The Confessions of St. Augustine: Books I-IX (Selections)

The Philosophy of St. Augustine

St. Augustine (354-430)

St. Augustine [5] began his life in Algeria, an apt student devoted early to the Church and seeking the Truth. His professors recognized his great skill at philosophizing and writing. As Augustine devoured writings both ancient and of his contemporaries, he fell away from the Church and toward a religious dualism sect known as the Manicheans. His mother, a very devoted Christian (later St. Moni...

Time As A Psalm In St. Augustine

Augustine follows a Platonic method in his treatment of time in Confessions XI. The 'in principio' of Genesis is the theme of the book and introduces the problem of the relation of time to the divine in a most direct way. The argument then centres on the problem that the present has no extension: "praesens autem nullum habet spatium" (XI, 15). The problem having been solved Augustine concludes ...

Eruptions of the st. Augustine volcano: airborne measurements and observations.

Airborne measurements of the effluents from the St. Augustine volcano obtained during a 10-day period of activity showed that aerosol was ejected at the rate of about 10(5) kilograms per second during brief eruptions (3 to 8 minutes). Steadier emissions contained much more water vapor and gaseous sulfur but less aerosol mass. A nuée ardente (glowing avalanche) produced by one eruption reached a...

The Creation of Authority in a Sermon by St. Augustine

As its title reveals, Joe’s early book, The Authoritative and the Authoritarian,1 drew an original distinction that is important to all thought about law, and about more than law: to all thought about any form of social organization, from the family to the church—for all human organization requires authority. As for the meaning of the word “authoritative”: in this book, and in his later thinkin...