The Late Antique World Augustine, The Confessions, bks. I-VIII St.

Augustine (354-430) was one of the most influential thinkers of Christianity. He was the son of a devout Christian (Monica) and a pagan father (Patricius, who converted to Christianity late in life). He came from a middle class or upper-middle class family that spoke Latin, not Berber, in the home, and he received a traditional Roman education in Carthage. As a young man he was extremely attracted to the Manichaean and later Neoplatonic schools, and he taught rhetoric in Carthage, Rome, and Milan. It was in Milan where he fell under the influence of St. Jerome, famous today for his translation of the Bible into Latin. Ultimately, after a conversion experience that is the subject of The Confessions, he became bishop of Hippo (near Tunis). His writings played a crucial role in defining Christian orthodoxy in religious, political, and philosophical matters. His Confessions is the most important autobiography in European history and also, for our purposes, an important source for the Latin Antique World. 1. Augustines Confessions narrate his gradual acceptance of and ultimate conversion to Christianity. Along the way, Augustine touches upon many other currents of religious or philosophical feeling. What does his autobiography reveal about the milieu of late antique religiosity? What were the chief theological or moral problems, at least for Augustine? What did Manichaeanism, Neoplatonism, and Christianity have in common? What role did paganism or astrology play in this religious culture? 2. Augustine had a typical, albeit provincial, late Roman upbringing. What clues do The Confessions provide about Roman education in Augustines day? For what did such education prepare one? At the time of Augustines death, the Empire was already showing signs of strain (the city of Roman was sacked in 410). Do The Confessions offer any indication of differences between the Western and Eastern halves of the Empire? What does Augustines travel itinerary indicate about his world? 3. One of Augustines lasting (and controversial) contributions to Christianity was the articulation of a new perspective on sin. And indeed, Augustine devotes much of The Confessions to detailing his sins. What were his principal sins as an infant, a boy, and a man? Why were those activities sinful? What are sin and evil, and how do they enter the world? How might other influences on Augustine (Manichaeanism, Neoplatonism, etc.) have affected his views? 4. Some historians believe that Christianity helped create an interior life, in place of the public self that had defined identity in the Greco-Roman world. What motivated the interior life depicted in The Confessions? What features of Christianity and other late antique religions might have promoted interiority? Does Augustines autobiography provide any indications about the lingering influence of a public model of the self?