Essay about Reflecting on St. Augustine at ACS - 1475 Words

Maturing as a person, whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual, or intellectual require a person to change and transformation these changes can vary in when or how they take place. While growing up, people change their perspective and gain new insights about new experiences. In â€Å"The Confessions,† readers see St. Augustine struggle with the question of â€Å"Who am I?† while figuring out his belief in God. The mission of Villanova University is to help create â€Å"thoughtful, intellectually-curious, and spiritually-grounded† students before they graduate. Thus, ACS helps transform young children to be mature adults. Students read â€Å"The Confessions† in ACS because they see Augustine’s struggle to find his identity and religion on his own terms.†¦show more content†¦These texts have the â€Å"literature, history, and politics; truth and moral values; the gods and God† that show students how to be like Saint Augustine (Mis sion). ACS shows the path of how one can attempt to be like Augustine but it is the student’s choice to think about â€Å"higher things.† Though the Confessions is the foundational text for the course, other texts help engage students to think of these â€Å"higher things† because of the moral values learned through them. The Bible (Genesis) helps give one answer to our beginning and how we came to be. It is the first text to be read because it necessary to answer the question, â€Å"Who am I?† It touches on the subject of evil and shows how humans fell from a state of grace to our current state of sin. It corresponds to the confessions when Augustine questions how evil can exist if God is good. In Books X through XIII, Augustine reflects on Genesis and the meaning of the Trinity, the creation story and even time. â€Å"Gilgamesh †explores the boundaries of friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu which corresponds to the friendship between Augustine and Am brose. Enkidu motivated Gilgamesh to embark on his journey to find the cure for immortality; similarly, St. Ambrose provided Augstine the tools for his conversion to Christianity. â€Å"The Odyssey,† â€Å"The Aenid,† and â€Å"The Inferno† explore literature and poetry by examining the heroes epic journeys. Odysseus, Aeneas, and Dante use adventures set upon by a greater force to