Augustine Bk III-V: The Itch You Can't Scratch -- Sophia Colbert

   A great writer has a way of stimulating your imagination to understand a concept. This can be done through metaphors, similes, or word pictures. The one I'm thinking of specifically in Confessions is found in book III. I had barely begun the reading when the imagery caught my eye. "So my soul was in rotten health. In an ulcerous condition it thrust itself to outward things, miserably avid to be scratched by contact with the world of senses" (III i). As a nursing major, this picture really clicked with me. I love the idea of your soul being a mass of itchy, oozing boils dragging itself towards the world groaning, "Please, please make it stop itching!" It is gross, and graphic, and disgusting, and perfect. I have never read anyone else who put the helplessness of our soul so eloquently. A few pages over, Augustine finally gets his wish. "I wanted to hear stories and imaginary legends of sufferings which, as it were, scratched me on the surface. Yet like the scratches of fingernails, they produced inflamed spots, pus, and repulsive sores" (III iv). Worldly pleasures only made it worse, like itching poison ivy or hives. The only thing that can restore our decayed souls is salvation through Christ. Now that this image is in your brain, I guarantee you'll never be able to forget it.

P.S. I commented on Anna Grace and Ezra's posts.