Essay Sample on Friendship & Life: Augustine's Theological Approach

Introduction

Friendship is an essential aspect in the lives of many human beings. Augustine was a church theologian and is famously acknowledged of his contributions to theology. However, his views on friendship are also very notable as he describes in Confessions. To Augustine, friendship was very significant. Augustine is one of the earliest writers who gave friendship a theological approach. St Augustine believed that two things were important in this world: Friendship and life. God created people to live and breathe. However, life is merely enough: for any human to experience life as a real person, they must make friends in the course of their lives. As he got older, his perspectives of friendships changed with different interactions. The different friendships he made significantly influenced his path towards conversion in many ways.

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Real friendship takes a unique direction, particularly in the adolescence phase since it takes us from ourselves and gives us a nee freedom sense. In Augustine's adolescent years, he experienced a type of friendship based on love. He met a friend who made him experience a new kind of friendship. We are not informed about the name of the friend, but Augustine adored him. The two had grown up together and when Augustine came back to Tagaste (his home town) to teach, they grew close and became friends. The friend pursued philosophy like Alypius and Augustine and was also interested in Manichean philosophers (a group of thinkers who combined Christianity and Neo-Platonism into a body of esoteric and secret knowledge). This friend converted from Manichaeism from Christianity before Augustine had even thought about switching to Christianity. The two would argue at times, but their arguments made their friendship more meaningful and harmonious as they learned different things from each other (Augustine 64). Sadly, Augustine's friend died unexpectedly. The death traumatized Augustine in that he was not even able to stay in Tagaste. The trauma affected Augustine, and he had to move to Carthage to continue his teaching career. This tragic event marked another transformation and a long path of conversion in the way he perceived friendships. The friend's death was so impactful to Augustine since he was unable to bring himself to write the friend's name in Confessions (Augustine 65).

His lustful affair with Adeodatus's mother also marked a critical phase that shaped his beliefs and perspectives of friendship. The name of the woman is not mentioned, but Augustine cohabited with her in his adolescent years. The birth of the child was described by Augustine to be unplanned, thus the name Adeodatus, which in Latin means "gift from God." Augustine blamed himself for having contributed to the making of his son. This proves that Augustine was a Manichaean who considered the act of procreation to be sinful. It can be argued that the son appears in confessions to symbolize the way through which Augustine felt like his adolescent sexual desires trapped him. Adeodatus and the mother traveled with Augustine from Rome, and then to Milan (Augustine 218).

Shortly after the demise of his friend, Augustine befriended Nebridius; a fellow youth who was also in his twenties and Alypius. Nebridius was a teacher and acted as a mentor to Augustine. On the other hand, Alypius was Augustine's student. Their friendship marked their development from childhood to manhood. While Augustine was at a city-state under the influence of the Manichean philosophy, it was partly through the influence of Nebridius that he decided to give up on his astrological beliefs. Nebridius had already abandoned the Manichean philosophy and gave lectures opposing it (Augustine 61). Their friendship grew, and when Augustine was posted to Milan as a rhetoric lecturer, Nebridius decided to follow him out of love leaving his mother and his home (Rome). This friendship helped Augustine to mature and also influenced his beliefs and growth in religion. As he grew older, he attracted many friends who shared common ideas and experiences. Alypius and Augustine grew up in very near places, although Augustine was older with a few years. Alypius was one of the early students of Augustine, and he followed his friend on his journey from North Africa to Rome and finally to Milan. Alypius significantly influenced Augustine's conversion to Christianity. The two men struggle to accurately recognize the underlying order of the world and the shape which the lives of human beings should take (Augustine 130). They made a good partnership and remained loyal to each other in their pursuit of the truth. The closeness of their friendship is impressing: Alypius was present during Augustine's conversion to Christianity. Alypius followed suit moments later, and this proved the powerful influence that friends wield over each other (Augustine 177). The two treated each other like spiritual guides who were strongly bonded by their shared faith in God.

Later in his life, Augustine made better friends like Bishop Ambrose, who was instrumental in Augustine's conversion to Christianity. Ambrose was a bishop in Milan and first met Augustine after he had been made a rhetoric professor in Milan. Ambrose had been a bishop for eleven years by the time of Augustine's appointment. Augustine having been disenchanted by Manichaean philosophy was moved by Ambrose's learned and cutting edge sermons plus the convincing and eloquent way in which the bishop defended the Old Testament against the criticisms of Manichaean philosophy. According to Augustine, the bishop welcomed him like a father would, by being both generous and kind to him. Ambrose baptized Augustine after he converted to Christianity (Augustine 217). Ambrose recognized the mutual relationships of all people since he understood that all human beings were created equally and also had the same origin. Augustine learned a lot from Ambrose and even adopted the bishop's acknowledgments of the collective creation of human beings; and expanded on its implications by affirming that the ability of the hearts of human beings to unite in friendship was firmly fixed on the same origin of human beings which inherently made them to be naturally social.

Conclusion

Augustine's way of getting friends and sustaining his friendships came first because of his fiery passion for knowing truth and wisdom. Thus, even when he was young, he chose to associate himself with people who could positively build him and lead him to a higher learning level. When he converted to Christianity, he still had the same passion, which was made a little bit complex because he developed another desire, which was to know Christ. His friendships had a unique quality since they were from teacher-student based relationships. Augustine would take a person under his wings and teach the individual. In the teaching process, the student and the teacher would end up becoming terrific friends. He used his understanding and experience of friendships as a vessel for communicating deep and spiritual realities to those he interacted with. Augustine believed that for humans to have deeper friendships, they had to be in all about the other person.

Works Cited

Augustine, St. Saint Augustine's Confessions. Sovereign Grace Publishers,, 2001.