'God' in Augustine's Confessions

Text based on my paper ‘God in Augustine’s Confessions : Manichaean and Other Early Christian Views in Conflict’, Conference ‘Manichaeism and Early Christianity’, Pretoria, 21-23 March 2019. Abstract : When reading through Augustine’s Confessions, one notices a striking variety of descriptions of G...

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Bibliographic Details
Author:Johannes van Oort
Pages:18
Language:English
Format:Online Resource
Topic:- Works > Confessiones > Conf. I
- Works > Confessiones > Conf. III
- Works > Confessiones > Conf. V
- Works > Confessiones > Conf. VI
- Works > Confessiones > Conf. VII
- Works > Confessiones > Topics > God
- Doctrine > God. Trinity > God > [Conception humaine de Dieu]
Status:Active
Description
Summary:Text based on my paper ‘God in Augustine’s Confessions : Manichaean and Other Early Christian Views in Conflict’, Conference ‘Manichaeism and Early Christianity’, Pretoria, 21-23 March 2019. Abstract : When reading through Augustine’s Confessions, one notices a striking variety of descriptions of God. The aim of this paper is to discern and—as far as possible—to interpret these various descriptions. Our main focus will be on pivotal texts from Books 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7. They document how much Manichaean views played a part in Augustine’s quest, and how closely this quest was linked to his ideas about evil. Briefly stated, Augustine’s search went from anthropomorphic-spatial thinking about God to corporeal/material-spatial and even panentheistic ideas and then (mainly under the inspiration of Neoplatonic philosophy, i.e. in all likelihood Plotinus’ Enneads) to a strictly spiritual and non-spatial understanding. But in all this, Manichaean ways of thought and even concepts remained present until the end.

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