Augustines Confessions: What Was Its Effects on the Medieval World?
St. Augustine Confessions: What Was the Effect On Medieval Europe? St. Augustine was born as the Roman Empire was collapsing. Intellectual Christians decided that ancient wisdom needed to be preserved. The writings of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, etc were being read. Augustine was one such intellectual. After reading Cicero’s Hortensius (now lost), he embraced a quest for knowledge and faith. It is my contention that these two goals are not compatible. To seek knowledge is a laudable one but since one cannot attain these opposing goals at the same time, Augustine fell into the all too common pitfall of mistaking belief for knowledge. It is also my contention that despite his personal thirst for knowledge, he was quite willing to rob the masses of it. Through his Confessions, this paper explores the early part of Augustine’s life and conversion to Christianity and using City of God and other writings of his along with modern writers, prove that he used religion as a means to control and to
