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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the mind retain in memory?
(a) Self.
(b) Love more than anything.
(c) Not just an image of an object, but all qualities of an object, the thing itself.
(d) God.

2. What does Augustine say is wrong about the existence of God in time?
(a) It is wrong to say that time could have existed before God's creation of the heaven and the earth.
(b) That time is real to even compare it to God's existence.
(c) That God even exists in time.
(d) That time is a creation of God.

3. What does Augustine warn will happen if we move away from God's responsibility for the creation?
(a) We then hand over responsibility for creation to Lucifer.
(b) We assume responsibility ourselves for creation.
(c) We imply creation is an illusion.
(d) We are moving away from reality, since God is the creator of all things.

4. With whom does Augustine return to Milan?
(a) With his friend Alypius.
(b) With his mother.
(c) With his wife.
(d) No one.

5. Of what is Augustine reassured?
(a) That God is just waiting on him.
(b) That Jesus loves him.
(c) That he does not have to give up his philosophical and scientific inquiries.
(d) That the end does indeed justify the means.

6. What does Augustine think would happen if there was really a kingdom of light versus a kingdom of darkness?
(a) God would destroy the kingdom of darkness.
(b) The darkness would cover up the light and there would therefore be no light.
(c) The light would outshine the dark and there could then be no dark.
(d) They would cancel each other out and there would be nothing.

7. What is different between scripture and the books of the Platonists?
(a) They both challenge the idea of god, but the scritures first prove the existence of god.
(b) The scritures are older, but say the same things and have the same concept of god as the Platonists.
(c) Nothing except who authors them.
(d) God does not exist in the Platonists' books.

8. What must one avoid in interpreting the scriptures?
(a) Satan's insidious whispers.
(b) Pride.
(c) Slothful thinking.
(d) Heresy.

9. What is non-existent except when it is the present?
(a) Life.
(b) Happiness.
(c) God.
(d) The past and future.

10. What happens to Verecundus before his death?
(a) He converts to Manicheanism.
(b) He is ex-communicated.
(c) He is baptized.
(d) He has a vision of angels hovering around him.

11. Into what can the devil make himself?
(a) A minor deity.
(b) An angel of light (Lucifer) who is evil.
(c) An average human.
(d) A reasonable temptation.

12. What is another name for the wisdom of God?
(a) Creation.
(b) The Holy Spirit.
(c) There is not name for God's wisdom; it is ineffable.
(d) Being.

13. To what does Augustine compare the recitation of a psalm?
(a) The passing of one human life or all of human history.
(b) The song of creation.
(c) Hope spoken.
(d) Nothing.

14. Why can there be more than one interpretation of a piece of scripture?
(a) Because it is applicable to man one way and to woman in a different way.
(b) Because God is infinte.
(c) Because it can have a surface meaning and a deeper meaning.
(d) Because it can mean different things in different cultures.

15. When does Augustine reject astrology?
(a) When he studies his horoscope for a year and very little comes true.
(b) When the stars show a pattern not predicted.
(c) After speaking to an old man Vindicianus, and also due to the arguments of his friend Nebridius.
(d) When it says he was to die when he was 28 and he doesn't.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Victorinus become a Christian?

2. What differs for each individual and even at different periods of a person's life?

3. From what is a human being, no matter how saintly, never fully free?

4. What tempts Augustine in this part of his life?

5. How does Augustine define formlessness?

(see the answer keys)

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