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HIST 210: The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000

Lecture 05 - St. Augustine's Confessions. Professor Freedman begins the lecture by considering the ways historians read the Confessions. In this work, St. Augustine gives unique insight into the life of an intellectual mind in Late Antiquity, into the impact of Christianity on the Roman Empire, and into the problems of early Christianity. The three major doctrinal concerns of the early Church were the problem of evil, the soul-body distinction, and issues of sin and redemption. In the Confessions, St. Augustine searches for explanations of these problems first in Manichaeism, then (Neo)Platonism, and finally Christianity. Underlying this narrative are Augustine's ideas of opposition to perfectionism, his exaltation of grace, and the notion of sin as indelible, not solvable. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 05 - St. Augustine's Confessions

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Why we read The Confessions
[00:07:34] 2. A Brief Biography of Augustine
[00:14:33] 3. The Problem of Evil
[00:25:00] 4. Pears and Augustine's Conception of Sin
[00:38:23] 5. Perfectibility, Sin, and Grace

References
Lecture 5 - St. Augustine's Confessions
Instructor: Professor Paul H. Freedman. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Course Introduction: Rome's Greatness and First Crises
Lecture 02 - The Crisis of the Third Century and the Diocletianic Reforms
Lecture 03 - Constantine and the Early Church
Lecture 04 - The Christian Roman Empire
Lecture 05 - St. Augustine's Confessions
Lecture 06 - Transformation of the Roman Empire
Lecture 07 - Barbarian Kingdoms
Lecture 08 - Survival in the East
Lecture 09 - The Reign of Justinian
Lecture 10 - Clovis and the Franks
Lecture 11 - Frankish Society
Lecture 12 - Britain and Ireland
Lecture 13 - Monasticism
Lecture 14 - Mohammed and the Arab Conquests
Lecture 15 - Islamic Conquests and Civil War
Lecture 16 - The Splendor of the Abbasid Period
Lecture 17 - The Crucial Seventh Century
Lecture 18 - The Splendor of Byzantium
Lecture 19 - Charlemagne
Lecture 20 - Intellectuals and the Court of Charlemagne
Lecture 21 - Crisis of the Carolingians
Lecture 22 - Vikings/The European Prospect, 1000