Rating: 
Summary: Honest Account of the Saint
Review: This book is a masterpiece in the literature of autobiography. It is very honest. In the book, Augustine retold how he changed from a paganist to a converted Christian. It was a wonderful read to see the spiritual progress of the saint! It is the most personel book of Saint Augustine.
Rating: 
Summary: Written for Forever
Review: There are three classes of support for Christian belief: the metaphysical, the historical, and the experiential. The metaphysical argues from logic and the existence and nature of reality, the historical from the past - both human and pre-human, and the experiential from personal, and private, experience.While I don't want to diminish the metaphysical or historical components of Christian belief and apologetics, I think that the most important source of living belief is the experiential, but it is also by far the hardest to communicate, since it is by nature, private and personal. While my experiences may convince me of the truth of the Christian faith, how can they convince you? They are part of my experience, not yours. It might seem to be an impossibility, yet this is the challenge that Augustine took on in "Confessions", and it is by the degree of difficulty that the extent of his success and the greatness of the work can be measured. "Confessions" is a work of great beauty. Written in the form of a confessional prayer, Augustine bares himself utterly, and in so doing, makes the reader want to lower his defenses as well, making it possible to experience another's life more deeply than he might have thought possible, and in so doing, to translate his experience of Christianity across the divide that separates us from each other. Because of the nature of "Confessions", I think that analysis of it is to be avoided. Analysis is distancing - it encourages the reader not to dive it in, but to stand back. You cannot experience "Confessions" and critique it at the same time, and all of the value is in the experience.
Rating:
Summary: A Commendable Storyline Ending In Triumph
Review: As a big fan of Augustine's writing I give this book five stars. The way that he has interwoven his thoughts, feelings, and personal experiences with the humble eloquence of repentance will have you as the reader very exuberant. In reading this work you will learn more of Augustine's life, the spiritual turmoil he faced, and how he came to knowledge of the truth in a most triumphant manner. Although, that's not all that you will find interesting in the Confessions. In fact once Augustine converts to Catholicism and discovers the mystery of the faith, he then proceeds to fill in the blanks philisophically were he had once been left in error. Finally Augustine ponders on the book of Genesis and discourses a respectable point of view on the creation of heaven and earth. Oh Yeah! I forgot to explain how Augustine corresponds the subject matter of this book with a profound emphasis on the Holy Scriptures. So I recommend this masterpiece to anyo ne who has a love for great Latin literature, or to all that wish to read the prestige of Christian writings.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Translation
Review: I won't recount all the excellent reasons for reading this remarkable book. It's not a part of the Western Canon for nothing! It's a seminal work (autobiography) in a seminal field (Patristics)worth reading regardless of religious orientation, including none. What makes THIS particular version so exciting is that it is eminently readable and still quite stylized. Chadwick's eloquent translation caputes not only Augustine's ideas and thoughts, but equally important, his rhetorical skills. This alone justifies the purchase of this work. The philosophical nuances that, ironically, have entered twentieth-century thought again are very clearly articulated in Chadwick's translation. Other translations are likely to obfusicate what Chadwick elucidates. Read this great work by a great translator. I am confident you'll return to it again and again (even if you disagree with the Doctor).
Rating:
Summary: Biography and philosophy
Review: I was asked to read this book as a freshmen in college and I loved it. It is not an easy read, but once you read over a part once more, Augustine's logic makes perfect sense. If you've read any other Augustine, such as "Freedom of the will", this book fits right in there and explains it perfectly. In fact, this book explains most of Augustine's tenants perfectly. If anyone wants to know why Christianity took such a harsh stand against sexual sins...it's Augustine lashing out at his past. He was really tormented. Worship God or worship sex. He chose God and I'm sure he thought about going back. Augustine also developed the full Christian idea of free will, which is manifested in this book as well. Augustine is an incredible figure and a role model for modern Christians. His trials are not much different from ours, seeing as we live in a society so obsessed with sex. Augustine's Confessions is one of my favorite books. A must-read for any theologian and philosopher.
Rating: 
Summary: so Western, so soon!
Review: I read Blessed Augustine as an Eastern Orthodox christian. He lived six centuries before the Great Schism, in the undivided communion of East and West. Both churches count him as a Saint, but the Eastern account of him is of course far removed from the Western. Fr. Seraphim Rose's THE PLACE OF BLESSED AUGUSTINE IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH is the best read for the Orthodox take on him. Augustine speaks eloquently on repentance, but all the cultural and theological faults that eventually led the West out of communion with the Church are there, even in the fourth century: the strange need to attempt to rationalize the great mysteries of the Christian faith, leading with the head and not the heart, a misunderstanding of the relationship of divine grace and human free will, and so forth. The fourth century Church in the West cannot be understood apart from its communion with the Church in the East. The faults in Augustine's intellectual grasp of his relationship to God, evident in the Confessions, are understood as the exaggerations and errors of a brilliant mind's overly ambitious attempt to articulate the nature of a pious, orthodox Christian soul. Reading the Confessions, one is touched by the humility and sincerity of Augustine's love and repentance, but at the same time distracted by his rather extreme ideological preoccupations. So as much I'd like to give The Confessions a higher rating for being so passionately Christian, I've got to take a couple points off for its unfortunate Western shortcomings. As a side-note, I really enjoyed the Preface by Patricia Hampl. Even if you own another translation, it's worth it to pick this one up just for that. The translation itself is very accessible, if at times less than eloquent.
Rating:
Summary: monument of devotion
Review: It is impossible to read this book and not draw closer to God. The purity and intensity of Augustine's love for God jumps off each page. Augustine combined a sharp mind and an inflamed spirit to produce this monument of devotion. Buy it and read it.
Rating: 
Summary: I suppose if you are a Catholic you might like this book
Review: Much like the New Testament, this book caters to the faithful, but the curious will be left with a great "what's the point?" feeling. Augustine spawned the genre of confessional literature and as far as confessional literature goes, this is a pretty good book. Unfortunately he lost my attention towards the beginning when he whines about his grievous horrible sin in stealing the fruit from the tree. Couldn't he just apologize to the owner of the tree? Maybe buy the guy a new tree? Offer to work it off? The rest of the book is much like that. Augustine feels guilty, horribly guilty all the time. If you are a fan of the Catholic guilt complex, this is the book for you. If you don't think that the earth is horrible place to test you for Heaven, then try someone else.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: In reading the few reviews of people who did not like this book, it seems that it is the genre more than the book itself which they don't care for. Is this book redundant, as one reviewer accused it of being? Most assuredly so, but that should hardly be a surprise in a text such as this which explores the inklings of a powerful intellect that is attempting to grapple with the "big" questions. Augustine writes with a brutal honesty about himself & his weaknesses of which most of us, I would wager, would be incapable of duplicating. The book is filled with theological speculations and a sense of deep-seated guilt that Augustine feels because of his sins. Some of the passages regarding faith might seem a bit ad-hoc to the modern reader, but I suppose there is no way around that. This is a good book, but it is not a book for everyone. I would recommend it if you have an interest in philosophy, religion, or the philosophy of religion. I would admonish those who do not have an enthusiasm for these three areas not to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: masterpiece of one's piety with depth of thought and beauty
Review: This book moves one's mind so deeply. It contains so beautiful statements about God. He wandered so much, but finally he repent to God by his mother's eager prayer. It might be the one of the greatest works that have ever written in Western world.
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