Western Civilization -Paper. 1/9/17

1:What was the significance of Rome in relation to Western Civilization?
2:What was St. Augustine's significance in relation to Christianity?



1.Rome contributed greatly in tremendous ways to the development of Western Civilization. Literature-wise, there was a number of powerful documents written by Roman writers. For one, the Ieniad was the most significant piece of Latin literature ever written. The infamous Stoic philosopher, Seneca composed tragedies that influenced Elizabethan drama. For instance, epic playwright Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" was strongly affected by Seneca. There were also other French tragedians whose works were impacted dramatically, namely Jean Racine and Pierre Corneille.

The traditional Latin language spoken in Rome is what many of the romance languages are derived from, such as French and Spanish. A considerable portion of the words in our own English language(sixty percent to be exact) also stem from Latin. Another enormous contribution Rome made to Western Civilization was that of the republican form of government. It was the Romans who first created this type of system, where the fellow people or citizens elect their leaders to office. The founding fathers modeled this republican government, when the United States was born.

Finally, Rome played a key role in the spreading of Christianity. The Emperor Constantine was in favor of Christianity and made it the official religion of Rome in 380 B.C. From then on, Christians were no longer persecuted and Christianity was very prosperous and popular.





2.St.Augustine was a crucial figure and is still renown today, by many Christians. He wrote the most celebrated and well-known biography in Western history, ''The Confessions" and many other books/texts on Christian doctrine. During his early life, he was a very immoral, sinful person who caused his mother a lot of grief.  He visited prostitutes and indulged heavily in sexual immorality. His mother was a devout believer and was very upset and concerned for her son's spiritual well-being. She regularly prayed and sought God, on behalf of him for his salvation. Throughout his teens and early twenties, St. Augustine dabbled in many different religions to try to fill the hole in his heart. He was a follower of Manichaeism for a time and also a Skeptic. Manichaeism was the belief that there is both a good and an evil God. In order to explain evil in the world, this method was thought to be effective and reasonable. The evil God was to be blamed when something terrible happened, as he was the reason behind it. The core foundation of this religion was that there was constantly a battle between light and darkness, or the good and evil Gods.

Augustine then transitioned towards becoming a Skeptic, in which he didn't believe anything could be known for certain. It took him many years of pain, uncertainty, and emptiness before he really discovered God and was born again. It happened as he was relaxing in his garden, when a voice commanded him to read a passage of the Bible. The selection was from Romans and caused him to come to a turning point in his broken life. He accepted Christ and was baptized, to the relief and joy of his mother, shortly before she passed away. Once this took place, St. Augustine of Hippo was changed forever and determined to devote his whole life to God. He became a monk and a priest and pledged lifelong celibacy, abandoning his old life of drunkenness and rebellion. He also sold his late father's estate and gave the profits to the poor.

After his conversion, he made it his goal to try to convert as many people as possible to the faith. He was an advocate in the defense of Christianity. Many believed that it was the primary cause of the fall of the Roman empire. Augustine argued against this thesis, as he said that the Roman empire had already been weak and unstable beforehand. It was not because of his peace-loving religion that this once strong, impenetrable nation had collapsed. There had been social and political issues that hadn't been resolved and Rome's decay was inevitable.

The concept of original sin was started with St. Augustine. He said that all human beings suffer the consequences of sin and suffer, because they descended from Adam. As mortals, we are prone to evil and are naturally drawn towards transgression. Sorrow was a result of sin and the only way we could be saved was through Jesus's grace. He wrote the book, "City of God, in which he compared a virtual City of God vs. City of Man. In the city of God, men are continually after God and heavenly pursuits. In the earthly City of Man, everyone is only concerned about the temporary pleasures of this world, and have no love for God.
It was Augustine's firm conviction that the salvation of souls was ultimately what mattered, in the end. Everyone around him was concerned with the fall of the great empire of Rome, he claimed that we should focus on eternal matters. He is known for his legendary prayer that implies one can only find true solace in God alone. " My heart is restless, O God, till it rests in you." it reads.