Confessions of Saint Augustine

By Saint Augustine

You’ve heard his name—now read his classic spiritual autobiography. Here is St. Augustine’s Confessions, an important and powerful book abridged and updated for today’s reader. Written some sixteen hundred years ago, this Christian classic still speaks to readers, addressing concerns that trouble the human heart today just as they did in the fourth and fifth centuries. Confessions gives an account of God’s grace in Augustine’s life—as well as his personal regret over the wickedness of his pre-Christian days. It’s a powerful introduction to a giant of the faith, and an encouraging story of God’s power to change people.

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbour Publishing
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781624160561

Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine (354-430) was a Catholic theologian, philosopher, and writer. Born to a Catholic mother and pagan father—Berbers living in Numidia, Roman North Africa (modern day Algeria)—Augustine’s lifelong commitment to faith and deeply personal writings make him an important figure for religion, literature, and Western philosophy. He is considered influential for developing the Catholic doctrines of original sin and predestination, though he also made contributions to philosophy that extend beyond religion, including general ethics, just war theory, and the concept of free will. Augustine is also recognized today as an early and significant memoirist and autobiographer, adapting these literary forms in order to blend religious teaching with personal stories and anecdotes.

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God

INTRODUCTION

Written some sixteen hundred years ago, Augustine’s Confessions is a Christian classic that still speaks to readers—addressing concerns that trouble the human heart today just as they did in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Augustine, born in North Africa in AD 354, wrote this spiritual autobiography around 397. Confessions gives an account of God’s grace in Augustine’s life—as well as his personal regret over the wickedness, idleness, and distaste of the scriptures in Augustine’s pre-Christian days.

His mother was a devout Christian, and her prayers had a powerful effect on Augustine’s spiritual conversion and growth. The death of an early friend also contributed to Augustine’s reflections on grief, the nature of friendship, and his own love of attention, all of which eventually led him into the study of God’s Word.

Genuinely converted in his early thirties, Augustine went on to philosophize, preach, and write, greatly influencing early Christian thought. He later served as the Bishop of Hippo, now known as Annaba, Algeria, where he died in 430 at the age of seventy-five.

The book that follows is an abridged, lightly updated version of Augustine’s Confessions, based on a nineteenth-century translation by Edward B. Pusey.

Book 1

HE PROCLAIMS THE GREATNESS OF GOD

Great are You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised. Great is Your power, and Your wisdom infinite. And You would man praise. You awake us to delight in Your praise; for You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on You or to praise You? To know You or to call on You? For who can call on You without knowing You? For he who does not know You may call on You as something other than who You are. Or do we call on You so that we may know You? But how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher? Those who seek the Lord shall praise Him, for those who seek Him shall find Him, and those who find Him shall praise Him.

And how shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord, since, when I call for Him, I shall be calling Him to myself? And what room is there within me whither my God can come into me? Whither can God come into me? Is there, indeed, O Lord my God, anything in me that can contain You? Do heaven and earth, which You have made, contain You? Or, because nothing that exists could exist without You, does therefore whatever exists contain You? Since, then, I too exist, why do I seek that You should enter into me, who would not be if You were not in me? I could not be at all then, O my God, if You were not in me.

Do the heaven and earth contain You, since You fill them? Or do You fill them and yet overflow, since they do not contain You? And where, when the heaven and the earth are filled, do You pour forth the remainder of Yourself? Or have You no need that anything contain You, since what You fill You fill by containing it? For the vessels that You fill do not uphold You, since, though they were broken, You were not poured out. And when You are poured out on us, You are not cast down, but You lift us up. You who fill all things, do You fill them with Your whole self, or, since all things cannot contain You wholly, do they contain part of You?

What are You then, my God? What, but the Lord God? For who is Lord but the Lord? or who is God save our God? Most high, most good, most potent, most omnipotent; most merciful, yet most just; most hidden, yet most present; most beautiful, yet most strong, stable, yet incomprehensible; unchangeable, yet all-changing; never new, never old; all-renewing and bringing age upon the proud without them knowing it; ever working, ever at rest; still gathering, yet nothing lacking; supporting, filling, and overspreading; creating, nourishing, and maturing; seeking, yet having all things. You love without passion; are jealous without anxiety; repent, yet do not grieve; are angry yet serene; change Your works, Your purpose unchanged; receive again what You find yet never lost; never in need, yet rejoicing in gains. You receive over and above, that You may owe; and who has anything that is not Yours?

Oh! that I might rest in You! Oh! that You would enter into my heart and fill it, that I may forget my ills and embrace You, my sole good! What are You to me? In Your pity, teach me to utter it. Or what am I to You that You demand my love, and, if I give it not, are angry with me and threaten me with grievous woes? Is it then a slight woe to not love You? Oh! for Your mercies’ sake, tell me, O Lord my God, what You are to me. Behold, Lord, my heart is before You; open my ears and say to my soul, I am your salvation. May I hasten after this voice and take hold of You. Hide not Your face from me.

The mansion of my soul is narrow; enlarge it, that You may enter in. It is in ruins; repair it. It has that within that must offend Your eyes; I confess and know it. But who shall cleanse it? Or to whom should I cry except You? Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults and spare Your servant from the power of the enemy. Have I not confessed against myself my transgressions to You, and You, my God, have forgiven the iniquity of my heart? I do not contend in judgment with You, who are the truth; I am afraid to deceive myself, because my iniquity might lie to itself. Therefore I do not contend with You in judgment; for if You, Lord, marked iniquities, who could abide it?

Yet allow me to speak to Your mercy, since I speak to Your mercy and not to scornful man. Perhaps You, too, despise me, yet You will return and have compassion on me. For what would I say, O Lord my God, but that I know not whence I came into this dying life, or shall I call it living death?

I acknowledge You, Lord of heaven and earth, and praise You for my infancy, of which I remember nothing; for You have appointed that man should learn much about himself from others and rely much on the strength of females. Even then I had being and life, and (as I outgrew babyhood) could learn how to make known my sensations to others. From where could such a being be except from You, Lord?

Passing from infancy, I came to boyhood, or rather it came to me. For I was no longer a speechless infant but a speaking boy. This I remember; and I have since observed how I learned to speak. By constantly hearing words, as they occurred in various sentences, I gradually began to understand what they stood for; and I learned to express my will. Thus I learned to communicate with those about me, and so launched deeper into the stormy intercourse of human life, yet I was still dependent on parental authority and on my elders.

Next I was put in school to get learning, of which I did not know the use; and yet, if I was idle in learning, I was beaten. For this was considered right by our forefathers, multiplying toil and grief upon the sons of Adam. But, Lord, we found that men called upon You, and we learned from them to think of You (according to our powers) as of some great One, who, though hidden from our senses, could hear and help us. For so I began, as a boy, to pray to You, my aid and refuge, that I might not be beaten at school. And when You did not hear me (therefore not giving me over to folly), my elders, even my parents, mocked my stripes.

How could our parents mock the torments that we suffered in boyhood from our masters? We sinned when we wrote or read or studied less than what was exacted of us. For we wanted not, O Lord, memory or capacity, whereof Your will gave enough for our age; but our sole delight was play; and for this we were punished by those who yet themselves were doing the like. But elder folks’ idleness is called business; that of boys, being really the same, is punished by those elders; and none commiserates either boys or men.

And yet I sinned, O Lord God, in disobeying the commands of my parents and masters. For what they wanted me to learn, whatever their motive was, I might have put to good use when I was older. I disobeyed because I loved to play, loved the pride of victory in my games, and loved to have my ears tickled with lying fables, that they might itch the more. I also enjoyed the shows and games of my elders. Yet those who give these shows are held in such esteem that almost everyone wishes the same for their children, and yet are very willing that their children should be beaten if those very games distract them from the studies. Look with pity, Lord, on these things, and deliver us who call on You now; deliver those, too, who do not call on You yet, that they may call on You and You may deliver them.

As a boy, then, I had already heard of an eternal life, and even from the womb of my mother, who greatly hoped in You, I was sealed with the mark of His cross. You saw, Lord, how while I was yet a boy, being seized on a time with sudden oppression of the stomach and near to death—You saw, my God (for You were my keeper) how with great eagerness and faith I sought the baptism of Christ. My mother, whose heart was pure in Your faith and who was earnestly seeking God for my salvation, would have eagerly and quickly have provided for my consecration and cleansing by the health-giving sacraments, confessing You, Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins, unless I had suddenly recovered. And so my cleansing was deferred, because

Reviews for Confessions of Saint Augustine

[judithrs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Confessions. Saint Augustine. 2d Translated by Frank Sheed. 1992. And I Burned for your Peace; Augustine’s Confessions Unpacked. Peter Kreeft. 2016. Confessions was a fall sections for our great books club, and I just finished it! Not that I it should have taken me this long; I just read most of the books listed above as I read a few pages in Confessions two or three times a week until I finished it. It is a beautiful book, and I am so glad that I read it. To be honest, I am not sure I would have finished it had I not read Kreeft’s book along with it. He certainly did a good job of explaining St. Augustine. It was sort of like reading the Bible. I really enjoyed most of it, but Augustine does belabor the points he makes! He takes a long time to say anything. This is a spiritual autobiography, not a typical autobiography. Anyone interested in early Christian thought would do well to read this. I expect I will return to read some of the many parts I underlined

[alexanme-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Essential medieval/Christian philosophy.

[georgee53-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the great works in philosophy and religion.

[stillatim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Considering that the style of Augie's work is completely and utterly impenetrable, this is actually a pretty decent read. Just come to it expecting circularity, meditation, rapturous theology and self-flagellation, and you'll come away impressed.
Don't expect anything linear, and you'll be all the more impressed when he ends up, every now and then, out-Aristotling Aristotle with arguments of the (x-->y)&(y-->z)&(z-->p)&(p-->q); ~x is absurd; therefore q variety.
Don't expect any modern 'you are a unique and special snowflake and your desires are good it's just that your parents/society/upbringing/schoolfriends/economic earning power have stunted you' self-help guff. It'd be nice to read someone more contemporary who's willing to admit that people do things wrong, all the time, and should feel really shitty for doing wrong things.
Don't expect Aquinas. This is the hardest bit for me; if someone's going to talk about God I prefer that they be coldly logical about it. Augie goes more for the erotic allegory, self-abasement in the face of the overwhelming eternal kind of thing. No thanks.
Finally, be aware that you'll need to think long and hard about what he says and why he says it when he does. Books I-IX are the ones you'll read as autobiography, and books X-XIII will seem like a slog. But it's all autobiography. Sadly for Augie, he doesn't make it easy for us to value the stuff he wants to convince us to value, which is the philosophy and theology of the later books. The structure, as far as I can tell, is to show us first how he got to believing that it was possible for him to even begin thinking about God (that's I-IX). X-XIII shows us how he goes about thinking about God, moving from the external world, to the human self in X and a bit of XI, to the whole of creation in XI and XII, to God himself in XIII. I have no idea if this is what he had in mind, but it roughly works out. That's all very intellectually stimulating, but it's still way more fun to read about his peccadilloes and everyday life in the fourth century.

[maryh10000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Actually brings up the idea that some parts of the bible are to be understood metaphorically, rather than literally. Including Genesis. I always have big trouble with the way Augustine just "sent away" his mistress when he converted. Lots of agonizing over how much it hurt him, but not much on how it affected her. Seems to me he should have married her.

[ted_newell-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fabulous feast. Who are you? God only knows, says Augustine reverently.

[femmebibliophile37 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really felt my soul physically grow as I read this book.

[sedeara · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, I'm finished with this book at last!I originally became interested in reading Confessions when I saw a special twelve years ago about the beginnings of Christianity, because I thought "Confessions" sounded like a juicy book. It's really not juicy at all, so it's a good thing I approached it interested in theology and not scandal by the time I finally got around to reading it. This time around, I mainly felt like it was important for me to read firsthand the philosophy that is so much a basis of Catholic thought.Like most books written in the middle ages, St. Augustine's would have benefited from a good editor. There were a lot of times where I felt he repeated himself, which is fine for a spiritual seeker's personal musings, but a bit annoying for an outside reader hundreds of years later. And even though he wrote his Confessions both to strengthen his understanding/relationship with God and to further the same for others, a lot of it really did feel like naval-gazing. Still, I found myself appreciating a LOT of Augustine's theology, such as his insistence that people could come to diverse interpretations of Scripture without any of them being "wrong" (take that, fundamentalists!). Indeed, Augustine's perception of Christianity seems a lot more open than the Catholic Church of today would lead you to believe, although the hierarchy HAS kept his puritan perceptions of sexuality fully intact. Thank God for that.

[quaintlittlehead · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The "Confessions" of Saint Augustine is a hard work to pin down--part conversion story, part apologetics text, part philosophical treatise, part Bible commentary. It is also a hard work to read. There are many points of interest within the text, but it is not something you just read straight through without a lot of stopping and thinking, and preferably some supplemental research. There were many times reading the book that I felt that my time would be better spent just reading hours of the Bible, and that I was trying to force myself to grapple with a seminary-level text without the prerequisite educational background. This is a vitally significant work in Christian history, to be sure; it lays out fundamental arguments against the Manichaeans, has been looked to by the Roman Catholic church in support of purgatory, and even influenced the philosophical writings of Descartes. However, this wide-ranging history is far beyond the scope of the book itself, and it almost needs its own commentary to be understood by the layperson. The Barnes and Noble edition contains a historical timeline, an introduction, endnotes, a brief essay on the Confessions' influence on later works (which I found to be the most helpful supplemental piece in the book and wish I had read it before the text), a selection of famous quotes responding to the text, and a few critical questions to consider in thinking about the work.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A marvelous autobiography of a Church Father. How he coped with avoiding the "call" to God. He sought the truth in pganism, then Aristotelian philosophy, then Manichaeism. All the while relishing a sinner's life. Then he visited Milan, called upon Ambrose and began his conversion to Christianity. He portrays himself, warts and all, living with a mistress, his quest for easy living and money, only to be confronted by a voice telling him to read the Bible. It changes his life. He converts. He pursues Catholicism with devotion and eventually finds himself the Bishop of Hippo, ministering to the poor of all faiths. Quite a man.

[lassiter_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If anyone struggles with desires within themselves and wonders why the struggle and if it can be overcome they need to read Confessions. The struggle has never changed and Augustine had to fight through his passions and his intellect to find trust and relief in Christ.

[empress8411 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I know this is a "great" work of Christianity because I was told it was. But it did nothing for me. It seemed jumbled and erratic and hard to understand, despite the use of simple, easy language. It was more stream-of-consciousness that I excepted. I didn't enjoy reading about Augustine's life and struggles with sin. He was honest and that's rare from someone who because famous for their faith. I think this book can make a huge difference in many people's hearts - but for me, it was just not what I prefer to read. It was a bit too sentimental and full of angst for my rational tastes.

[janemarieprice · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a master work of religious philosophy. This was one of the first things I read which made me understand religion in the deeper sense.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Augustine's Confessions are his biography, and they contain a lot of his theological and philosophical thoughts, as well details of his surprisingly interesting life. He didn't become a Christian until later in life, first being a Manichean, an interesting gnostic religion which died out in the middle ages. He writes about the bad things he did, how he regrets them, and speculates on psychological reasons for human behavior.Augustine was fairly well educated, and the chapters where he muses over problems of time and memory are quite thought provoking. The book is notable for the frankness of the author, his perceptiveness, and his variety of internal struggles. The literary impact of this book has also been huge; as the reader progresses numerous phrases will stand out, either because they have entered the common idiom, or because there is something very poetical captured in them. This book is notable for so many reasons.

[mbmackay · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Written in the 4th century by an early intellectual christian who is famous (to me anyway) for his prayer - "Lord grant me chastity, but not yet"!. The book is in the form of an autobiography, interspersed with lots and lots of beseeching of the lord. The biography is interesting, and all the beseeching has a strong echo in the formulaic rants of the TV preachers. The book ends with some ponderings - on memory, and on the creation. Augustine believes god made the world, but he has some interesting questions about exactly how this was done. I couldn't help wondering, if Augustine was alive now, when there are much better explanations, whether he wouldn't be in the Richard Dawkins' camp. Read February 2009

[steve777_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Timeless autobiography showing how the Spirit of Christ drew this Church father to Himself.

[carka_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read the whole thing as part of my church history course. It probably meant more to me reading it as an adult than it would have if I read it all the way through when I bought it in high school. A reminder that God's love is deeper than anything we can imagine.

[deborahjade · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book has been one of the slowest reads so far this year and took around 41 days to finish. My main struggle was with the language the book was written it. The underlying story was interesting, but there were so many extra words around everything. Especially in the first books, Augustine is constantly referencing back and forward between the past and the present and the relationship between his past actions and God. He regrets choices and actions that he took, but acknowledges that God was present in them and worked through them.
The more I read, the more the underlying story of Augustine's journey became clear. It showed that his was a slow meandering journey to finding God.
His mother, Monnica, is one of the main characters in the book, who is constantly praying to God to save her son. And her prayer is answered before her death, albeit not by many years.
The last chapter ended by tying up the experience with an honest look at how Augustine was living in the present. He struggled with wanting to follow God in his heart, but also wanting to follow his own wills/passions. It is an encouraging insight into the life of such a well-known, influential Christian theologian and philosopher showing that he never attained perfection, but was reassuringly human.

[endersreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is very dear to me. I read "Confessions" in a very difficult personal time and quickly became overwhelmed by Augustines sincerity, intellect, and love for The Immutable Light. Augustine presents us with a very interesting time period in as where Christianity and Roman Paganism lie in juxtaposition. Besides Augustine's personal confessions, I enjoyed his examination of Genesis and his hefty discourse on time, or perhaps I should say the lack of the past and future. Rather than prattle on in the present, which has become past, I will urge you, reader, to introduce yourself to an author you most assuredly will hold very close to your heart.

[andrewlovesoldbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Has been called the greatest autobiography of all time.Exceedingly eloquent; the entire book is a prayer which reflects on the author's life and the work of God's grace within it.

[audacity88_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Powerful in its honesty, but also hard for me as a nonbeliever to read. The constant reference to God occurs not on the scale of once every page, but more like every other sentence. The effect is to make me skeptical of even the best parts, such as the brilliant discussion of the nature of time and the excruciatingly honest effort to understand the theft of the pears, when they end up being folded into Augustine's religious narrative. Yet the passion of Augustine's thought and the force of his writing is impossible to deny and those insights that do hold relevance beyond the Christian are presented powerfully here.

[george1295 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The son of a pagan father, who insisted on his education, and a Christian mother, who continued to pray for his salvation, Saint Augustine spent his early years torn between the conflicting religions and philosophical world views of his time. His Confessions, written when he was in his forties, recount how, slowly and painfully, he came to turn away from the licentious lifestyle and vagaries of his youth, to become a staunch advocate of Christianity and one of its most influential thinkers, writers and advocates. A remarkably honest and revealing spiritual autobiography, the Confessions also address fundamental issues of Christian doctrine, and many of the prayers and meditations it includes are still an integral part of the practice of Christianity today.

[elfortunawe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I began reading this once years ago, but it failed to engage me and I put it aside. When I started again I couldn't understand my previous lack of interest. The work ranges from philosophical speculation to personal memoir, and each kind has it's appeal. I was surprised by how must variety of belief and opinion late antiquity held on so many topics. Some of the debates and issues Augustine describes sound shockingly contemporary, though put in different terms. The passages covering Augustine's personal life can be poignant, especially those concerning death.

The scholarly consensus is that the Confessions was meant to be a preamble to a longer work: a detailed exegesis of the entirety of Christian scripture. The last three books cover the first chapter of Genesis, with careful attention given to an allegorical interpretation of the creation story. This is apparently as far Augustine ever got, thus adding to the long tradition of great, unfinished masterpieces.

[beau0p0laurence · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I profoundly disagree with Augustine's conceptualization of God/spirituality and truly wish he had kept his macho guilt to himself (our world would be so very different if he had). But his influence on Christian (and so U.S.) culture is undeniable, and so this is a good book to have read.

[jpsnow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What makes this such a popular testimonial and classic of Christian writing is the profound thinking he shares about the depth of his own spiritual life and his contemplation about creation and God. Most of the early chapters are about the wretchedness of his life and those of anyone before they find God. He starts at infancy and works his way through boyhood to the point where he was a young man of 30. Book 8, #13 includes a great description of his friend going to the gladiator events, intending not to watch but looking out of curiosity and becoming another bloodthirsty member of the crowd. St. Augustine's life was not that of a typical saint. After this passage: "my concubine being torn from my side as a hindrance to my marriage, my heart which clave unto her was torn and wounded and bleeding," he took on another mistress and kept with him the son by the first. He refers to Epicurus, remarking that he would have believed were it not for the tenet that there is nothing after death. This metaphysical debate shows the type of thought process that Augustine had to endure to reconcile current philosophy with early Christian beliefs: " that the body of an elephant should contain more of Thee than that of a sparrow, by how much larger it is, and takes up more room." In Book 7 #7, Augustine begins contemplating the nature of evil and how it "crept" into being. Did God create it? Again, we see reason guiding his spiritual thinking. He talks about the astrologers and how he rejected them based on a story of two men born at the exact same time, one a slave and the other a prince. Despite identical stars, they led very different lives. Hee first encountered John 1:1 by acquiring it among some books recorded by the Platonists. The Platonic concept of duality is entwined through much of Augustine's thinking. He considers the passage "and the word was made flesh" and appreciates the implication. He thinks about the meaning of an "incorruptible substance" and the effect on that which it touches. Book IX, #20 relates the strength and admonishment of women Christians at the time, and how they placed value in hearing the scripture in the home as a way of controlling abusive husbands. Book IX, #33 is the moving passage about how he came to understand his mother's death and how it brought him closer to God. Book X is the single most important and profound part of the Confessions. Having in the former books spoken of himself before his receiving the grace of baptism, in this section he admits what he then was. First, he inquires by what faculty we can know God at all, reasoning on the mystery of memory, wherein God, being made known, dwells undiscovered. Then he examines his own trials under the triple division of temptation, 'lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride.' The sins of the eyes is actually "curiosity." The sins of the flesh are all of those bodily pleasures and desires that take us away from the spiritual. Book X, #47: "Placed then amid these temptations, I strive daily against concupiscence in eating and drinking. For it is not of such nature, that I can settle on cutting it off once for all, and never touching it afterward, as I could of concubinage." Like many other great thinkers, Augustine considered the wonder of creation; in fact, just the nature of it alone to be proof of something greater than, i.e. God. There is much discussion about the nature of time, memory, the soul, and the how of God and man. In the closing books, he considers the immutable and eternal nature of God and the logical implication on creation, God's will, the past, the future, and the human frame of reference about these concepts.

[borg6mx5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

St. Augustine is one of the most significant authors of the early Roman Catholic Church. This autobiography is stunning in its frankness and its passion. Augustine of Hippo documents his transition from childhood to adulthood; also his path from Paganism to Christianity. He is not a perfect human being, he is seeking something profound, but is also admittedly weak and tempted by pride and pleasure. While many books have been written after, none before had been written like it.

[a1abwriter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the most excellent books I've every read. From start to finish I was captivated letter by letter, word by word and so on.You do not have to be a catholic, or even a christian to enjoy this mans tail of finding faith.

[cecrow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A classic work for its influence on Christian theology going forward, but hardly a pleasure read for anyone not a student of such or not keenly interested in early Christian lore. Non-religious at my best, I read it as an early example of autobiography and for the sake of its place in history; but the story of a man's search for himself and his quest for truth is something we all go through at some point in our quest for self-identity. In Augustine's case it is the story of an atheist brought to God, a journey that included the search for truth in many other directions before he resorted to religion. This was a very difficult read, a chore really, and it took me much longer than its page count warranted. I had to lean on Sparknotes quite a bit to help me navigate it. Merging neo-platonic philosophy with Christianity, Augustine argues that everyone and everything moves towards God, knowingly or not, as part of a quest to achieve near-perfect (only God is perfect) state of being. That is an essential message to be aware of and watching for if you've any hope of getting through this.The first nine parts are his biography, which serves as a sort of case study. This was the portion that satisfied my amateur interest. Augustine apologizes to God for every sin he can ever remember making, including some (e.g. crying incessantly as a babe) that he can't. Citing the evil sin of taking pride in his grammar lessons and rhetoric skills, etc. makes him sound almost a flagellant. Slightly more legitimate was the minor theft of fruit committed under peer pressure, and more philandering than was strictly warranted. Most peculiar to me was the supposed sin of taking pleasure in watching tragic drama, as he wonders where the pleasure came from to be entertained by tales of others' suffering, albeit fictional.The last four parts are increasingly obtuse as he lays out his theory of change that moves towards God. I could barely parse these chapters. The first explored memory, the next was on the nature of time, the next the biblical story of creation, and the last ... Sparknotes doesn't cover this one and it lost me so completely, I can't even hazard a guess at what it was addressing even though I read every word. The tenth chapter is also a discussion of temptations and gave me the sad impression that he had built a cage about himself, cutting himself off from every pleasure life has to offer and reducing his experience to mere survival. He writes that of course he knows he cannot permit anyone to dissuade him from this position. It's a typical tenet in any fundamentalist perspectives, this defining anyone who tries to talk you out of your beliefs as inherently evil, permitting your dismissal of their every argument without having to hear or consider (been there, done that, bought the Ayn Rand t-shirt - sold it back.) I have met a brilliant man, one who became deeply inhibited by the self-identity he arrived at.

[miquixote · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Augustine's 'efficacious grace' inspired Reformation theologians such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. Augustine taught that Adam's guilt, as transmitted to his descendants, severely weakens, though does not destroy, the freedom of their will. Luther and Calvin took it one step further and said that Original Sin completely destroyed liberty. So we can thank him for helping open up the floodgates of what I perceive to be a huge part of what hell would be like: the overwhelmingly negative infatuation with ascetism. Meanwhile, Augustine's arguments against magic, differentiating it from miracle, were crucial in the early Church's fight against paganism and became a central thesis in the later denunciation of witches and witchcraft. In other words, he perhaps unintentionallly contributed to the burning alive of many innocent people.However, because it is impossible to separate Christianity form European intellectual tradition, we must (for me grudgingly so) acknowledge Augustine's positive role.1. in bringing Greek thought back into the Christian/European intellectual tradition.2. his writing on the human will and ethics would become a focus for later thinkers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. 3. His extended meditation on the nature of time imfluenced even agnostics such as Bertrand Russell. 4. throughout the 20th century Continental philosophers like Husserl, Heidegger, Arendt and Elshtaing were inspired by Augustine's ideas on intentionality, memory, and language.5. Augustine's vision of the heavenly city has probably influenced the secular projects and traditions of the Enlightenment, Marxism, Freudianism and Eco-fundamentalism.Augustine was a medieval thinker who contributed many things, and we must understand he did live in a dark time. I admit his positive achievements (like contributing to my atheism) but we must also realize how his asceticism, fundamentalism and guilt-mongering contributed immensely to some of the darkest moments in history. 4.5 stars for being an important part of history and our understanding of it, whether Augustine's influence is seen as good, bad, or in-between.

[sprite_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What can I even say about this book? I am standing too close to say anything sensible. Fortunately other people have written plenty of actual reviews.Memo to future me: the quote you're (I'm) usually looking for is book 10, chapter 36, first paragraph. "You know how greatly you have already changed me, you who first healed me from the passion for self-vindication, [...] you who subdued my pride by your fear and tamed my neck to your yoke? Now I bear that yoke, and it is light upon me, for this you have promised, and thus have you made it be. Truly, it was this but I did not know it when I was afraid to submit to it."