Religion and Theology

Biography
St. Augustine was born on November 13, 354 at Tagaste in Numidia to a Christian mother and a pagan father. He drifted through various philosophical systems before finally converting to Christianity. He became deeply interested in Manichaeanism. He was however disappointed after meeting Faustus, a famous Manichean teacher who failed to provide answers to his searching questions. He studied Neo-Platonism in Milan and was well aware of the dominant philosophical and religious dispositions of the time.

Augustine can be best described as the last patristic and the first medieval father of Western Christianity (St. Augustine 2008, p.5). He collected and conserved the major themes of Latin Christianity while at the same time appropriating the heritage of Nicene orthodoxy. He freely invited and deliberately sanctified the religious philosophy of the Greco-Roman world to a new use in retaining the intelligibility of the Christian proclamation. He was not simply an eclectic even as a compressor of traditions. The Holy Scripture became fundamental to his system as they organized and directed both his heart and mind. It was within the scripture that Augustine discovered the focus of his religious authority.

Augustine can be seen more as the defender of the faith of the Church rather than a reformer. It is impossible to provide a succinct classification of Augustine owing to his extraordinary complicated thought and the tensions and prejudices that characterized his history. The central theme in his works is the sovereign God of grace and the sovereign grace of God.

Thesis
Augustines conversion was motivated by his own desire for truth and the inability of the existing doctrines and teachings to provide the truth that he thirsted for. However, apart from his quest for the truth, there are individuals and events that also played important roles in his final conversion to Christianity. This paper aims to explore the factors that not only contributed to his authoring The Confessions but also the factors that contributed to his conversion to Christianity.

Introduction
The motive behind writing The Confessions cannot be elucidated easily. However, there must be underlying reasons for such a degree of self-analysis however much the motives may be complex. It may be argued that the book was a consequence of his pilgrimage of grace. He felt a strong desire to retrace the critical turnings of the path he had come. He was convinced that it was through the grace of God that he had been the prime mover on that path. In this regard, the text was a spontaneous expression of his heart that contrived his self recollection into the kind of a persisted prayer to God.
As such, The Confessions is far from being an autobiographical account of Augustine. Instead, they are a conscious effort to reminisce on the important episodes and events which he came to conceive as the mysterious actions of Gods provident grace. Therefore, he traces the windings of his memory as it replays the upheavals of his youth and the continuum of his chaotic quest for wisdom.

Factors that Contributed to St. Augustines Conversion
The influence of his mother
The conversion of St. Augustine is largely attributed to his mother. Augustines mother, Monica, not only mothered his first natural birth but also his spiritual rebirth in Christ. His mother struggled to ensure Augustines eternal salvation more than she did at his birth (Starnes, p.13). Augustine writes that her mother brought him forth both in flesh that I might be born in his temporal light, and in her heart that I might be born in the light of eternity (St. Augustine of Hippo 1999, p.17). When speaking of his birth, his mother is impersonally represented as one of the parents of his flesh (ibid, 7), but later, he makes a more personal reference. The reason lies in the fact that he looks beyond his mothers natural capacity as a woman but talks about the things that she did by faith that finally contributed to his conversion. In this regard, Monica played an important role in the final conversion of his son to Christianity, a fact that even Augustine acknowledges.

Monica played the role of a Christian mother. She desired for her son to be brought up a Christian. His father on the other hand did not concern himself with issues about God (St. Augustine of Hippo 1999, p.8). As such, Augustines mother contributed much to his development. This did not matter much to Augustine until he got seriously ill at the age of seven with a stomach problem. The problem was so serious that he appeared about to die. He was terrified. His mother had already talked to him about eternal life that Christ promised and explained to him that this promise was only made to individuals who belonged to the church. His fathers position did not express such hope and so the young Augustine begged his mother to have him baptized (Weiskotten 2008, p.89). The remainder of his life to conversion can be viewed as Augustines effort to discover the justification of this hope and how it is justified (Starnes 1990, p.14).

Dissatisfaction with the Classical Accounts of God
The conversion of Augustine is also related with his dissatisfaction with the classical accounts of god. According to him, the classics that he studied presented the action of gods in licentious and contradictory manner apart from allowing men to do the same (Weiskotten 2008, p.91). The classical poets were thought to have been divinely inspired. As such, their productions had some form of divine authority. It is against this backdrop that the literatures were presented to Augustine. It was through these texts that children came to learn about the nature of the gods and the kind of relation that individuals ought to have towards them.

Augustine discovered that the supreme gods did not represent the things that they stood for. For instance, he found out that Jupiter himself committed adultery and fornicated at will despite being the supreme god who forbade such acts. Even though it may be claimed that those are mere stories, granting their authority leads to the question of the kind of behaviors that they authorize. Do they teach that people should desist from committing adultery, or that they may engage in sexual intercourse with whoever they will and are at freedom to use any means to achieve this end

The answer is probably both, with the consequence that men are at will to pick either course with the sanction of the highest god (Starnes 1990, p.18). The divine authority is reduced to a mockery by this view since it can be raised for any of these contradictory aims. Augustine attempted to explain that it was not by accident that he was taught in these things neither was it a mere private matter. It was the kind of education that the state advanced. Augustine complains that the only texts that he was offered were those that held cheating and deception to be perfectly right for one to indulge his passions. In this regard, he found in the scripture a literature not marred with contradictions and elevation of the lowest passions.

Ridiculous Nature of Manichean Doctrines
The ridiculous nature of Manichaean doctrines and teachings also contributed to Augustines conversion. Augustine stopped to think of the finite as existing independently of God. He found out that if the finite was conceived as possessing no relationship with a stable self-identical principle, it emerged to be void of thought, a nonentity in its independence, where nothing was anything since all things were in constant flux in which every distinction was destroyed as soon as it was made(Starnes 1990, p.72). A different perspective was held by the Manicheans. According to them, the finite was made up of contraries. They fragmented nature into the one, referred to as light, and the many, referred to as dark. The actual finite was conceived to be evil even though this was not all. The Manicheans had arrived at a position which made the knowledge of nature theoretically possible. As such, Manichaeism provided a picture of being a religion resulting in personal salvation and a complete science of nature. It is this total knowledge that Augustine desired. However, this was not to materialize since as much as he had come to the starting point of a real science, the Manicheans only provided an irrational and archaic explanation of nature and principles. This knowledge turned out empty and for it to be accepted, one needed to believe.

According to Augustine, the economy of salvation that was advanced by the Manicheans was the opposite of that advanced by the Catholics (Weiskotten 2008, p.9). The Manicheans began from an apparent knowledge, only to lead to a fantastic belief. In the Confessions, Augustine reiterates that the doctrines were not accepted by the Manicheans because of their reasonableness, but rather because it was an order (Starnes 1990, p.74). Desiring to possess the truth, Augustine felt that he was fed with fictions which fell short of satisfying him. What kept him going is the conviction that the teachings comprised of great things that sooner or later will be revealed to him. Augustines belief was a consequence of the temporal unwillingness to expose the actual meaning of their doctrines. He accommodated all this because he strongly felt that they had what he desired-knowledge of truth which would satisfy his earthly objectives and which he would possess as soon as he is completely taken into their confidence. However, he came to learn that what he thought was the unwillingness by the Manichees to reveal the truth was actually their failure to do so.

Humility of Christian Monks
Book VIII compiles a series of recollected events that instilled desire in Augustine to simulate people who appeared to have gotten what he has long been searching for. Among these was Ambrose whom Augustine saw as an incarnation of the Christian Scriptures authority and the dignity of Christian learning (St. Augustine of Hippo 2008, p.12). There was also Simplicianus who told him a compelling story about Victorinus. He also heard about Antony and the widening influence of the call to monastery. However, the account that moved him most was the conversion of the two special agents of the imperial police at Treves.

Augustine is very clear in singling out these instances as having great influences upon his life. He felt he had resolved his intellectual perplexities even though he still felt a strong urge to calm the tension that was within him. He desired to imitate these men who had achieved what he perceived he could not, and who were enjoying the peace that he so much desired.

Another important event that contributed to Augustines conversion was the scene in the Milanese Garden. The long struggle that has been going within him became summarized in a brief moment a bitter struggle of his will against and within itself. The resolution of this bitter conflict was precipitated by the distraction coming from a childs voice. His mood and will shifted radically and he find the text in Roman, 13 13 which says Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day  no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its sinful desires. (Good News Bible 1992, p.202). A new spirit arose in his heart.

After this dramatic change came the demise of his mother. This was very significant owing to the connection that they had with his mother. The strongest physical earthly tie was severed. Before this event, his mother had informed him about a vision at Ostia.

Conclusion
There are two separate stages that can be observed in the conversion of Augustine. These are freeing of bonds of incontinence and pride that hindered him from committing himself to Christian faith, and the establishment of an understanding of the Christian faith. The former was realized in Milanese garden while the latter was a gradual event. The need to confess his life and show his fellow beings that it was a clear testimony of the grace of God resulted in him writing The Confessions. Again, he learned that it was only through Jesus Christ that he can know the truth and be forgiven of his sins. With this revelation, he converted to Christianity.