He chooses to follow the ways of the society and indulges himself in the wickedness that he committed, hence, doing him responsible for his ain actions. The church does non seal itself off from the universe around it, but remains for good, vulnerably, unfastened to it. Those outside can still come in at any clip – and those inside can neglect, and autumn, at any clip.
He lived as we do, in the present, full of uncertainness. He depicts himself as a instead ordinary kind of kid, good at his lessons but non fond of school, tidal bore to win the blessing of his seniors but prone to fiddling Acts of the Apostles of rebellion, He was torn between the conventional pleasances of adolescence and the conventional asperities of doctrine. For this tenseness, Manicheism offered soothing alleviation. Augustine was non to fault that he felt this manner, the Manichees told him, for he was merely the pawn of greater forces that could, because Augustine was lucky and clever, be propitiated. Security could be had without forfeit, and guilt removed without expiation.
The universe the Manichees imagined was torn between two contrary powers: the absolutely good Godhead and the absolutely evil destroyer. The universe seen by human eyes was the battlefield for their cosmic struggle. The Manichees and their followings were the few who were on the side of the good spirit and who would be rewarded for their commitment with ageless cloud nine. In the interim all kinds of bad luck might bechance the person, but none of the wicked things he found himself making were his mistake.
Christianity was non, he claimed, something external and seeable; it was non to be found in obeisance to certain clearly-defined Torahs. Christianity was a affair of spirit instead than jurisprudence, something indoors people instead than outside. Most of import, the church had room within itself for evildoers every bit good as saints, for the imperfectness of those in whom God’s grace was still working every bit good as for the sanctity of the blessed.
In Milan, Saint Augustine came under the influence of Saint Ambrose the bishop; he began to travel to his discourses, non so much with an outlook of profiting by them as to satisfy his wonder and to bask the fluency. He found that the discourses more erudite than the unorthodoxies he adopted and began to read the New Testament particularly Saint Paul’s Hagiographas From that clip, Saint Augustine went back to Tagaste, his native metropolis, and lived for three old ages with his friends and shared a life of supplication, survey and poorness.
