Throughout the Confessions of Augustine, desire is inherently linked with evil and suggestive of other negative connotations. Although the desires that Augustine emphasizes are portrayed as bad, I believe that Augustine is also filled with desires of the most pure. In Confessions, desire is linked with negativity because Augustine speaks only of his desire for woman, vanity, and pleasure. It is because of his modesty and constant self imposed pressure that Augustine never speaks of his insatiable desire for knowledge or his longing for the love of God. Augustine refrains from calling these positive aspects desire, but the truth is that he longs to find truth in God, whether acting as a skeptic or not, he none the less tirelessly searches for the answers.
It is true that Augustine is filled with the insatiable desire for things unholy, but that is not to discredit the positive role of desire in the other portion of his existence. Desire acts as both a positive and negative catalyst in the life of Augustine and therefore desire is neither wholly good nor evil, but both.
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2 comments:
This was something that was very confusing to me and youu did a good job of explaining the ideas of good and evil, and how they Augustine views them both seperatley and together.
This blog gets my vote for the week, although Augustine presented desire negatively, it's great that you realized that there's also a positive aspect of it. We need to learn how to view the positive side of things rather than just accepting whatever negative thing comes our way.
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