Saint Augustine 's Book Review

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

In the Confessions by Saint Augustine, this great philosopher experiences many problems and emotions related to sin and evil. As a boy, he often felt darkness, blindness, and confusion while attempting to find rest in God. Augustine started out in childhood with a restless heart because he had to live in two different worlds. These worlds consisted of his mother’s Christian faith, and the world of everything else. These two worlds confused and disturbed Augustine as a child. Augustine’s father was pagan and his mother was Christian, and they both wanted him to be very successful in the world. As he became confused, he began asking questions that could not be answered such as, “Humans often feel restless, but what is it they need to feel at

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

In Augustine’s Confessions, he confesses many things of which we are all guilty; the greatest of which is his sadness of not having a relationship with God earlier in his life. He expressed to us that to neglect a relationship with God is far worse than the pity he felt for Dido. In reviewing his life, he had come to examine life and how there are temptations in this world that can keep us distracted. He tells to us how he became aware of this fact; everything is negligible except love for God, and his own guilt at not having found this truth sooner.

         Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo is a dense, scholarly work outlining the entire life of the Catholic bishop.  The University of California Press in Berkeley, California published the work in 1967.  My version was the 1973 second paperback printing, found in the University library.  Its smallish, scholarly, serifed, typewritten font allows for a instant respect for the subject matter:  the words are at first imposing, but then revealing as their serious tone complements the complexity of the text.  The pages are studded with footnotes, filling out this work with evidence of Brown’s exhaustive research.  There is a three-page preface before the work, and, after the work, a

Augustine’s Confessions is all about his growing as a person spiritually, and realizing he wanted to fully commit his life to God. This writing is also about, hence the title, his confession that he has sinned and given into the indulgences and pleasures of the sensual world. He wants to explain his struggles with eventually accepting Christianity and the development of his spirituality. He reflects over his many sins throughout his childhood and young adult years, as well as his very indecisiveness towards fully committing himself to Christianity because of his inability to not give in to the sinful things in life. At the end of

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.

In St. Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine’s worldly experiences throughout his autobiography are crucial to his understanding of Christianity. Augustine reflects on his childhood experience of stealing pears from his neighbors to understand his sinful nature. Augustine struggles to understand his motivation for taking the pears when he knows that the pears are not necessarily better than those at his own home. He finally recognizes that this transgression is of the most wicked nature because he was sinning for the sake of sinning. “Now let my heart tell you what it was seeking there in that I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself”(29). By reflecting on a worldly experience, he is able to reach a

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.

As a small child Augustine started to sin. As a child your aware that it is wrong but you don’t quite understand all the right and wrongs in life. Out of all his life he stated that his teenage years were the most sinful time of his life. During this time Augustine starts to deeply regret some of his sins.

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.

Originally written during the fourth century, St. Augustine’s autobiographical book, Confessions, was among the most influential models for Christian writers over the course of a millennium. As it is arguably Augustine’s most important text, it continues to influence theological discussion even today. Through writing Confessions, Augustine proves himself to be a professional scrutinizer. He analyzes every aspect of his own existence in pertinence to his purpose on Earth and relationship with God. Amongst the numerous topics covered in Confessions, Augustine makes exceptional mention to the role that friendship plays in his spiritual journey. In St. Augustine’s Confessions, the role of friendship is seen as both a method of ascending to God while also a being a means of drawing him further away through sin on his journey to spiritual contentment.

The book of Confession is written around AD 397 to 400. It consists of 13 books of St. Augustine’s sinful youth and his transition to Christianity. Although those stories are ancient time origin, it is still somewhat same to modern human lives. St. Augustine experienced various experiences and found his own answer for his life questions. For me it is same that I am wondering without answer, questioning myself with answerless questions.

Augustine in this work, reveals not only his Christian spirit and beliefs but his regrets from his early life (902). His Confessions is a prime example of an author's introspection and dedication to present a detailed account of what he believes is his faults and triumphs in life (903). Besides

In the first nine books of his Confessions, Augustine of Hippo narrates the journey of his restless heart, seeking to find rest in God. He embarks on a journey for the wisdom that constitutes the happy life, navigated by a thirst for knowledge and truth. Augustine’s journey is sparked by his restless heart searching for the right answers to his questions about the universe. He feels the need to fully understand things before he can believe them, and a significant part of his journey towards wisdom consists of learning how to believe in things he doesn’t know the answer to, thus allowing his mind and heart to rest. Augustine is challenged by concepts such as sin, evil, and God’s nature, but is eventually able to find wisdom and rest for his heart through obtaining answers about the nature of the world.