Humanities are academic disciplines studying the aspects of culture and human society. During the Renaissance, the term was referred to what is now known as classics, and it also contracted with divinity. Today it is frequently differentiated with natural and social sciences. According to empirical approaches of natural sciences, humanities speculative and primarily critical methods which have a major historical element (Center, 2017). Unlike other sciences, it does not have a central discipline. The main humanities comprise of politics, human geography, religion, law, art, philosophy, literature, history, politics, and modern and ancient languages.
Humanities are important in human lives since they provide an exploration of learning how to think critically and creatively, reasoning, and asking questions. The skills obtained from humanities allows individuals to gain insights into everything, including paintings and poetry, politics, and humanistic subjects that have been taught in liberal arts since the time of ancient Greeks. Scholars of humanities have much knowledge about the world through the learning of different cultures and about how history is made. Additionally, humanistic knowledge provides an ideal foundation for individuals to explore and understand through the branches of humanities like religion. A good example of ancient medieval text is The Confessions of Saint Augustine, which addresses different severities of sins, including adultery, lies, and stealing. Augustine addresses everyone, including baptized Christians and shows that despite the sins, God still has mercy on his people.
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The field of humanities means going beyond the search for the pragmatic and immediate knowledge of what is beyond understanding. It enables one to gribble with complex issues of morality present in life and helps them examine the human condition entirely. Additionally, humanities encourage reflection and provide individuals with appreciation and empathy for humanity. To this end, humanities are a significant part of the way despite many criticisms and are a foundation to the contemporary state of the world.
The most suitable humanities framework for analyzing The Confessions of Saint Augustine is religion. Religion is the cultural system of designated morals, behaviors, practices, ethics prophecies, texts that relate humanities to spiritual, supernatural, or transcendental elements ( Yahiiaiev & Barrier,2017) . Religion is considered a part of humanities since it provides aspects of human society and culture including the belief in supernatural beings, faith, divine and sacred things and transcendence that provides power and norms for the rest of life. Some religious practices include sermons, rituals, sacrifices, initiations, festivals, prayers, confessions, music, venerations, and other aspects of human culture.
Religion is also considered a discipline of humanities of its sacred histories, and narratives, which are mostly preserved in holy places, sacred scriptures whose main aim is providing the meaning of life ( Yahiiaiev & Barrier, 2017) . The Confessions of Saint Augustine is a medieval text that contains religious beliefs and stories of long struggles with faith. This a subject of humanity that shows what people believe in and what they believe to be bad and evil against faith. Traditionally, reason in addition to faith has always been considered a source of religious beliefs that governs the spiritual way of life among individuals in society. Therefore, religion is a discipline of humanities that focuses on the belief of supernatural things, traditions, and culture. Religion comprises of moral and social qualities for human life, including justice, honesty, equality, tolerance, and sacrifice. These shows, as humanities entail the study of human life, so does religion, giving it a more valid reason to be considered a discipline of humanities. It also provides people with the power to face many adversities of life serving as a bulwark against haplessness and undesirable reactions of despair.
From a religious perspective, The Confessions of Saint Augustine that he belongs to what is called the Early Christian Church in the contemporary world. The era of New Testament grouped its way over centuries towards the establishment of a set of church practices and theology. The uncertainty of life during that era during which Augustine lived is caught through his confessions . Christianity, as a discipline of religion, is found in much of Augustine’s writings as any orthodox believed by Christians. According to this theological superstructure, God is the ultimate being who created human beings in his image, but they fell into sin after disobeying his commands. Ideally, sinners will face God’s condemnation unless they are saved through the atonement. Therefore, the Christian religion guides people against sinful ways since God wants his people to live according to the guidelines of the bible.
Another aspect of Christian religion addressed by Augustine in his confessions is Catholicism. Augustine’s espouses beyond the general Christianity, but much of his beliefs and theology about the church are based on Catholicism. However, Catholicism was synonymous during the first fifteen years of Christianity, and Augustine had a strong relationship with the institutional church. This means that being a Christian is to be affiliated with the practice of Christianity rituals and also with the visible church. Similarly, grace is conferred through sacraments such that baptism becomes a means for covering sins through the atonement of Jesus. Therefore, an individual has to be baptized to become a full Christian.
The aspect of faith has been deeply explored in St. Augustine’s Confessions and has also been examined in bible stories like that of Jesus’ faith being put to the test (Augustine, 1876). Furthermore, the Book of Matthew provides the compatibility of reason and faith as Jesus traveled through the lands of Israel blessing people with his faith (Version, 2017). This gives believers of the Christian religion, knowledge needed to make their own decisions. Human beings cannot tangibly grasp faith since they find no reason or understanding as to why they have to put theirs on something or someone. Augustine provides Christians with the outcomes of having faith through his experiences, which are detailed in the confessions .
Having a strong relationship with God is another aspect of Christianity that all believers of God should possess. One of the many things that Augustine was guilty of was his sorrow because of not having a strong relationship with God during his early life. In his confessions, he expressed how neglecting God was worse than the pity he had for his friend Dido. A review of Augustine’s life shows that temptations of this world can keep Christians distracted from having a relationship with God (Oates, 2017). Due to guilt, Augustine decided to stay closer to God by shunning from the sins of the flesh. All he wanted was living a more righteous life than he had during his sinful years. Therefore, this teaches Christians to have a strong connection with God and study the bible to keep them from the distractions of the world.
Another aspect of modern life addressed by St. Augustine is evil and sin. Sin and evil exist, especially in this modern life and many people are bound to human’s spiritual being because of temptations. It can be torturous and hard to find the root to all evil, but free will enables people to understand how they can be delivered from the evils of the world. St. Augustine’s confessions searches and ponders the root to the concepts of sin and evil (Augustine, 1876). One of the most worrisome challenges that individuals, including Christians, deal with throughout their lives is the existence of evil. The beliefs of St Augustine on the root to all evil and sins, transformed as he began growing and developing his knowledge concerning spiritual being and free will. After taking responsibility for his spiritual walk and personal life, he began to uncover many truths about his own life. Consequently, he alludes that individuals have to take responsibility for their actions and confess their sins to build a stronger connection with God.
Augustine also teaches the modern society that God is the trinity of love. He also managed to bring trinity and love together, which not anyone before him managed. Therefore, loves cannot exist alone since it is not an attribute possessed by a thing. Ideally, God cannot be love unless he has something to love. According to the Bible, God did not create the universe for him to have something to love (Version, 2017). From Augustine’s reasoning, God must have been love inside himself (Augustine, 1876). So, the son is the one who is loved, while the father loves, and the holy spirit binds them together. Through his understanding of God, Augustine made it necessary for the Trinity of love to be part of the divine being. Christians should, therefore, love themselves and their neighbors the way God loves them, and they should also do everything according to his will.
Augustine explains that human beings are united in rebellion, and they cannot save themselves (Augustine, 1876). True Christians believe that they have to trust God completely and really on their inheritance, their efforts and qualities to be saved by God. They also have to work according to what God has commanded them to do. Further, God works only within the context of relationships that he has established, and if the relationship goes well then a Christian is forgiven, but if it does not work, then even the good will be useless. Therefore, it is important for modern society to stay away from committing sins to build a good relationship with God.
The universe was created to have a purpose for the fact that God placed his triune image, who would be the glory of his creation. The modern society should, therefore, understand that the mysterious act of God had a reason that cannot be fully understood. A human being cannot also comprehend why God made the world, perhaps it is part of his divine plan and love, but no one can understand why he chose that particular way. However, Christians are always entitled to follow him, as Augustine interpreted how the relationship between God and human beings is important.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine is undoubtedly one of the most widely read work of medieval philosophy. It perfectly fits into the definition of humanities since it addresses the aspects of human society like evil and sin, love, faith, confession, having strong beliefs, and religion. It is also hailed as the first spiritual autobiography accounting for St. Augustine’s individual life. Not only does Augustine confess the story of his life, but he also provides a concrete example of how isolation can lead to a better understanding of the word of God. In the text, he also addresses most problems faced by modern society, especially the Christians who are constantly sinning and staying away from God, making them face many challenges in life.
Augustine’s confession also serves as an example of humanities’ relevance in human lives since it presents mature thoughts of the greatest minds in the world.it is also important since it addresses the aspect of sin and evil which is one of the greatest problems in the modern society. Additionally, Augustine urges people to avoid evil ways and repent their sins to avoid God’s judgment. The confessions are also responsible for fashioning the doctrine of original sin to create familiarity and understanding to the Christians. This text also serves as an example since it contributes to both philosophy and religion through its major concepts. Therefore, The Confessions of Saint Augustine is one of the most influential text addressing the concepts of sin, evil, and importance of a strong relationship with God.
References
Augustine, S., (1876). The Confessions . Clark.
Center, S. H., (2017). What are the humanities? Home of the Human Experience .
Oates, W. J., (2017). The life and religion of Saint Augustine. In Augustine and Modern Law (pp. 3-34). Routledge.
Version, K. J., (2017). Holy Bible . Arcturus Publishing Limited.
Yahiiaiev, I., & Barrier, J. C. (2017). Konstantin M. Antonov, ed. 2015. The Psychology of Religion: Between Theory and Empiricism. (Psikhologiia religii: Mezhdu teoriei i empirikoi.) Moscow: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University (in Russian). State, Religion and Church , 4 (1).
