St. Augustine - Duality In Reason And Faith

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St. Augustine - Duality in Reason and Faith Few theological figures in the days of St. Augustine of Hippo cared to bridge the gap between the days of antiquity and the medieval ages. Additionally, few philosophical figures in his era dared to bridge reason to faith whatsoever. St. Augustine, the “philosopher theologian” (Kirwan 64), did exactly that, and the result was the creation of a Father of the Church (Sheldrake 136). St. Augustine, with his unique history, desired to blend the ideas of Neo-Platonism with his Christian faith (Kirwan 65), and succeeded in completely renovating Western Christianity as the Roman world knew it. St. Augustine was born in 354 A.C.E. in North Africa, in a town called Tagaste (Jungling 2). With the financial aid of a family friend, Augustine’s parents were able to send him to a university, Madaura, at the age of 16. After several years of schooling, and tenacious with passion from his classical education, he joined a religious sect from Persia, Mancheism. Several of Augustine’s Manichee friends were of influence in Rome, and arr.for him an audition to be a professor of rhetoric for the imperial court of Milan. At age 30, Augustine had successfully gained the most visible position in academia in the Latin world. After two years at his imperial position, Augustine took a leave of absence to retreat to Cassiciacum with friends - a stay which would change the remainder of his life. Augustine recalled philosophical conversations at the retreat in some of his later works, and he was baptized into the Christian faith upon his return (O’Donnell 1-3). Augustine returned to his hometown, Thagaste, and set up a small community of disciples and wrote several works. Augustine was offered the position of presbyter at the local Church of Hippo, and he became their bishop several years later; he remained at said

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