Augustine Of Hippo ( 354-430 ) - 1464 Words

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was a North African man who took an extremely tumultuous path to sainthood. In his early years, he led a crazy and immoral lifestyle. A driven professor of rhetoric, Augustine’s had lofty worldly goals and a weak sense of conscience. His intense drive to be successful would later create a major problem for him when trying to fully give his life to God. At an early age, Augustine began thinking his mother’s strong sense of Christianity was too uneducated for him. Because he was used to his scholarly readings, he found the Bible to be written in an extremely unsophisticated way. This, along with questions behind the truth of the Old Testament, led him to convert to Manichaean beliefs as a young man.†¦show more content†¦Because of his dealings with Faustus, Augustine learns an important lesson that content is more important than delivery when looking for spiritual truth. During Augustine’s time as a Manichaean, he conver ses with Faustus, a North African sage who is known to be extremely persuasive in Manichaean beliefs. This takes place when Augustine is in Carthage at age twenty-nine. Augustine truly admires his eloquence in speaking, and he â€Å"was delighted by the force and feeling he brought to his discourse† (Confessions V.vi.11). He is also impressed by Faustus’ modesty because of the fact that Faustus will readily admit his lack of knowledge in certain subjects and won’t proceed in an argument or explanation unless he has sufficient knowledge. However, Augustine realizes that this â€Å"lack of training in liberal arts† that Faustus exhibits leads to his inability to sufficiently answer the questions that Augustine has about certain Manichaean beliefs (V.vii.12). Augustine is one of the few people that is able to see through Faustus’ articulate and educated speech and realize that the content is lacking. Because of this, Faustus, â€Å"who had been for many a ‘snare of death’ (Ps. 17:6), without his will or knowledge had begun to loosen the bond by which [Augustine] had been captured† (V.vii.13). Augustine’s conclusion that Faustus’ persuasive power wasn’t rooted in substance but in his eloquent discourse