Re: The joys of wickedness

Well, it's been a long time since I read the Confessions (the only work by Augustine that I've read), but it left an impression on me of a man obsessed with sinfulness, and not someone who was completely civilised; though I liked his discussion, later on in the work, of the nature of time. I ought to read the volume again, but that is rather unlikely at the moment. On unbaptised infants - fair enough; on checking I find that Augustine did regard infants who died unbaptised as damned and consigned to Hell, but he allowed that they only endured the "the lightest punishment" of those available - which was interpreted later, by medieval theologians from Abelard onwards, as the privation of the beatific vision without hope of obtaining it. One could quibble on why unbaptised infants should be punished at all (and the answer would of course be original sin inherited from Adam) but I shan't bother with that.