pre-existence

Well... let's see... I'm more than a little late posting my blogs this half of the semester, but the first thing I'd like to say is: Midieval Madness was awesome! It was a true Honors experience and I saw a lot of hard work and talent go into the thing. It almost felt a little magical.

I guess I'd like to do a blog on the topic of my paper. I was really, really excited about my topic. I procrastinated AND changed topics at the last minute so I'm not so sure my execution was great... but I think it's something you should all read up on.

I wrote my paper on Augustine's views on pre-existence and how they affected the ideas expressed in The Confessions. At first while Augustine says he doesn't know what he believes about the subject, he makes it seem as though it really cannot be that important. He says it can't be that important because it is a time he cannot remember. However, just after this he talks about how he cannot remember his infancy although it was an important part of his life. So he kind of puts the importance of pre-existence on a level with our infancy. Which I kind of agree with. If there were a time that our souls existed before we were born, I think that would be an important thing to know.

However, in Book X Augustine talks about "memories" of pre-infancy. He talks as if we have memories of the 'forms' (like Plato). He argues that all men search for a happy life because they have some idea of this from before life. He also talks about how our life on earth could be some sort of punishment. Anyway... I just thought that these were some very interesting considering The Confessions is pretty well read. Also... this is something that not really anyone I know believes in, even though many of them love Augustine.

Granted... this is an issue that I believe Augustine changed his views on in later works. There are some letters where he argued the other side. I just never would have really suspected that he was that much on the positive side when writing the book.

Anyway... interesting thoughts