The Vulgate and St. Augustine’s Confessions

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The Vulgate and St. Augustine’s Confessions
Introduction
The Augustine confessions are dated back to the fourth century when there was some turbulence in Christianity. Augustine was an intellectual who helped to replace the Roman state which was dying by then. The Vulgate was the Latin edition of the scripture which was adopted as the Roam Catholic Bible. This generated a lot controversy because the author was considered to be more of a pagan than Christian. The version was done by the four scholars namely, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory and St Augustine (Augustine, 30).
The Augustine confession was liturgical scripture that aimed at the repentance of the human race and abstains from the doing sin. The human race is prone to sinning due to the desires of the flesh. Augustine did not lose the inspiration and encouraging the people to step up their faith In Christ. He termed the human tongue as the primary cause of the troubles the man goes through. The language has the power to persuade the man into sinful acts during the temptations.
The Analysis of the Vulgate and Augustine’s Confession
The Vulgate edition which was adopted by the Catholic Church focused on learning how to handle criticism with dignity. For example, if someone calls someone names, Vulgate makes it clear that it is not the person that makes them angry but their thinking. “Only one person (Christ) in this world has the power to put you down, and you are that person, no one else.

” Being criticized triggers, one’s negative thoughts about themselves from the subconscious into consciousness. The negative thoughts lead to ‘overgeneralization (Augustine, 89). The edition by Jerome makes one think that all along they had been right, but now they are worthless and good for nothing. One should never get upset if criticized unfairly because they aren’t to blame but those who criticized them. If the critic is right and constructive, one must take it as a challenge and correct themselves. Transforming a critic into a lesson makes one realize that they aren’t perfect but ready to learn.
The Augustine’s confession provides the following ways of dealing with temptation in a dignified manner. The first step is empathy. He uses the imagery when he terms the tongue to be the enemy of the human race. One should try to put themselves in the shoes of the other party. He argues that man will come to realize that the other party never intended to hurt them but to help them. Thus, man didn’t realize that the sin hurts Christ. To understand better the intention of the critic, Augustine suggests that one inquires more about the critique without being defensive or judgmental. Sometimes, it’s just that the other party is disturbed by something or they had a bad day, and they didn’t realize that they were mean when they made a statement. Disarming the criticism is the next step, and it stands out to be the most satisfactory way among choices of dealing with an opponent provided by Augustine. He says, “Everyday Lord we are beset by these temptations, we are tempted without respite.” By choice, one finds a way of agreeing with the critic thus avoiding making themselves miserable (Augustine, 103). Men also prevent mutual destruction and warfare that the first choice results to and as well avoid their self-esteem being lowered due to humiliation as a result of the second option.
The confession scripture describes the usual way to find the repentance and seek the Lords guidance to overcome the temptations and the desires of the flesh (Brien, 28). This earns one the critic’s respect and, therefore, becomes a win-win situation. Everyone has a right of getting angry when attacked, says Augustine. However, one should understand that the anger towards the attacker has a probability of backfiring with thoughts of self-defeat and depressing episodes, warns Augustine. Like Augustine says, all emotions are generated by the mind and not the situation. Control of thoughts and mind earns one a good feel.
The response
Through these scriptures, the level of human weakness and the vulnerability to temptations can be gauged. However, concludes that the person who makes others angry is them and their thoughts. This means that if ideas are controlled, one may live a happy life despite being wronged by others (Brien, 34). He names distortions connected to thoughts that lead to temptations.
The moral lesson of the literary work can be described by giving the highlights on how the man should control himself to avoid the petty temptations and live a good life which pleases the Supreme Being and also fit according to the social ethics. Among the distortions that hurt someone’s communication and thinking the most is an overgeneralization. The person who did one wrong isn’t bad; it’s just what they did that is bad. Another distortion is mind reading. No one knows the motive of the other party; they only make it in their mind. It could be better to ask instead of drawing conclusion which hurt eventually. To illustrate this, Augustine gives an example of a human who is tempted by the flesh to commit a sin.
The theme of confession gives one an impression that they must get what they want. If the opposite happens, they get angry. Before one gets angry, they always make an interpretation that they were rightfully entitled to something and if their expectations are not met, then they feel unfairly treatment. It is this feeling that makes someone come up with unnecessary frustrations. One thing Augustine lays bare on the table is that absolute fairness will never exist! This is due to diversity and cultural and social differences among others.
Augustine insists that one should get angry only if the other party is fully aware that they are and they are the cause of that anger. It is, however, valid if the person acted unnecessarily and intentionally. Second, if the temptation is useful. By useful, Augustine means that if the attraction will benefit one for instance if they make them voice their views better and the like. The temptation makes one strong in faith. Calming down is a process as provided by Augustine.
Developing the desire is the very first step in the temptation. Most of the times people do not want to drop the feeling because they feel that they have been treated unfairly and they have the right to get sinful act. Changing such a mentality requires willpower (Brien, 20). Augustine suggests that one puts on paper the pros and cons of temptations then from there choose the situation. The next step is to replace the warm thoughts with cool ones. As seen earlier, the temptation is in thoughts.
Mind or thoughts for better words play a central role in people’s thoughts. People imagine past episodes; they even believe future ones. Most of these thoughts are very hurting, and they make one dwell on them nevertheless. If these thoughts are dropped, one will feel right about everything. The ‘imagining technique’ can help stop bad thoughts and turn the bad mood into a good feeling.
Work Cited
Augustine, and F. J. Sheed. The Confessions of St. Augustine. London: Sheed & Ward, 1984. Print.
Brien, Denis, Suzanne Gillet, and Kevin Corrigan. Reading ancient texts: essays in honor of Denis O’Brien. Leiden Boston: Brill, 2007. Print