in the way she hoped for (he still left Carthage for Rome). God did not let her temporary request undermine His work and end goal for Augustine.
Ch. 9
The fetter of original sin is that we all die in Adam. But we can be forgiven in Christ.
Ch. 10
Sin was all the more uncurable because Augustine would not confess it.
Augustine even rejected the true faith because of his dualistic leanings. That dualism caused him many numerous problems.
Ch. 11
The dualism and belief in a great evil that makes God finite allowed him to twist and to fall prey to twisted theology.
Ch. 12
Rome did not turn out to be the paradise that Augustine had hoped for.
Ch. 13
Augustine goes to Milan and meets Ambrose. He is attracted to Ambrose because of his nature, even if Augustine was unwilling as of yet to hear Ambrose's message.
Ch. 14
Ambrose's teachings slowly changed Augustine.
Augustine joined the Catholic faith because the philosophers, in all their wisdom, could not offer the cure, they had not the salvation of Christ.
Closely Watched Trains
From Goodreads
Closely Watched Trains
Bohumil Hrabal
I enjoyed Closely Watched Trains more than Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age. Mainly, I enjoyed the former more than the latter because the former was written using more conventional punctuation. Hrabal combines absurdity and hilarious notions to highlight life during wartime and the success of resistance. It's poignant, dark and full of life. I thought it was a great book and I think I'd like to watch the movie.
Closely Watched Trains
Bohumil Hrabal
I enjoyed Closely Watched Trains more than Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age. Mainly, I enjoyed the former more than the latter because the former was written using more conventional punctuation. Hrabal combines absurdity and hilarious notions to highlight life during wartime and the success of resistance. It's poignant, dark and full of life. I thought it was a great book and I think I'd like to watch the movie.
Notes on Confessions Book IV
Confessions
St. Augustine
Book IV
Ch. 1
Augustine confesses his past sins so he can make a sacrificial offer.
He asks what is he without God, "For what am I to myself without thee but a guide to my own downfall?"
Ch. 2
"I knew not how to love thee because I knew not how to conceive of anything beyond corporeal splendors".
Ch. 3.
Augustine argues against astrology because it tries to take the blame rightly placed on individual men and transfer it to the heavens and the celestial bodies.
He condemns astrological predictions coming true, through the voice of an old wise man, as the combination of chance and the workings of the human mind to turn those events caused by chance to fit the prediction.
Ch. 4
"There is no true friendship save between those thou dost bind together and who cleave to thee by that love which is, 'shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given us'"
Augustine turned a friend away from God to his superstitions. Yet, God still followed the two men and saved the man who had fallen away from him before his death.
God is both, at once, the God of vengeance and a Fountain of Mercies
Ch. 5
Dealing with grief is easier with God than without.
Ch. 6
"Every soul is wretched that is fettered in the friendship of mortal things".
Augustine is so overcome with grief at the loss of his friend that he is falling apart. This extra passion and the violence it is causing his soul occurs because he does not know God, who can balance him.
Ch. 7
Grief without God: "All things looked gloomy even the very light itself". He found solace in weeping but when his soul no longer wept it was weighed down.
Grief with God: the weeping provides some relief but in the end one's soul is not weighed down, having been "raised up to thee, O Lord, for thee to lighten and lift it"
"Thus my error was my god"
Ch. 8
Time does strange things in the mind
Ch. 9
The only thing we cannot lose is God. Even if we lose him by rejecting Him we still find Him in the end, when we are punished for that rejection. Where can a man go to hide from God?
Ch. 10
"Wherever the soul of men turns itself, unless toward thee, it is enmeshed in sorrows"
The physical aspect of creation is good for what it was designed to do; but it cannot supersede the eternal. It cannot appoint its beginning or its end.
Ch. 11
"Do not let the tumult of your vanity deafen the ear of your heart"
The things of this earth perish. The things of God do not. Why then should my soul long for the perishable?
Even if we could perceive the whole of time and space in God's creation it would pale in comparison to God, the creator.
Ch. 12
If the physical creation pleases you, thank God for it. If another's soul pleases you, thank God for it. In essence, whatever your bent is (physical or spiritual), thank God for the gifts he gives that please you.
God is to be found wherever truth is.
Do not love the gift from God more than God the giver.
Ch. 13
Augustine's aesthetics formed a springboard for him towards finding God.
Ch. 14
Love and admiration of another without anchoring in God can be a selfish thing. Augustine loved and admired the orator in a way that he wanted to be loved and admired.
Love of another can stem from the other's popularity too. Augustine loved that orator because others loved him.
He then asked an interesting question: If others had not loved the orator then I would not have loved the orator. Yet, the orator's qualities would still be the same only the audience reactions would have changed. If this is the case, should one be loved and admired for the sake of their works, if their works are so susceptible to the tastes of the crowd?
Ch. 15
Evil is not a substance at all.
Like the emotions that stir up violent acts, the errors in our thinking contaminate the life of a rational soul.
All the knowledge and skill in learning is worth nothing if one errs by not understanding that all their knowledge flows from God.
"For our stability, when it is in thee, is stability indeed; but when it is in ourselves, then it is all unstable"
"And we need not fear that we shall find no place to return to because we fall away from it. For, in our absence, our home - which is thy eternity - does not fall away.
St. Augustine
Book IV
Ch. 1
Augustine confesses his past sins so he can make a sacrificial offer.
He asks what is he without God, "For what am I to myself without thee but a guide to my own downfall?"
Ch. 2
"I knew not how to love thee because I knew not how to conceive of anything beyond corporeal splendors".
Ch. 3.
Augustine argues against astrology because it tries to take the blame rightly placed on individual men and transfer it to the heavens and the celestial bodies.
He condemns astrological predictions coming true, through the voice of an old wise man, as the combination of chance and the workings of the human mind to turn those events caused by chance to fit the prediction.
Ch. 4
"There is no true friendship save between those thou dost bind together and who cleave to thee by that love which is, 'shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given us'"
Augustine turned a friend away from God to his superstitions. Yet, God still followed the two men and saved the man who had fallen away from him before his death.
God is both, at once, the God of vengeance and a Fountain of Mercies
Ch. 5
Dealing with grief is easier with God than without.
Ch. 6
"Every soul is wretched that is fettered in the friendship of mortal things".
Augustine is so overcome with grief at the loss of his friend that he is falling apart. This extra passion and the violence it is causing his soul occurs because he does not know God, who can balance him.
Ch. 7
Grief without God: "All things looked gloomy even the very light itself". He found solace in weeping but when his soul no longer wept it was weighed down.
Grief with God: the weeping provides some relief but in the end one's soul is not weighed down, having been "raised up to thee, O Lord, for thee to lighten and lift it"
"Thus my error was my god"
Ch. 8
Time does strange things in the mind
Ch. 9
The only thing we cannot lose is God. Even if we lose him by rejecting Him we still find Him in the end, when we are punished for that rejection. Where can a man go to hide from God?
Ch. 10
"Wherever the soul of men turns itself, unless toward thee, it is enmeshed in sorrows"
The physical aspect of creation is good for what it was designed to do; but it cannot supersede the eternal. It cannot appoint its beginning or its end.
Ch. 11
"Do not let the tumult of your vanity deafen the ear of your heart"
The things of this earth perish. The things of God do not. Why then should my soul long for the perishable?
Even if we could perceive the whole of time and space in God's creation it would pale in comparison to God, the creator.
Ch. 12
If the physical creation pleases you, thank God for it. If another's soul pleases you, thank God for it. In essence, whatever your bent is (physical or spiritual), thank God for the gifts he gives that please you.
God is to be found wherever truth is.
Do not love the gift from God more than God the giver.
Ch. 13
Augustine's aesthetics formed a springboard for him towards finding God.
Ch. 14
Love and admiration of another without anchoring in God can be a selfish thing. Augustine loved and admired the orator in a way that he wanted to be loved and admired.
Love of another can stem from the other's popularity too. Augustine loved that orator because others loved him.
He then asked an interesting question: If others had not loved the orator then I would not have loved the orator. Yet, the orator's qualities would still be the same only the audience reactions would have changed. If this is the case, should one be loved and admired for the sake of their works, if their works are so susceptible to the tastes of the crowd?
Ch. 15
Evil is not a substance at all.
Like the emotions that stir up violent acts, the errors in our thinking contaminate the life of a rational soul.
All the knowledge and skill in learning is worth nothing if one errs by not understanding that all their knowledge flows from God.
"For our stability, when it is in thee, is stability indeed; but when it is in ourselves, then it is all unstable"
"And we need not fear that we shall find no place to return to because we fall away from it. For, in our absence, our home - which is thy eternity - does not fall away.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Alice in Wonderland
From Goodreads
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Lewis Carroll
I enjoyed reading this very much. I enjoy the fairy tale element of it because I like fairy tales and similar stories; but, what I really enjoyed about this book is how Carroll created an illogical logic that permeated the world. It's obviously aimed at a young audience but it is still captivating at any age.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Lewis Carroll
I enjoyed reading this very much. I enjoy the fairy tale element of it because I like fairy tales and similar stories; but, what I really enjoyed about this book is how Carroll created an illogical logic that permeated the world. It's obviously aimed at a young audience but it is still captivating at any age.
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