Total Page : 352
Publisher : Penguin Classics
Publication Date : 1961 11 30
>> Intensely personal tale of sin and salvation
Saint Augustine s Confessions is a work that is both intensely personal and purposeful an intensely individualistic and intimate baring of the soul that is also intended to be a universal call to the Christian faith Augustine confesses his sinful life where he is consumed both by worldly desires and false religions but after long struggle finds himself saved by the grace of God This is an evangelical formula that existed before Augustine and certainly exists today but there is a certain rawness of emotion an intensity and humanity that makes the Confessions powerful even today
The first nine books are simply outstanding as the conversion quite literally from sinner to saint takes us through the intense pain and remorse Augustine feels about his transgressions and the utter joy he feels upon being saved I found myself constantly amazed that this work is some 1600 years old as it was easy to relate to Augustine who is no more or less a lost soul than most of us I imagine there are few readers who do not visualize themselves when they read Augustine s confessions about his temptations and transgressions Nicely interwoven in this tale is the story of his mother Monica who suffers as she witnesses her son s slide into sin finally having her prayers that he would be saved answered shortly before her death
The final four books however seem out of place From an introduction to Christianity the reader is suddenly plunged into a graduate course on theology as Augustine dives into issues that are clearly of intense interest to him memory time creation etc but are of questionable interest to the reader who has just followed him through 200 pages of deeply personal heartwarming confession and conversion Though not uninteresting at an intellectual level they seem to add little to the overall work and are the reason why I give this classic 4 stars despite the excellence of the first 3/5 or so of the total work
All throughout however the translation by the curiously named Mr Pine Coffin is excellent although there were times particularly in the latter 2/5 of the book where some commentary or notes would have been helpful to the reader Also a minor stylistic issue but personally I found it a bit distracting to have all the biblical references many which are obvious to people familiar with the Bible and likely irrelevant to those not familiar with the Bible in italics I assume this was not a feature in the original text Overall however even though the last part of the book is a bit of a chore to get through Saint Augustine s Confessions are an intense fascinating read striking both for its naked intimacy and for its calculated appeal to the common man that can be felt even today
>> Notes on a first reading experience
I m not a religious scholar let me say that from the beginning I found this a moving fractured and ultimately worthwhile reading experience
First let me explain what I mean by fractured The Confessions are split into roughly two sections The first section is autobiography books 1 10 The second section books 11 13 is a series of meditations and explorations of Genesis My own confession is that I really struggled with books 11 13 in a way that I did not with 1 10
The autobiographical sections are surprisingly accessible and disarmingly human He describes the teenage experience so well it is difficult to believe it was written so long ago At other times his feelings about theater the difference in time and culture are written clearly in the pages
It may be that on rereading I would appreciate the thoughts on Genesis more I have the sneaking suspicion the heart of the book may be in those texts But it was a little too much for me to grasp this first time around
Recommended certainly
>> The Father of Modern Theology
Aurelius Augustinus 354 430 AD
He was born in Thagesta in Numidia North Africa The Confessions has two parts The first part is a kind of autobiography and the second part is a commentary to the first chapters of Genesis
He taught rhetorics first in Carthago in Africa later in Milan in Italy But after a while he developed an aversion not only for rhetorics he began to consider it as useless and conceited and as a pool of sins but also for his fellow man
He began to show neurotic behaviour like having a fainting fit without apparent cause It s for those reasons that psychologists like to study Augustine s Confessions
As a result of his problems Augustine became a Christian and he was one of the first to found a monastery Later on he became bishop of Hippo in North Africa
In the second part of The confessions he tries to explain the first chapters of Genesis This second part is very impressive and is the cause that The Confessions is in my personal top five of the best books I read during the last 30 years
His plan was to comment on the whole Bible but he soon understood that this was an impossible task for one man
Nevertheless he s is considered as the Father of modern Theology because of his comments
To give two examples When the Bible says that God created man to His image Augustine explains that it means that man knows the difference between good and evil just like God does it doesn t mean a physical resemblance
Another interesting thought is about Creation Creation is not limited in space and time since God is everywhere Creation is also everywhere and goes on till eternity
As conclusion I should mention that The Confessions is also important because it is the first publication in Antiquity in which an author reveals his most inner feelings
