Drinking and Whipping By Joshua Evers
Augustine has a very robust memory in telling such detailed memories. He grabbed my attention by speaking about his mother and how she was very well behaved, even having responsibility over the master's daughters. However, Augustine wrote words I struggled to believe:
"Accordingly, to that sip of wine she added more sips every day...until she had fallen into the habit of gulping down full cups of wine" Book IX Ch.18
This lead to Monica, Augustine's sweet loving mother to be called a boozer in attempt to insult her. Instead, this led her to repentance. It is nearly sickening for a Christian to acknowledge and truly repent (turn away) from their sin when caught by someone else. We all would like to follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve and cover up our shame as soon as it becomes evident. Sin kills, but if we refuse to acknowledge this disease, it will kill us. After reading this I continued to think about the endless depths of God's grace. Why do we as Believers try to hide our sin from God? He knows and yet we deny the obvious, insulting Him as well as His divine act of sending Jesus as a perfect savior for the sins we refuse to acknowledge.
This next passage was actually unsettling, and led me to question the breach of Christian Ethics. Monica's mother-in-law was angered by some gossip from the maidservants. From here, the in-law pressures the son into disciplining the women by whipping them. I view this as lacking the gentleness and patience that a Christian should strive to show to others.
"She declared that the same reward was to be expected by anyone who supposed it would give her pleasure if malicious gossip were passed on about her daughter-in-law." Book 9 Ch.20
At least we can all congratulate the mother-in-law on her deep respect for her daughter-in-law. Outside of that I question how this was accepted. The footnote included in this passage stated that Augustine was accepting of this punishment. Disciplining servants is completely necessary, but I was expecting Augustine to be against this action which lacked kindness. Maybe I misunderstood the material but I depicted a brutal whipping. This really bothered me when I read it and led me to question if it was ethical for a Christian to condone.
I commented on the posts of Moriah Nelson and Will Brady.
"Accordingly, to that sip of wine she added more sips every day...until she had fallen into the habit of gulping down full cups of wine" Book IX Ch.18
This lead to Monica, Augustine's sweet loving mother to be called a boozer in attempt to insult her. Instead, this led her to repentance. It is nearly sickening for a Christian to acknowledge and truly repent (turn away) from their sin when caught by someone else. We all would like to follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve and cover up our shame as soon as it becomes evident. Sin kills, but if we refuse to acknowledge this disease, it will kill us. After reading this I continued to think about the endless depths of God's grace. Why do we as Believers try to hide our sin from God? He knows and yet we deny the obvious, insulting Him as well as His divine act of sending Jesus as a perfect savior for the sins we refuse to acknowledge.
This next passage was actually unsettling, and led me to question the breach of Christian Ethics. Monica's mother-in-law was angered by some gossip from the maidservants. From here, the in-law pressures the son into disciplining the women by whipping them. I view this as lacking the gentleness and patience that a Christian should strive to show to others.
"She declared that the same reward was to be expected by anyone who supposed it would give her pleasure if malicious gossip were passed on about her daughter-in-law." Book 9 Ch.20
At least we can all congratulate the mother-in-law on her deep respect for her daughter-in-law. Outside of that I question how this was accepted. The footnote included in this passage stated that Augustine was accepting of this punishment. Disciplining servants is completely necessary, but I was expecting Augustine to be against this action which lacked kindness. Maybe I misunderstood the material but I depicted a brutal whipping. This really bothered me when I read it and led me to question if it was ethical for a Christian to condone.
I commented on the posts of Moriah Nelson and Will Brady.
I agree, that detail of the story is rather brutal, but I think it almost has to be put into the context of what time period this book was written in. When Augustine wrote Confessions it was much more acceptable to beat women sadly. The idea of a male-authoritative household in which males would punish women, children, and servants was widely accepted. I do find Augustine's response a bit odd though considering how badly he feels about the majority of his other actions.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was to an extreme degree, and if anyone were to do something like that in this time there’d be an uproaring witch hunt! But that’s in this time back then it was commonplace to to treat servants (Male or female) in this way (although males had the alternative option of being made a eunuch). Augustine May have agreed with the disciplining nature of that time or he may completely object, but because it was lawful and somewhat a moral standard for that time it was seen as that bad (other than by those who were beaten).
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