One of the fundamental events in the life of Saint Augustine was its encounter with Cicero. The reading of the dialogue Hortensius led St. Augustine to study Philosophy. Cicero provided him with a vague concept of Wisdom that made him see that happiness is not in the material but in the spiritual world. However Saint Augustine was disappointed by the probabilism of Cicero in subjects as important as God, the immortality of human soul..., questions on which the Christian doctrine has (...) a valuable answer. Somehow Cicero's dialogue Hortensius brought Saint Augustine to Christian thought. (shrink)

La concepción agustiniana de la libertad se va fraguando al hilo de sus polémicas con los maniqueos y pelagianos. Agustín defiende la existencia de la libertad frente a los maniqueos y la considera la causante del mal o pecado así como capaz de méritos. Frente a los pelagianos afirma que el liberum arbitrium necesita de la gracia de Dios para hacer el bien y de este modo llegar a un grado más perfecto de libertad, la libertas, que consiste en le (...) necesidad de hacer el bien. La meta de la libertad no es otra que Dios, sumo Bien y felicidad para el hombre. (shrink)

The concept of person arises in the conjunction of Greek Philosophy carried out by Saint Augustine. Both men and women are persons because they carry the image of God in their soul. On bearing the mind God's mark in its memory, it will wish for happiness. On bearing God's mark in its intelligence, it will wish for Truth and on bearing God's mark in its will it will wish for the Good since the desire for happiness is a wish or (...) remembrance of God, the desire for Truth is a wish of God because He is the Truth, and the desire of Good and Beauty is a wish of God because He is the highest Good and the supreme Beauty. Human being's strongest motivations: happiness, truth, good and beauty, they all just come from being a person, from being the brightest bearer of the Trinitarian image which, on leaving its mark on him, at the same time marks the direction of his deepest desire. The anchorage of those metaphysical desires of man is in God and they can be thought of as anthropological universals. (shrink)