Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31337/oz.72.3.1
Confessions — Augustine’s Protreptic
Marina Novina
orcid.org/0000-0001-7926-8330
; Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Confessions of Aurelius Augustine is exceptionally multi–layered, and so its philosophical dimension often goes unnoticed. However, upon immersing ourselves in the content and structure of the Confessions, we find it to be an outstanding philosophical work permeated by all manner of philosophical topics (eg. God, the soul, man, the world, happiness, love, knowledge, truth, etc.) on the metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, educational and linguistic levels. Moreover, a classification of philosophical topics and questions reveals that philosophy was an enduring component of Augustine’s life, and since he understood it to be the love of truth, Augustine appears to be exhorting the reader to philosophy in order that the reader might also devise a basis for a confessio and thus become a true philosopher, or rather a person enamoured of God. Thus, we may consider the Confessions to be Augustine’s exhortation to philosophy, but also his original answer to the question: is Augustine a philosopher? That he was a philosopher is substantiated by the fact that in his time it was held that theology presupposes philosophy and that indeed, when seen in this context, one cannot be understood without the other. Furthermore, Augustine may be regarded as a philosopher also in terms of contemporary thought. Namely, he dealt with the majority of pertinent philosophical topics using the same „method“ as do contemporary philosophers. Insight into the content and structure of the Confessions superbly affirms this conclusion. Thus we can say that the Confessions reveal the originality, topicality and significance of Augustine’s thought in regard to this ancient, but always new, quest for truth and so undoubtedly also for contemporary philosophical–theological discussion.
Keywords
Confessions; Aurelius Augustine; philosophy; love of wisdom; confessio; exhortation to philosophy
Hrčak ID:
190286
URI
Publication date:
8.12.2017.
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