Augustine's Confessions

Augustine’s Confessions is a diverse blend of autobiographical accounts as well as philosophical, theological and critical analysis of the Christian Bible. Augustine treats his autobiography as an opportunity to recount his life and mentions how each event in his life has a religious and philosophical explanation. Augustine had many major events happen in his life but only 3 events would deem of extreme importance to his journey to faith. Theses major events were Book II how he describes that he considered his time of adolescence to be the most lurid and sinful period of his life, Book III how this becomes the lowest point in his relationship with God because his

You prompt us yourself to find satisfaction in appraising you, since you made us tilted toward you, and our heart is unstable until stabilized in you. Quintessentially, this quote from Confessions symbolizes Augustine’s perilous journey towards Christianity. Although appearing earlier in what is colloquially known as the “first autobiography”, Augustine expounds on this very idea throughout his writings. Whether that includes his attraction and disdain for Manichaeism or his affinity with Neo-Platonism, one could argue this quote acted as the foundation of his inquisitions of these pre-modern dogmatic sects. Augustine, despite his perils with intellectual paradoxes, sought to understand these rigid entities that seemed to have variant

Augustine’s literary style in Confessions was very effective in relaying his thoughts on evil, redemption, Genesis, and his personal dichotomy between the bible and Neoplatonism. . Though the first nine books are a reflection of his life they are filled with the relationship between his thoughts and actions and his path to redemption and salvation, connecting these with his deep philosophical thoughts in the final books. It was interesting to see how his perspective changed over the course of his life as he began to combine Neoplatonic thought with metaphorical analysis of the bible.

However, Augustine has another agenda- his confessions are also meant to show his praise and love for God. He says this in the fifth book with: "Accept the sacrifice of my confessions by the agency of my tongue, which Thou has formed and quickened, that it may confess to Thy name... But let my soul praise Thee, that it may love Thee; and let it confess Thine own mercies to Thee, that it may praise Thee." This is a clear declaration of his praise to God, and ​almost another underlying message of the text to the audience. So as he is writing about his life, he is trying also to set an example to the audience about how his choices were not always the best and use this as a guide to their own lives. And finally through his story, use his conversion and change as a way to praise God to show that even someone who "strayed off" the path was able to redeem themselves and how merciful and good God is to accept someone even as sinful as he was.

St. Augustine begins his narrative, remembering his adolescence. Augustine remembers in his prayer to God that when he was younger all he cared for was “simply to love and to be loved”. He found it difficult in his adolescence to loosen the grip sex and lust had on him. Later in Augustine’s prayer he speaks about his dealing with his friends. Augustine explains that he constantly felt pressured by his buddies to do something wrong. Deep down Augustine knew he shouldn’t have stolen the pears.1 Augustine says “alone I would never have done it.”1 Towards the end of the book we finally get Augustine’s conversion to Christianity. Throughout Confessions, Augustine explains the hardships and questions he went through from childhood, all the way to his mid 30’s in

Augustine considers his greatest sin to be the sin of lust. He is held fast by the chains of love and its physical pleasures. Augustine

Throughout the Confessions, Augustine makes it clear that turning to God for help is the best way to deal with any kind of difficult situation, such as coping the death of a loved one. He faces the death of a good friend and eventually his mother’s. While these two instances occur in different stages of Augustine’s life--pre and post conversion-- they both reflect the need to turn to God’s aid to alleviate the misery. Even once Augustine diverts from focusing on material beings to immaterial beings through his conversion to Christianity, he feels relief, but only temporarily. Eventually, Augustine’s grief resurfaces, revealing that even when he turns to God, there is still a tendency to return to pre-conversion materialistic tendencies.

In Book VIII.xi (29) the reader finds St. Augustine in a state of despair and anguish because of his ongoing internal struggle between his mind and body. Afterwards, he undergoes a surreal experience that ultimately leads to the climax of Confessions, his conversion to Christianity.

The uniqueness that radiates from Augustine's Confessions is heavily attributed to its literary structure. One part autobiography and another part personal confession, Augustine's Confessions was a bold and calculative piece that chronicled the life of man who struggled against personal adversity. Never before has anyone taken such great strains to emphasis the self in literature. Even less so, visualizing man as wholly independent and man's relationship with the divine. Regardless, Confessions perfectly encapsulates the incredibly arduous question of how one achieves real religious change. The notion of 'will' is another interesting feature found within Confessions. Augustine viewed man's 'will' as being a mechanism for religious change. However, he did not know how much 'will' an individual was capable of nor if it was enough to completely change the self. He would eventually settle on the notion that this change was incomplete as man's will alone can not bring him to the knowledge of god and therefore salvation. Nevertheless, Confessions deals with Augustine's own difficulties in combating worldly desires in a manor many found to be incredibly profound.

St. Augustine’s Confessions is a book written by Augustine about his life. The book goes through his whole life from and important events during it. It is mainly about him and his journey to becoming a Christian. His mother; Monica, is a firm Christian believer while his father; Patrick was a Pagan. Patrick never wanted Augustine to be baptized or raised as a Christian. Augustine grew up to be a “bad boy” who would sin a lot. In book 2 he is a teenager and like every other teenager, he has raging hormones and a sex drive. He has a craving for women and he gets in with a bad group of boys who steal things. Augustine steals a pear only for the thrill of stealing something but eventually he hits rock bottom with

Augustine is our exemplar to human nature, as well as the guideline to what it means to be human. He demonstrates both the good and bad qualities that humans obtain and show that not everything can always be all-good. In the Confessions Augustine talks about how he knows about his own imperfections. He states “At one time in adolescence I was burning to find satisfaction in hellish pleasures” (Augustine, Confessions, pg. 24). Many of his imperfections have brought a new way of thinking about the human being. In the Confessions, Augustine focuses on his autobiography and how sin comes from inside us humans. From this we have learned about the term introspective conscience and how it depicts when someone is constantly looking at him or herself and looking at the motivation to sin.

St. Augustine was wise beyond his years. Despite the amount of times he discredits himself, at age 16, he vulnerably presented himself as a wretch who needed God more than anything. In Book 2 of the St. Augustine confessions, it is as though Augustine is sharing his testimony with the audience. St. Augustine bestows a susceptible recount of his life while utilizing the themes of companionship, satisfaction from sin, and the motivation of love to ultimately show how much we need God and are broken without him.

Confessions is the autobiographical work by St. Augustine of Hippo which consists of 13 books. It is generally held as one of Augustine's most important texts. The work is an outline of St. Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. The work features revered spiritual meditations and insights. In Confessions, St. Augustine writes about his regrets on living a sinful and immoral life.

Confessions start out as a biography of Saint Augustine’s early life, and are thought to be one of the first of its kind in western literature. Documenting in detail in the early chapters of the book his life and many historical events as well as describing in intimate detail the journey of his life from childhood until middle age. However, in the last chapters, Augustine takes a introspective and philosophical turn. As a complete work, it appears that he deeply desires to assist mankind in his understanding of the Bible and Gods teachings and reconcile them with man’s own temporal existence, that even as a flawed creature, we all should wish for Gods grace. “Consequently, he dismissed his sins as unreal appearances, much like Christian

Augustine begins his autobiography with a prayer and meditation. This is fitting because the main theme of The Confessions is to praise and thank God. He begins by saying that God has, “made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.” This is a very good point because it is a reflection of Augustine’s struggle to find piece with himself. Throughout the rest of the book Augustine is constantly changing his beliefs and looking for the truth, his heart is restless. And it is not until he finds the Catholic faith and has his conversion that he finds piece. Augustine like all philosophers is a lover of truth.