St. Augustine Free Choice of the Will and Confessions

Subject and Section Professor’s name Date of submission Free Choice and Free Will Saint Augustine remains one of the finest or most excellent followers of the Lord. His words continue to guide humanity, and his wisdom surpasses that of many other beings. This saint has constructed many ideologies that reflect theology and morality. One of the most general topics central to Saint Augustine’s works includes two principal processes—turning inward and upward. Both of these pertain to an individual’s intellectual and moral conversion, and these can be found in some of his works, namely, the Confessions and On Free Choice of Will (Augustine). St. Augustine describes the two processes differ in Confessions and On Free Choice of Will. This is mainly because his experiences were different at times he wrote each of them. In the Confessions, he said that the Lord is more inward to himself than his ultimate inside. Also, the Lord is more superior than his (St. Augustine’s) highest state. During this time, he was slowly drifting away from the Lord, and this estrangement meant that he also separated from himself. However, the Lord never abandoned Augustine’s inner self even when he left his (Augustine). In the confessions, turning inward then upward means that to search for the Lord, one must turn away from the worldly enchantments that bring one pleasure or dependency based on pure reason. To find oneself, one must look for his memory of God. He must then try to search for God first, for the Father will never forget who you indeed are even when you forgot yourself. Here, turning inward also suggests that finding oneself with God’s help will help a person turn outward towards God. Because of these, St. Augustine understood that God is beyond his insides and higher than his most superior self. By contrast, the implications of turning inward then upwar...