'n Literer-inhoudelike analise van Boek 7 van Augustinus se Confessiones : Augustinus se begrip van die bestaanswyse van God en die kwaad

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Augusine's search for the nature of God's exisistence as well as the origin ofevil, reaches a climax in Book 7 of his Confessions. This study assumes theposition that Augustine strives to find answers to the above mentioned twoquestions in the first six books of the Confessions. The answers to both thesequestions were vitally important to Augustine, since it would then convince himto convert to the Christian faith.Augustine repeatedly thought he grasped the true answer to the existence ofGod and the origin and the nature of evil but he was disillusioned time andagain. His quest for an answer started with his reading of Cicero's Hortentius(Conf. 3.4.7), a book that urged Augustine to search for Truth. Augustine thenjoined the Manicheans, a sect claiming that their doctrine was based on reasonand contained the Truth (Conf. 3.6.10). Augustine believed that the Manicheanscould resolve his quest for answers to the existence and nature of both God andevil. The Manichean intellectual and scientific exposition of the cosmos allowedAugustine to imagine God and evil as opposing substances. Eventually,promted by his own intellect, Augustine discovered weaknesses in their theories(Conf. 5.3.3-5.6.10). Augustine's final break with the Manicheans, after nineyears as an adherent, came when he heard the sermons of Ambrose of Milan.Not only was Augustine impressed by Ambrose's eloquence but his sermonsalso embodied an interpretation of Platonism in Christian terms. Augustine'sreading of the Neoplatonic books in a Latin translation urged him to turn intohimself (Conf. 7.10.16) and search for God there. Once Augustine couldpronounce upon the intelligible existence of God, his inquiry into the origin ofevil resolved itself (7.12.18).

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University