/lit/ - Literature

I started and stopped at Platonism, it just makes the most sense to me. I'm already not a materialist so it's easy for me to accept the reality of the Forms.

The only slight modification was when I read Augustine's City of God and he tweaks Platonism by adding God as the source of all the Forms and the one who maintains them. So I suppose technically I am an Augustinian, metaphysically.

>original sin
>temporal fall
>filioque
>nonexistence of past and future
>limbo
>baby hell
>divine command theory
>willfull erection control
>predestination
>total depravity
>just war theory
>ineradicable priesthood
how was one guy responsible for so many trash ideas?

>>22916255
Yeah, OP you should start with Confessions, it's more digestable. When you're more big-brained you can read City of God.

That said, there is SOME fun thinking in Confessions. Augustine presents a pretty cool theory of time.

But mostly it's an account of his life, addressed to God. Considered the world's first autobiography. His memorializing of his mother, Saint Monica, is a particularly moving passage.

>>22480369
"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

Tomorrow is Augustine's feast day, it's pretty exciting. I almost always forget it but I remembered it this year. Augustine is my favorite major Catholic thinker. I like him even more than Aquinas. He speaks to me on some greater level that Aquinas does not.

>>22361302
>are they ideas within the mind of God?

This is Augustine's conclusion. It's why, while it's proper to call Christian Aristotelians Thomists, it's also proper to call Christian Platonists Augustinians.

Augustine and Aquinas basically serve the same function in theology that Plato and Aristotle serve in philosophy. You've got to pick one of them.

>>22278486
Augustine doesn't need to be critiqued.

>>22225563
Oh, so now you're attacking Augustine, arguably the greatest theologian in the entire history of the Catholic Church.

Fun fact: Aquinas cites Augustine heavily. So does Bonaventure. Catholic teaching is inextricably bound up with what Augustine teaches.

But of course DBH being an Ortho it's not surprising he goes after Augustine. I'm sure he has unpleasant words to say about the Roman Church in general.

The two languages that it is acceptable to read translated are Greek and Russian, because having to learn an entirely different alphabet on top of learning a new language is a tall order for even the sharpest of minds.

If you are raised in the West on the normal alphabet you should be able to learn Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German, and read what was written in those languages. No one's saying you have to do it overnight, but especially with poetry you should be less inclined to read works from these languages in translation.

>>21434495
>Manichaeism is the one true faith. It embraces Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism and Buddhism

We've already beaten all your heresies into the dirt. You're not special or unique. Everything you can think of that Catholicism got "wrong" has been refuted by one of the Doctors of the Church.

Pic related, Manichaeism was the heresy Augustine specialized in refuting.

>>21378222
If he already has the Confessions then get him one of Augustine's dialogues. I really love On Free Choice Of The Will. Honestly all of /lit/ should read it since I know you fuckers love debating free will and its existence.

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Choice-Will-Hackett-Classics/dp/0872201880/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16XJVWEPIWV4U&keywords=augustine+on+free+choice+of+the+will&qid=1670978273&sprefix=augustine+on+free%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1

>>21318111
>>21318229
I find this really ironic because to me Augustine is immensely hopeful and full of love for God. Yeah, he thinks the great mass of humanity is wicked, sinful, and corrupt. But for Augustine, God loves us anyway, and tries His hardest to save us anyway, and this makes God immensely good and beautiful. And the goodness of God, in turn, redeems the world and the human race that God has made.

Augustine is only "misanthropic" if you don't believe in the Resurrection. Which I suppose Schoppy didn't.

St. Augustine