d he do the same with most of the precepts of Christianity. For Augustine, an educated young man and someone, we might imagine, who had a rather high opinion of his own mental powers, a philosophically intact religion was important. It is interesting to note the progression in Augustine's conversion: he transitioned from an emotional searching during adolescence to an intellectual quest during young adulthood, and finally to a spiritual revelation that manifested as conversion.
The personal charisma of Ambrose played no small part in the eventual conversion of Augustine. Ambrose was, by all accounts, a particularly well-spoken, educated, and respected Bishop. In fact, his personal characteristics were a large part of the reason he was chosen as Bishop of Milan, which was at this time the location of the emperor's court. Though Augustine never explicitly says so in the text, it appears that Ambrose provided a welcome counterpoint to Monica as a model for Christianity.
In many ways Ambrose was the opposite of Monica, though they shared an unshakeable Catholic faith. Ambrose was highly educated; Monica, like most women of her time and class, was not. Ambrose was given a great deal of power in this male-dominated culture; Monica, as a woman, was viewed as a second-class citizen. Ambrose was very calm and gave unemotional, erudite sermons; Monica's emotional faith and attachment to her son gave Augustine cause to censure her. Ambrose was of the Roman world; Monica was a North African. Ambrose provided a model to Augustine of what an educated Christian man in the Latin culture of the late Roman Empire could be - and Augustine liked what he saw. He may have asserted that faith in God without scientific or philosophical proof is enough for some (a notion that he first raises in Book IV), but Augustine was never going to have the simple faith of the uneducated. Catholicism had to appeal to him intellectually, and Ambrose stood as proof that such a thing was possible.
At this time, an anti-intellectual movement was spreading throughout some Catholic communities. Proponents of this movement expressed their distrust of erudite language or polished oratory. Some Christians said that God's truth couldn't be couched in the language of rhetors and orators. Augustine, a product and teacher of these arts, defended them, saying that education and oratory skill neither increased nor decreased the power of the true religion. Here, Augustine attempts to balance the philosophical and academic achievements of the pagans with the Christian faith, holding that Christians can benefit from the works of the pagans while maintaining the sanctity of their faith. This will be a recurring theme in his writings.
This chapter marks the beginning of the breakdown of Augustine's Manichaean faith. The radical skepticism of the Academics dealt it a serious blow, but the end was hastened by Bishop Ambrose's figurative interpretation of the Bible. Finally, Augustine had a chance to use his education in the pursuit of faith. The figurative, rather than literal, interpretations of Biblical texts found in the last books of Confessions provided Augustine with a way to reconcile his grave misgivings with the Old Testament stories - and particularly with Genesis. In the earlier books, Augustine struggles with his vision of God; a problem left over from the Manichaean faith of his youth, which asserted that good and evil were physical entities, and God an entirely spiritual being. Augustine is preparing the reader for his dramatic conversion and the equally dramatic "proof" he will offer of the spiritual existence of God.