참회의 존재론과 인간 본성의 회복: 어거스틴(St. Augustine)의 『고백록』을 중심으로

Abstract

In this article, we analyzed the motive and method of conversion in the Confessions of St. Augustine(354-430), a Western medieval patristic philosopher, and presented the possibility of recovering human nature. The issues of good and evil, free will, and time constitute the ontology of conversion, and meeting and love are opportunities for change. In particular, this book analyzes the motivation and method of repentance through philosophical ontology, so it is expected to contribute to the formation and spread of humanistic discourse. The contents of the study are as follows. First, the problem of good and evil was analyzed in the context of Neoplatonism. Second, how the issue of free will becomes the motive and method of repentance was presented through analysis of the confessions. Third, the problem of time was analyzed as a problem of memory, perception, and reasoning, and the relationship between eternity and the present was presented. Fourth, good humans, reading, and healing of the soul were presented as ways to reach conversion. The results of the study are as follows. First, good and evil are not different entities, but the absence of good is evil, and this ontology of good and evil became the philosophical basis for conversion. Second, free will, along with grace, served as an opportunity for Augustine to end his debauched life and repent. Third, Augustine's time was not the physical time of past, present, and future, but psychological time inherent in the human mind and soul as eternity. Fourth, the ontology of conversion was based on the dialectical ontology of existence and absence and recognized humans as changeable beings rather than immutable entities, so it could serve as a philosophical basis for the formation and spread of humanistic discourse on corrections.