In chapter seven, Augustine focuses on man's understanding by the term God. I understood and could relate to a lot of what he said. As a young child, I imagined God to be a "dazzling brightness." As he continued, a specific phrase stood out to me, "... but that there are many or even innumerable amount gods of equal rank, still these too they conceive as possessed of shape and form, according to what each man thinks the pattern of excellence." When I first read this, I was reminded of how Homer described Athena and Aphrodite to be gorgeous which is how he viewed a "pattern of excellence." This was interesting to me, but I continued to dig deeper. After some quick research, I found that in the Roman Empire (Augustine was after the fall of the Roman Empire, but it still fits) a gladiator that was extremely successful on the sand and very handsome would influence the artists, and gradually the little statues of the gods sold at markets would start to look like the popular gladiator who stood for the "patter of excellence" at the time. I just thought that was interesting!
P.S. I commented on Ashley Harding's post!!!
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