Introduction
Saint Augustine (Augustine, 354 – 430 AD) of Hippo was an important saint of the Christian faith who served as the bishop of Hippo Regius in Africa during the years of the latter part of the third century. The holy saint wrote a series of 13 books that helped to define the concept of Sin and just war as regarded by Christians. The holy saint led a life full of sin in his youth. The book chronicles his journey from his infancy when he committed theft and took pursuits of lust. The paper examines the concept of sin as defined by the holy saint.
Discussion of the concept of sin
Pine (1961) has provided a translation of the 13 books written by the Holy Father. The texts reveal the journey and moral dilemma that St. Augustine felt through his infancy, his growing years, to the time when he realized his true calling to god and his definition of how the universe was created. The book narrates the definition and concept of sins such as theft, the lust of the flesh and women to whom one is not married, murder for gain and also for the lust of killing, and so on.
The book creates sharp differences in the concept of the body which is a receptacle, the spirit which is the doer, and the Universe which is the provider of all things. St. Augustine has created sharp differences in the way in which the three are interrelated. The spirit or the soul is the embodiment of life and gives each person a unique identity. It controls the mind, which controls the body and makes the body do what it wants. Now the soul is not independent of influences of the universe and there are influences that are good as well as bad that direct it. A soul that is upright and sinless will ignore all the temptations of the flesh, ill wealth, and other pursuits that the universe offers. The mind and the spirit attempt to wage a battle to see if lust would prevail or a sinless life would prevail. The outcome would decide if the person takes up sin or would rather take up a life of religion.
In Book 1 (Pine, p. 25) St. Augustine speaks of the early years when he was a baby and did not know about life. He sets the tone for the book when he speaks of God as the all-pervading embodiment that gives life. He speaks also of the early days when he was a baby and all the emotions were restricted to sleep, waking up, laughing, flinging the limbs, and making attempts to convey basic wishes through feeble gestures and signs and by waving about the limbs. The saint also speaks of the indignation he felt like a baby when the elders did not wait on him slaves and he resorted to crying as a tool to get their attention. He speaks of the innate desire of the baby who is weak in body but not in mind and who wishes to get what it wants, without trying to understand or reason why this wish should be granted.
In Book 2 (Pine, p. 43) St. Augustine starts speaking of the onset of puberty and the hot onset of lust. There is an incident of the theft of pears from a neighbor’s garden and St. Augustine speaks of the moral dilemma he faced in the act of sin. He was quite well off and did not really need to steal and he had no hunger but the pears represented the forbidden fruits and he and his friends lusted for the fruits. After eating a little, they threw the remaining to the swine’s and this is where the journey of corruption and sinning begins. When the Saint was a youth and lush with lust, the beauties of the region beckoned to him and he faced an inner turmoil as the scriptures forbid an unmarried from tasting the forbidden fruit that was the woman or another person’s woman, but his lust needed a release. The book narrates his journey of sin when he says:
“Behold with what companions I walked the streets of Babylon! I rolled in its mire and lolled about on it, as if on a bed of spices and precious ointments. And, drawing me more closely to the very center of that city, my invisible enemy trod me down and seduced me, for I was easy to seduce” (Book 2, Chapter III, p. 45).
St. Augustine also speaks of the motive for murder and suggests that a person will kill another because he desires the victim’s wealth, wife, or for revenge and any other motive. He also speaks of killers who kill without any motive but for the lust of the kill and that again is the greatest motive (p. 45).
St Augustine is very vocal in suggesting that when a man does not become a subscriber to the faith and foregoes his faith, he becomes a eunuch in the field of lust and sin as these overpower his senses and he becomes powerless to resist the wild and wanton feelings and acts of depravity that the mind forces on the soul.
“Thus the soul commits fornication when she is turned from thee, and seeks apart from thee what she cannot find pure and untainted until she returns to thee. All things thus imitate thee–but pervertedly–when they separate themselves far from thee and raise themselves up against thee.” (Book 2, Chapter VI, p. 50)
In Book III, St. Augustine speaks of his student days in Carthage when his inner turmoil and propensity to sin were at their height. He speaks of his soul, which was unhealthy and itching and could only be satiated by more lust. He also became a follower of the Manichean heresy and how he managed to return from its fold.
“Thus I polluted the spring of friendship with the filth of concupiscence and I dimmed its luster with the slime of lust. Yet, foul and unclean as I was, I still craved, in excessive vanity, to be thought elegant and urbane” (Book 3, Chapter 1, p. 55)
It is in Book 5 (p. 91) that St. Augustine is disillusioned with the Manichean order and there are no answers to his question. He speaks of how he understood that foregoing the Christian order in itself was an act of sin and he returns back to the fold and takes up a teaching position in Rome.
Conclusion
The book by St. Augustine should serve as a moral guide for all people who are at the threshold of life and do not know if they should take a life of lust and sin or take a sinless life. The saint has also shown how the universe, the body, and the spirit are related.
References
Augustine Saint. 354-430 AD. Confessions and Enchiridion (Trans. Albert C. Outler 1955). Web.
Pine-Coffin R. S. 1961. Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo. Penguin Classics; New Impression edition. ISBN-13: 978-0140441147