St. Augustine and the Drunk
Most people who recount the conversion of St. Augustine highlight his former life of sexual sin, and for good reason. But he also had to undergo an enormous detachment from the admiration of the men of his age. Before his conversion, Augustine was the 4th century equivalent of a tenured-professor at a prestigious University in Milan. One day, while walking along, he came across a rather happy-drunk. Unlike the modern tenured-professor who might ask shallow, self-righteous ethical questions (eg Why are there homeless people? Why is he drunk?) Augustine ponders in Book VI of his Confessions as to why this drunk had attained some happiness and he had not: I [...]
