Augustine did not believe these acts to be sinful but merely the lesser good from a larger good. Some goods were simply better than others. There is no evil.
The conversion of Augustine took place in two separate themes; the Intellectual conversion and the Moral conversion. Augustine’s thoughts on conversion were thoughts of a total reverse of lifestyle. He would have to give up all his sinful pleasures and fully accept God.
Augustine’s intellectual conversion has to do with how he thinks about God and being able to use his mind properly. After his time with the Manichees, Augustine began to read books of the Platonists and found God again through those readings. He struggled with different aspects of God and Christ for a while but eventually came to the conclusion that Christ is God. Now that he had that straightened out, he could begin to work on his moral conversion.
Augustine is still struggling with his sexual desire. Augustine was known for the quote “Give me chastity and continence, but not yet”. His will is divided into the new, which is complete devotion to God, and the old, which is his sexual desire. Here is a quote from Augustine: “The new will, which was beginning to be within me a will to serve you freely and to enjoy you, God, the only source of pleasure, was not yet strong enough to conquer my older will, which had the strength of an old habit”. (VIII.v.10)
Augustine then has an encounter with Lady Continence while he is praying and meditating in the garden. She tells him that if he goes toward God, he will only find healing. After this encounter, Augustine hears a voice saying, “Pick up and read, pick up and read”. He then picked up the book of the apostle and read the first verse his eyes fell upon. This is what it said; “Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts’’. (VIII.xii.29) He was immediately relieved and ready to fully convert himself to the Catholic faith.
I believe that Augustine himself for his own conversion. Of course there were people along the way to help him out but most of the work and effort was made by Augustine. If he hadn’t decided to try and convert, he may have never done it. The thought was planted in his mind by things he read and things he heard from others. He just needed a little moral support to help him along his journey.
The connection between sin and conversion is basically giving up one to attain the other. The less you sin, the closer you get to God. That is why Augustine gives up sin completely. He wishes to be as close to God as he possibly can be, with no distractions.
As I conclude, I would like to say that after reading this book, I have a great respect for Augustine and his Confessions. Giving up a pleasure such as his, I’m sure, was difficult but he had the willpower to devote himself completely to God. That is something we should all be striving for.
