Augustine Relates the Common Human Condition of

¶ … Augustine relates the common human condition of procrastination directly to himself. It thus serves the dual purpose of expounding both the phenomenon of procrastination as experienced by humanity, and of illuminating for the reader the process that Augustine went through at this time. The significance of this is that Augustine is honestly reviewing his life and the mental processes that brought about his conversion. The way in which he treats his development throughout the work is thus entirely honest and frank.

In Book 3 and 4 for example Augustine explains his infatuation with a variety of different philosophical interests, including the Manichaen heresy, astrology and material influences. These, along with his search for an ever-illusive happiness and peace, are what keep him from fulfilling his mother's dream to become a true convert. He confesses to a sense of hunger that brought him to his endless journey of searching for pleasure: "I came to Carthage, where a caldron of unholy loves was seething and bubbling all around me.

I was not in love as yet, but I was in love with love; and, from a hidden hunger, I hated myself for not feeling more intensely a sense of hunger." (Book 3, Chapter 1). It might be surprising for readers to learn of this difficulty in Augustine's conversion process, as he is today recognized as one of the great church fathers. It appears strange that a man so recognized for his solid faith in God should at one point of his life have struggled to turn to God.

It may however not only be surprising, but also encouraging to know that even a great and faithful man was once subject to human problems and struggles in order to find his way to God. Augustine's view of adolescence and early adulthood appears to be that these are times for experimentation that often leads to self-destruction.

Augustine looks honestly at his corruption during his adolescent years, and does not hesitate to condemn himself for them, or to conceal from either himself or his readers the sinfulness of his actions: "For as I became a youth, I longed to be satisfied with worldly things, and I dared to grow wild in a succession of various and shadowy loves.

My form wasted away, and I became corrupt in thy eyes, yet I was still pleasing to my own eyes -- and eager to please the eyes of men." (Book 2, Ch I) Learning from this is the lesson that Augustine also wants to impart to his readers. He has learned and repented from his adolescent sinfulness.

Indeed, it is with a sense of gratefulness and finally found peace that Augustine fully converts to Christianity: "O good God, what happens in a man to make him rejoice more at the salvation of a soul that has been despaired of and then delivered from greater danger than over one who has never lost hope, or never been in such imminent danger? (Book 8, Ch. III). The quoted passage is timeless. It denotes the human phenomenon not only of procrastination, but also of the self-destructive search for physical pleasure.

It does not appear that human nature has changed from the time of Augustine. While the type of search he embarks on.