Which neoplatonic ideas did augustine borrow and express in book xi of confessions? your answer should be at least 150 words.

after a lifetime spent engaged in a philosophical search,  augustinefinally began to read neoplatonic texts. he was getting closer and closer to conversion, and his discovery of neoplatonic literature came at an opportune time. essentially, through several different philosophical and theological points, neoplatonism made it much easier for augustine to accept christianity on an intellectual level and open his heart to the faith.

augustine recounts the beliefs he held at this time in his life (which he describes as his "evil and wicked youth"). the fact that christians believed that god was not changeable, was the source of all things, was wholly benevolent, and had power over everything, caused augustine great intellectual difficulty. central to this problem was theodicy: how could augustine believe in an omnipotent and benevolent god who could allow evil in the world? this was coupled with the continuing idea of "spiritual substance." trained in philosophical and skeptical inquiry, augustine would be expected to have a problem with the idea of a substance that was not material, but did exist in space. this notion of god is common to religions of all kinds today, but it was new - and particularly problematic - to thinkers of augustine's day. the difficulty of defending this idea through purely skeptical philosophical rigor put augustine in an intellectual quandary. he continued to picture god as various immaterial things - sunlight, breath - but admits now that he should not have been trying to picture god at all. he notes ironically that if he had considered the nature of thinking and the reality (but immateriality) of thoughts, he would have been able to solve this problem earlier.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

i guess you are missing the idea that has to be supported, am i right?