101 pages • 3 hours read
Saint AugustineConfessions
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 400A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Index of Terms
The Academics
The Academics (also known as Skeptics or Academic Skeptics) were a group of philosophers who believed that humans are incapable of knowing anything for certain. The philosophy, which traces its roots back to Ancient Greece, received its clearest articulation through the writings of Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero, its most notable adherent. Augustine encountered the Academics when he lived in Rome, a time of great personal uncertainty that made their ideas attractive to him. However, he ultimately abandoned this philosophy, certain that there were spiritual truths to be found if pursued with sufficient time and effort.
Manicheism
Manicheism (also written as Manichaeism) was a major religion that emerged out of the Sasanian Empire (modern Iran) in the third century CE. Following the ministry of an Iranian prophet named Mani, Manichees (also referred to as Manicheans or Manichaeans) believed in a dualistic universe in which a good, spiritual god of light battled against an evil, material god of darkness. Manicheism incorporated the teachings of figures as diverse as Buddha and Jesus and was viewed as a major threat by much of the Roman world, because of both the ways Manichean teachings challenged mainstream religious values and the religion’s association with Persia, Rome’s longtime rival. However, their teachings, especially their explanation of evil, appealed to Augustine, who spent about a decade as a Manichee. Because of their negative reputation among Christians, this part of Augustine’s past was a source of unease for many of his Christian followers, and he likely wrote Confessions in part to quell their suspicions. In the century following Augustine’s death, Manicheism all but disappeared from the Roman Empire, though it lasted in China nearly a thousand years longer.
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism was a school of thinking developed by Egyptian philosopher Plotinus in the third century CE. Inspired by the ideas of Plato, in particular his theory of forms, Plotinus believed that all reality traces its source to “the One,” a unity of spiritual essence that created everything else through an overflow of perfection. The remainder of creation, Neoplatonists asserted, was divided between soul, the lowest tier of existence, and intellect, which stands in the middle. Humans naturally regard and value the soul, which includes everything perceivable with the senses, but through intellect humans can come to recognize and unite with the One. Success in this endeavor allows for a rational and meaningful life. Augustine found in Neoplatonism the framework he needed to conceptualize how sin could exist in a universe created by an all-powerful, infinitely good God, and his articulation of these ideas in texts like Confessions would have lasting and permanent influence over Christian theology.
Original Sin
Original sin, a concept that is central to Christianity for many of its followers, is the idea that human beings are morally flawed from birth, having inherited their sin from the first man, Adam, as a result of his original sin of disobeying God in the Garden of Eden. Though the roots of original sin go back to the third century, Augustine is credited with naming and articulating it for the first time in Confessions. Augustine’s conceptualization of original sin constitutes a fundamental aspect of his understanding of Christianity, accounting for his belief in complete human dependence on God’s forgiveness and mercy.
