The Perspectives Of Augustine's Views To True Happiness
1385 Words6 Pages
Augustine believes that human beings all seek happiness and that this happiness can only be achieved through the supreme good, which consists of the enjoyment of God. True happiness can only occur, and is rewarded in the arms of God in the afterlife, when man chooses to be virtuous in this life. Consequently, this virtue is deeply rooted in and founded on a gift from God: love.
Man is made to constantly seek happiness, and this constant seeking conveys that there is an emptiness within man. Augustine espouses that in order to attain true happiness, it is required of man to move past the natural and extend to the supernatural. Augustine states that supreme good cannot be found in this world and it can only be found in eternal union with God. Spirituality is needed for man to satisfy his need and longing for happiness–the natural man cannot attain it on his own. Man looks for happiness because of his incompleteness.…show more content… Loving attempts to fill the emptiness and void–it is a seeking for something outside of man. Although love is good and everything is a legitimate object of love, the problem lies in the way that man chooses to love. It is in his manner and attitude that distorts love; expectations and presumptions of man leads to misunderstandings. Man must not expect more from his object of love than its unique nature can provide; disordered love stems from this and is the cause of continual heartbreak, unhappiness, and emptiness. The only source of ultimate happiness is God, for He is the only one who can satisfy man’s need for the