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Summary: Timeless classic
Review: If only I could read Latin.Augustine is revered by both Catholics and Protestants. God had gifted Augustine with many gifts: Linguist, Orator, Philosopher. But this book is Augustine's story of how he realized his greatest gift of all: Salvation. Henry Chadwick has done a fantastic job brining the life of Augustine's Latin into English.
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Summary: A Christian Classic
Review: St. Augustine - Confessions Ostensibly, the religious meditations of a fourth century Christian seem quite far removed from our lives. After all, what use would anyone outside of the Religious Studies department at a university have for Augustine's musings on the nature of God and the Christian church? A fair question and one that has likely kept many readers from enjoying the pleasure that is "Confessions." Often pigeonholed as an obscure religious document Augustine's "Confessions" is part memoir, part philosophy, and part doctrine. At its most basic level, "Confessions" is Augustine's life story with a twist: he is telling it to none other than God. As one might expect from a story told to God, the plot of "Confessions" centers around Augustine's discovery of the Christian church. Like many stories it starts out far from where it ends up; before becoming a Christian Augustine spent many years as part of a vegetarian cult in which initiates spent their time harvesting food for elders whom then "purified" the food by eating it. Besides overcoming his allegiance to this cult, Augustine also had to conquer another, more familiar temptation, his mistress. From the very first page it is starkly obvious that Augustine feels a great deal of contrition for these transgressions of Christian law. In fact, the depth of emotion that Augustine puts into his writing is one of the most interesting and most endearing parts of "Confessions." Through Augustine's unyielding honesty (even in the face of embarrassing, even scandalous, wrongs) we immediately understand that he has become the forthright, quietly confident person he aspired to be. It is clear that Augustine's detail and openness in "Confessions" does not stem from sensationalism, but rather from a desire to be as honest and instructive as he can be. Although Augustine was aware that "Confessions" would be published and made available to anyone who could get a copy (in the fourth century book distribution wasn't quite up to today's levels) it is quite clear that this book is for only one audience, God. Yet while Augustine was sure that "Confessions" was written for God, he wasn't nearly as sure as to what God is, and a sizable chunk of "Confessions" is devoted to discovering just that. Augustine does make it clear what God is not; he spends some time ridiculing those who believed that God is nothing more than a huge spirit in heaven shaped like a man. One soon discovers that Augustine's concept of God is slippery, but that it involves some idea that God is everywhere at once, yet in a way that transcends common sense ideas of a three dimensional world. Augustine also spends some time on the nature of God's infallibility, specifically explaining why this is so, and even addresses the question (although, in my opinion, unsatisfactorily) of what came before God. More familiarly, Augustine also sees God as an entity that teaches people by letting them make mistakes, and as an entity that is always prepared to accept a believer once she finds her way to Christianity. In addition to the nature of God Augustine's book covers several other areas of Christian belief. "Confessions" is liberally peppered with quotes from the Bible and these quotes are used to examine and interpret portions of Augustine's own life. For example, when describing the long and arduous path that brought Augustine to Christianity he quotes from the Bible that though "the ground should yield me thorns and thistles" he should "earn his bread with the sweat of his brow." These frequent quotations serve two functions. First, they describe and analyze events from Augustine's life (presumably in far more exact and aesthetic ways that Augustine's own words could). Second, the use and interpretation of these quotes brings to the reader an idea of Christian belief at this time. In this way "Confessions" serves as an important historical document, one that fuses man and religion through the electricity of the Bible. The last three "books" of "Confessions" are devoted to an allegorical understanding of Genesis. The first of these three books deals with the nature of time and what separates past, present and future. I found this discussion the be a quite interesting digression from Augustine's book ad well worth my time. The next two books, however, are not nearly a interesting on a philosophical level and at times verge on tedium. There has been considerable debate over just why Augustine included this interpretation of Genesis in "Confessions"; some believe it was part of an unfinished interpretation of the entire Bible (which, given the space Augustine commits to Genesis would have been quite lengthy) while others see it as an appendix to "Confessions." Regardless of one's belief on the reason for these last three books, most seem to agree that they are superfluous and at best make for an awkward ending. As such they constitute the only major flaw I can find in "Confessions."
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Summary: A spiritual classic of both autobiography and theology
Review: The CONFESSIONS of St. Augustine is one of the most important writings in Christianity. While an indisputably Catholic work, its sincerity, certainty, and openness have touched the hearts of Christians of all denominations for over 1500 years. Most of the CONFESSIONS consists of two interwoven strands. There is the life story of Augustine prior to his conversion and the subsequent decision to commit his life entirely to God, and there are his philosophical meditations which build an approach to God and a proof of Christ's salvation out of natural experience and Neo-Platonic philosophy. The final several books are an examination of the book of Genesis from a Christian view. What strikes one first about CONFESSIONS is Augustine's utter contempt for his life prior to his baptism. While he was somewhat wealthy and was in a long-term (but unmarried) relationship which had produced a beloved son, his writers show how empty his life was without Christ. For this reason, the CONFESSIONS has long been considered essential reading for catechists, but Augustine's ascent from paganism to Christianity remains an inspiring tale for Christians long after baptism. His praise of God for his spiritual healing (he sometimes refers to Christ as "the Physician") is always eloquently worded. "Who is the man who will reflect on his weakness, and yet dare to credit his chastity and innocence to his own powers?" he writes. The CONFESSIONS is also valuable as a historical work, for here we see the development of a number of doctines which have proved contentious between Christian denominations. Augustine was one of the first leaders of the Church to recommend infant baptism, a custom abhorred by many since the Reformation. Also, Augustine gives one of the first examples of Catholic veneration of saints' relics in telling how the sick were miraculously cured when the bodies of Milan saints Gervase and Protase were moved from their grave to a basilica. The CONFESSIONS also gives an important glimpse of early Church figures, such as Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine's mother Saint Monica. The life story of the Monica makes the book even more touching, for she had prayed for many years that her son would convert, and died not long after his baptism. While the first half of the book is the most readable, mixing narrative in with its philosophical ruminations, the second half is also a significant contribution to Christian thought. While many modern Christians have always felt intimidated by Genesis, wondering about its relevance in the age of science and finding it hard to make connections to the New Testament, Augustine starts by rejecting a literal interpretation in favour of one of Christian symbolism. The Old Testament, he says, is rich with allegory and figurative language. He shows that the story of the creation of the world can be seen as a representation of the founding of the church: "Who except you, our God, has made for us a firmament of authority over us in the form of your divine Scriptures? For 'the heavens shall be folded together like a book' and now they are stretched over us like a skin." I read a rather old translation by John K. Ryan, but the CONFESSIONS shines through any rendering in English. While Augustine's sentences, long and legalistic as is acceptable in Latin, can occasionally be intimidating for the reader, they do give a necessary weight to the work and communicate his thoughts in a clear structure. I'd recommend the edition published by Penguin over all others, as it is immune to accusations of sectarian bias. The CONFESSIONS is an wonderful book for any Christian.
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Summary: The Sublimity of Augustine
Review: Before the Reformation; before Trent made Catholicism, Roman; before Orthodoxy split with the West; there was the orthodox catholic (universal) church in its earliest form and one of the Church's best witnesses was Augustine. This writing, which is a humble autobiography, is the most sublime of that first Millennium, and I think - still the finest Christian autobiography. He is not unctious and he doesn't rant. He makes theology seem so easy and God so near. Find the answer at the beginning. Augustine takes us to the limit of human understanding in theology, which becomes humble obedience before the One, who still holds the great mysteries.
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Summary: A Spiritual Tell-all Classic.
Review: The modern "tell-all-unofficial biography" is not something we came up with recently. In St. Augustine's day, this book was innovative as it was shocking: nobody in Antiquity wrote about themselves, at leat not in the way St. Augustine does. Period. And in theis spiritual autobiography, St. Augustine holds no bars. From mischievous youth to a man striving for holiness, this is Augustin unplugged. The real killer comes in the last four books on Memory, Time, and Creation. From a man's journey to God we read about God reaching to save all men and women. A must-have book for anyone serious about his/her spiritual life.
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Summary: God Glorifying and Soul Inspiring
Review: Reading Augustine's Confessions is like coming face to face with the experience of my own salvation all over again. As a person who, to quote the brilliant C.S. Lewis, "was dragged kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God," this book echoed my own spiritual journey and personal experience. Though I am one of those people whom the Lord kept from many mistakes, rather than rescuing me out of them, I deeply understand Augustine's painful and arduous attempts to run from the grace of God. One is moved to tears at his brokenness over his sin before a holy God and, in a parallel manner, one rejoices gloriously along with him when he finally surrenders his soul to the love of Jesus Christ. I love this book. Its truths have no boundaries in time - not because Augustine was especially brilliant (though he undoubtedly was), but because of the great and almighty Savior he so faithfully served.
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Summary: Tolle Lege!
Review: I recently reread "The Confessions of St. Augustine" after many years and am glad that I did. This book, which is often called the first autobiography, is really not an autobiography in the sense that we use the term. It is Augustine's Confession to God, from which we glean many details about Augustine's life. In this we learn of Augustine's family, his early life, his search for truth and, throughout the book, his teachings on theology. Here we see him move to the gradually larger world, from Tagaste, to Carthage, to Rome, to Milan, where he finally finds Truth. He is then ready to return to his native Africa, his preparation completed for the work which would make him one of the greatest, Christian theologians of all time. In much of the early book, Augustine tells us of his rejections of God's call. Seeking truth and honors, he searched through many sources and sought out many teachers. He sought wisdom from pagan and Manichean philosophers. His disappointment with the highly touted Manichean bishop, Faustus, whose speech was pleasing but whose answers failed to soothe Augustine's soul, caused him to turn to Catholicism. Learning from the respected bishop, Ambrose, Augustine came to recognize the truth of Christianity, but his slavery to a non-Christian life style long prevented him from following the call of God. This persisted until one day he heard the child's song "Tolle Lege, Tolle, Lege" (the title of my high school newspaper), "Take it and read." Taking this as a divine command to read the first passage of scripture to meet his eyes, he opened the book to the passage, "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in concupiscence." Needing to read no further, his conversion occurred and he was ready for the great work which lay before him. Throughout much of the book, we are treated to Augustine's teachings on a variety of religious topics. We obtain his guidance on the nature of God, God's relationship with and expectations of man, as well as norms for the interpretation of scripture. This is the book for anyone with an interest in Christian theology or St. Augustine personally. Tolle Lege!
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Summary: Beyond classification.
Review: Augustine on Augustine, philosophy, sex, science, skepticism, scholarship, rhetoric, vanity, humility, foolishness, wisdom, reason, the human perspective, exegetics, time, and the attributes of God. 'Confessions' is truly one of the great works of western literature and the [Oxford World's Classics] translation by Henry Chadwick beautifully retains this literary quality (and is extensively and helpfully footnoted). Written and published circa 398-400 AD, Augustine's autobiographic Confessions is an important theological treatise. It is also historically significant in its revelation of a faltering Roman society and of the convergent thinking of Judeo-Christian theology and neo-Platonic philosophy. While many of the discussions are centered on a culture from which we are 1600 years removed, they are surprisingly relevant to a western society that we see is not so different.
Very interesting are Augustine's discussions of the physical characteristics and boundaries of 'time' -- in fact since about 1930, our 'scientific' understanding of time is, in some important aspects, identical to Augustine's. This is a subject with which every theist should be familiar ['time' is on their side, so to speak], yet, like others more concerned with what's on TV tonight, most are woefully ignorant. Of further interest (from the standpoint of apologetics) is Augustine's destruction of "linguistic paradoxes" which atheists and agnostics claimed (and still do claim) to prove God's non-existence. These arguments, which Augustine calls "jokes", must be waged against an erroneous characterization of "god". The arguments defeat only a temporally bounded "god", a humanized 'smarty-pants' version of God, which is something that, by definition, God is certainly not. The supposed 'paradox' arguments prove merely that no human-like being could be God, that nothing fully contained by space-time could be God, that no finite consciousness could be infinite (i.e., omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and unchanging). In other words: not God equals not God. That humans pose such feeble arguments against God, and think them profound, is an example of what Augustine calls "learned ignorance."
Augustine's exegesis of Genesis 1 is very well considered, and supported, and varies vastly from so-called literalist interpretations. Much like Philo 400 years earlier, Augustine concludes that the language of Genesis 1 is carefully constructed so as to make a fully "literal" understanding of Creation unknowable. Although less than is its Creator, the acts of Creation are a wonderful mystery beyond "slower minds." While he clearly holds scripture to be without error, Augustine says that error-prone human minds are quick to over-simplify, misunderstand, and misrepresent the mysteries of an infinite God so far beyond the minds of men. Augustine understands Genesis 1 as both an introductory and advanced study of theology, and not as a text for 'Creation Science'. He points out that if references to God Himself in Genesis 1 are interpreted as literal descriptions, we must accept within the text ideas about God which cannot be reconciled to reason or Biblical theology. These relational references to God require spiritual and not physically literal understanding or else we must accept God to be bounded in space and time, a sloppy theology which cannot be reconciled to the scriptural Deity. By contrast, a spiritual [as opposed to a 'scientific'] interpretation, illuminates the nature of being and the will of "the One." Augustine says that any exegesis but that of spiritual allegory is fraught with logical difficulty within the theology of scripture and without. Aware of the depth of many Christian's commitment to what they consider to be a literal interpretation of these texts, he states that his only desire is to seek Truth and that he does not wish to quarrel or debate, as no sincere interpretation fails to acknowledge the primacy, sovereignty, and grace of the Creator. No sincere exegetic stands in conflict with the teachings of Christ -- however, conflict over interpretation is an exercise in the vanities of humans trying to prove they are "right" and such conflict might easily violate Christ's commandment of Love. He cites 5 different interpretations of Genesis 1:1 and asks seekers of truth to bring humility, not pride or comfort or esteem for popular ideas or religious traditions to the study of scripture. "Spiritual persons ... exercise spiritual judgment," says Augustine, and not "notions which they hold because of their familiarity with the fleshy order of things." While the "literalist" exegesis tends to claim that its alternative is to reject the inspiration of scripture and perhaps the very existence of the Creator, the "spiritual" exegetic holds the Creator and His works, including divine inspiration, to be beyond logical refutation, beyond human vanity, perhaps beyond human understanding, causing, and then entering space-time and the material world from [infinitely] without. Eight centuries later, Aquinas was to express a similar exegesis of Genesis 1.
In Augustine, we find a man confronted with error: that of others, and his own shortcomings as well. We find a man much like David or Solomon; a burning intellect certain of its own inadequacy and "hungering and thirsting" for Truth. A prolific writer, Augustine is one of the most influential thinkers in western history, his thoughts being important to any study of theology, philosophy, or cosmology. His Confessions is the story of a prominent [African] Roman educator's spiritual journey to Christianity, and has been rightly called "a masterpiece beyond classification."
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Summary: CLEAR TRANSLATION!
Review: Augustine's Confessions are spun full of beauty. Such a tender heart. There is a transparency in the Confessions that grip the soul. When I first discovered the Confessions I was camping in the high country of the Canadian Rockies. There in my tent late in to the night, with only a candle to read by I discovered one of the greatest books I had ever read. Augustine expresses himself with a deep emotional sigh. If you are not much for philosophy or deep thinking you will be after absorbing the Confessions. This translation is very easy to read. Penguin Classics have always been assessable. The attribute that makes the Confessions so enticing is there poetic style. Although this translation is not one of the more poetic versions of the Confession it is still very, very good.
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Summary: Confessions, by St. Augustine
Review: Augustine presents his work, Confessions, as both an autobiography and a theological study of the Bible. He begins his story from when he was a babe, suckling on his mother's milk, and traverses throughout the trials and turmoil of his life confessing to God about his personal immorality and sinful desires. His is the story of a normal, unsaved sinner who had the fortune to become a faithful believer. He describes his early life very sinisterly, and it is hard for his readers not to roll their eyes and sigh, "Enough already!" St. Augustine goes overboard with the idea that "all good deeds are like rags in the eyes of God," and by doing so effectively demoralizes the faith of his audience. But his message is still a positive one, once the reader finally sums up the courage to finish. Augustine recognizes God's goodness to humankind and praises Him for His mercy. Although he holds a fervent, almost rabid, outlook upon the vileness of humanity, his effort is undeniably Biblical and righteous. It is important for readers in this century to realize again that heaven is unattainable without Christ, a fact that is not touched upon enough in our modern, successful societies. The approach of this autobiography is a powerful one, and should still be respected as an excellent approach for modern Christians to express their lives on paper. Yes, it is depressing and morose, but it emphasizes the important point that humility is vital in God's eyes.
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