Use these questions as you continue reading the Confessions, which we will discuss in class on Thursday, 3/17. We will discuss the first set of questions as a large group. We will discuss the second set in small groups, so you should be ready to share your conclusions with the class. Whenever possible find supporting passages from the text to illustrate or substantiate your response.
Please work through all the questions. Choose any of the questions on Books VII to IX for your one-two page response. Be sure you develop a thesis or argument in response to whichever question you choose, and provide evidence from the text (with quotes and/or page numbers) to support your thesis.On Books I-VI
1. At around what age (and/or stage of his career) did Augustine write this work? (See pp.19-20.) What might be the significance of this? What do you think was his purpose in writing?
2. What is the significance of the account of the pear tree in Book II.4? Why do you think Augustine includes this episode in his work?
3. To what extent and in what ways did Augustine's education shape him and his thoughts about life? (Be specific.)
4. What role did friendship play in Augustine's life? Discuss some specific examples, not only from book IV but from later in the Confessions as well.
5. Who were the Manichees (see Book V in particular)? What did they believe, and what attracted Augustine to their teachings? Why did he begin to question their views?
6. What factors (people, teachings, experiences, etc.) begin to move him more toward Christian faith at the end of Book V and in Book VI?
7. What were the philosophical and/or theolgocial issues or questions that most perplexed Augustine in his youth and young manhood?
*What did you think of Augustine as a person? Did you like him
or not? Could you identify with him in any specific situations,
or
did you find his struggles very different from those of an average
contemporary
university student?
On Books VII-X
1. Augustine was a great theologian. Although his Confessions were
written relatively early in his career, many of his main theological
ideas
are already present in this work. Judging from this text, what
would
you say were some of Augustine's major teachings? (If you choose
this question for your written response, focus on one major theological idea.)
2. In Book V Augustine described his involvement with the Manichees. In Book VII he acknowledges that he also benefited from the books of the "Platonists", i.e. neo-platonists. How was he helped by neo-platonic philsophy? Where does he part company with the neo-platonists?
3. For Augustine, what is the goal of the Xn life or the spiritual journey? (He uses different metaphors to describe this. See for example 7.10 & 17. and 10.20)
4. What role does Marius Victorinus play in Augustine's life? He was long dead by the time Augustine wrote the Confessions, but stories about him had obviously influenced Augustine's conversion. Why?
5. At what point in his account would you say Augustine was "converted" to Christianity. How does this conversion compare with his earlier decision to follow the Manichees? (How does Augustine understand conversion?)
-Why do you think the passage Augustine read from the Bible in 8.12 was so significant for him?
6. The autobiographical part of the book ends with Book 9.
What
do you think is the purpose of Book 10 (which most scholars feel was
written
later)?
*[For discussion, but not for written response] Book 10 contains
many of Augustine’s
reflections
on happiness. What do you think of his assessment of human
happiness?
(See 10.22, 23 & 27 in particular.) Do you agree or disagree
with his view of people as you consider people today?