“Our hearts find no peace until they rest in you” (21). The return to God, the means of achieving it, and the ways in which man turns away from Him in the first place are central themes in the Confessions of St. Augustine; a historical work serving as confession, praise and examination of the faith. Autobiographical in nature, Augustine's work retrospectively tells the story of his life and spiritual journey, considering each event and its significance within the broader framework of his religious philosophy, the result of the fusion of Neoplatonic and of Catholic theology. Through this fusion, Augustine is able to reconcile God and "evil", to distinguish between the physical and spiritual realms, and to present his views on how one can come to know and love God in the truest meaning possible; how we come back to him. One of the main problems Augustine had as he began his examination of spiritual matters was the apparent existence of evil. Augustine was unable to reconcile the notion of an immutable, all-powerful God with the evil he saw in the world. If God were indeed all-powerful and the creator of everything, how could evil exist if God had not contributed to its creation? Thus, in his early years, Augustine sided with the Manichaeans, who believed that God was not all-powerful, but rather in constant struggle against evil and the opposing force. Such ideas about evil and God's connection to the physical realm distanced Augustine from God. Fortunately, Augustine grew displeased with the Manichaeans, whose flowery words proved to lack substance and whose cosmological predictions proved less accurate than science and were often the product of coincidence. Even after rejecting the dualism of Manichaean thought, Augustine strove to return middle of paper ......to resemble God, or even simply to get closer to God, by being anchored in the tangible world, of Attempts are frequently and inappropriately invested in the physical realm, ultimately leading us away from God. Most sins are really just misdirected attempts to be like God. heart for the loss of the things he took pleasure in desiring, because he wants to be like you, from whom nothing can be taken away” (50). Through introspection, we can move from physical to spiritual matters, probing the soul. for an interior memory of God, and thus better serve God (and the Force). In the end, love is not bad, as long as it comes through God. “So love them in Him” (82).