Roman Values and Christian Values, Essay Example

Despite the fact that, throughout the years, there have been many individuals who believe in a number of ideologies, it goes without saying that, often times, it is difficult for these individuals to be able to uphold more than two beliefs at a time. What is meant by this is that if a certain individual were to believe in Roman virtues, then it would be invariably difficult for this same individual to strongly believe in his or her Christianity. This would be due to the fact that Roman virtues are practically in opposition to what Christianity teaches. This opposition is clearly portrayed throughout Augustine’s Confessions as well as the novel Aeneid. The journeys that exposed within both of the novels indicate that Christianity does not correlate with Roman philosophical works. Therefore, it is a fair statement to make that Roman values and Christianity are entirely irreconcilable. Furthermore, an aspect that should be considered of great importance within these two great works is the fact that there are many more differences in comparison to similarities between the two cultures, which go to indicate that the two novels are not very alike.

In order to fully comprehend and appreciate the kind of values that both Romans and Christians uphold, both ideologies must first be understood. An imperative factor that is immediately noticeable within Confessions is the fact that Christianity has everything to do with actions and living a good life. Ultimately, this means living a good life so that an individual can have a good place in his or her afterlife. Despite the fact that throughout the novel Augustine sins a bit too many times, the meaning that this novel is biography is attempting to portray is the fact that an individual does not need to be entirely perfect just to live a good life and have a great afterlife.

The reason as to why this would serve important is due to the fact that many individuals believe that once they sin, there is no redemption. Confessions indicates otherwise, however. By showing that Augustine was often times a sinner and at times just sinned without a good enough incentive, the novel is showing that no individual is perfect. Sure, Augustine may have sinned all throughout the novel, but that does not mean that he was not a good person. This novel does a great job of portraying of what is expected of Christianity. Due to this, an individual might be able to get a good idea of how to live a good Christianity albeit they might sin at times.

 Unlike Confessions, it seems as if Aeneid simply tells a story about the Romans as opposed to teaching a specific lesson. This is not to say that the novel does not do an exemplary job of getting its message across, but it could be said that what this novel does not do a great job in comparison to Confession in terms of getting its message across. Despite the fact that Aeneid tells a great tale about how fate often times interferes with free will, what the novel is nothing more than a novel. What is meant by this is that the novel does not necessarily do a good job of portraying the kind of Roman values that individuals should seek to have.

 On the contrary, the novel simply tells a story about how the Trojans are ultimately able to found a city in Italy. Aeneid is a story of heroism and what it takes to get a job done, but other than that, it does not do such a good job of showing what true Roman values entail. If, in fact, an individual was looking to learn about multiple gods that exist in Roman myths, then this novel would be a great starting point. This is because of the manner in which the novel does an exemplary job at being able to explain many gods that exist in this kind of beliefs. Aside from this, however, Aeneid talks vastly about the kind of religion that Romans believe in. This religion involves the Romans making many sacrifices to their own respective gods for certain things. It is effectively portrayed that the Romans believe in many kids of gods for every kind of thing. For example, the goddess of connections, is present in a vital part of the novel.

 The reason as to why these religions play a vital role in this discussion is because of the manner by which they are able to explain the differentiation that exists between the Romans and Christians. Whereas the Romans believe in having multiple gods for all kinds of occasions and scenarios, Christians highly disapprove of this. As a matter of fact, a devout Christian would consider the kind of worshiping that is portrayed in Aeneid as immoral and having a lack of values. One of the primary reasons as to why the Roman’s values and the Christian’s values would be greatly differentiated would be due to the fact that they worship very different gods. As a matter of fact, Christians would often refer to the kinds of gods that Romans worship as “pagan gods.” They would refer to them as so because of the way in which they highly disapprove of such gods.

 Due to the fact that Christians strongly believe in being able to show that one is living a good life through one’s own good works and the Romans do not necessarily believe in such things, it goes without saying that Christians and Romans would not be able to live together in harmony. Because of this, it would also be incredibly difficult for an individual to be able to practice two kinds of religions at the same time. The reason as to why this holds true is because if an individual would want to follow Roman values, then this person would have to worship the many gods in order to fulfill one of the many requirements that the Roman values require. If, however, the individual would also be wanting to be a Christian at the same time, then this would mean that the same individual would not be able to follow the pagan gods.

 Clearly, this kind of worshiping would prove to be highly ineffective in one’s life. If, however, the arguments that have been presented do not prove the claims that are being made, there are many other manners to prove the claims. Although the two novels being discussed are able to effectively portray the incredible journeys on the part of the many characters within the novels, it goes without saying that the character’s journeys are incredibly distinct. Whereas Aeneid focuses on the ways in which a group of people where able to take over a city and build it from the ground up, Confessions goes through the life of a man who was able to be converted into Christianity. Without a doubt, both of the novels at hand have religion as a central theme. The former, Aeneid, invariably deals with the fact that the Romans believe throughout the novel that if certain sacrifices are made to the gods, then there is a great likelihood that the gods will find pleasure within this offering and might end up liking as well as aiding the individual who offered such a sacrifice. However, another ideology that is held is that a god might choose to ignore the individuals who make the sacrifice altogether and might no nothing to improve the individual’s situation. A third scenario that is presented here is that the gods might not take any liking to the sacrifice at hand and might end up hating the individual offering the sacrifice and make their journeys much more difficult then they would have been without the sacrifice. In the novel, this is specifically portrayed by the manner in which Juno constantly loathes Aeneas as well as the Trojans throughout the novel despite the many offerings that are made towards the god.