It is mentioned in the article that Augustine was born at Tagaste (now Nigeria). Tagaste is actually ALGERIA east of MOROCCO.
Just to clarify
It is mentioned in the article that Augustine was born at Tagaste (now Nigeria). Tagaste is actually ALGERIA east of MOROCCO.
Just to clarify
Oddly enough, yesterday, May 4, was the Feast Day of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine.
The Confessions may be my favorite book. It is probably the first book in history that gives us an in-depth personal outlook. I've read it only three times, and the last time I read it I decided to take it to a lonely beach house for one week and read it as slowly and as attentively as possible. My favorite chapter is Book 11. This chapter is on "time". I never realized previously to reading this chapter how wonderful time is. In my own words, what Augustine is doing is showing us how we divide time into past and future. The present is such a slight moment, that it can be in turn divided into unrecognizably small parts. Think of the stop-watches they use at the Olympics. How many parts is one second divided into? And scientists speak of billionths of millionths of parts of seconds. A second turns out to be a really long stretch of time! So, where is the present? Augustine shows us that the present is the only miniscule slit in our lives where we can transcend ourselves upward through time and toward the Unchanging Being. That is where true reality is. Augustine tells us that the past really does not exist once it's over. And most of us walk around in life with that load on our backs. And the future? Neither does that exist, because it is still nowhere in sight. We think the future exists, and it does not, and still we are worried about something that doesn't even exist! This is incredible to read at first, but then, when you think about it, it totally relaxes you because you finally realize that the present is all that counts. If you wish to read this chapter (called Book 11), you can do so even without reading the rest of the Confessions. The first nine chapters are relatively easy to read. The last four are much more difficult and can be read as a kind of study. If I had not approached them as a study, I don't think I ever would have understood them. In fact, the first two times I read the Confessions, I was totally left in the dark about the last four chapters.
Last edited by Truthlover; 08-16-2009 at 12:08 AM.
What Augustine says about time finds an echo in Ludwig Wittgenstein (†1951) who says: "If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present."
That sounds like an interesting chapter.Originally Posted by Truthlover
I have read some of Augustine's Confessions but the book I had ended at chapter 10. I'll have to take a look at 11.
Here is one of my favorite passages. Augustine struggles with his old self before surrendering his life to God.
"...but Thou, O Lord, while he (Pontitianus) was speaking, didst turn me round towards myself, taking me from behind my back where I had placed me, unwilling to observe myself; and setting me before my face, that I might see how foul I was, how crooked and defiled, bespotted and ulcerous. And I beheld and stood aghast; and whither to flee from myself I found not. And if I sought to turn mine eye from off myself, he went on with his relation, and Thou again didst set me over against myself, and thrustedst me before my eyes, that I might find out mine iniquity, and hate it. I had known it, but made as though I saw it not, winked at it, and forgot it."
I just love it. Conjures up quite a picture.
"I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept." Dylan Thomas
Thank you, Return Journey. I hope you have found chapter 11. It is truly liberating. At least that was the experience I had.
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