How to Read the Confessions of St Augustine

Confessions (Latin: Confessiones) is an autobiographical work by Saint Augustine of Hippo, consisting of 13 books written in Latin betwixt Advertizement 397 and 400.^[1] The work outlines Saint Augustine'due south sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. Modern English language translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of Saint Augustine in society to distinguish the volume from other books with similar titles. Its original title was Confessions in Thirteen Books , and it was composed to be read out loud with each volume being a complete unit of measurement.^[2]

Confessions is mostly considered one of Augustine'due south virtually important texts. It is widely seen as the outset Western Christian autobiography ever written (Ovid had invented the genre at the first of the starting time century AD with his Tristia), and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the Center Ages. Professor Henry Chadwick wrote that Confessions volition "always rank amongst the great masterpieces of western literature."^[3]

Summary [edit]

The work is not a consummate autobiography, as information technology was written during Saint Augustine's early on 40s and he lived long after, producing another of import piece of work, The City of God. Still, it does provide an unbroken record of his evolution of idea and is the most consummate record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological piece of work, featuring spiritual meditations and insights.

In the work, Augustine writes almost how he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about his friend Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was non only incorrect but evil, and Saint Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. The start nine books are autobiographical and the terminal four are commentary and significantly more philosophical. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins and writes on the importance of sexual morality. The books were written as prayers to God, thus the championship, based on the Psalms of David; and it begins with "For Thou hast fabricated us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they residual in Thee."^[4] The piece of work is thought to exist divisible into books which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian conventionalities.

Outline (past volume) [edit]

1. His infancy, and boyhood up to age 14. Starting with his infancy, Saint Augustine reflects on his personal childhood in society to draw universal conclusions about the nature of infancy: the child is inherently tearing if left to its own devices because of Original Sin. Later, he reflects on choosing pleasure and reading secular literature over studying Scripture, choices which he afterwards comes to understand every bit ones for which he deserved the punishment of his teachers, although he did not recognize that during his childhood.
2. Augustine continues to reflect on his adolescence during which he recounts 2 examples of his grave sins that he committed as a sixteen-year-old: the development of his God-less animalism and the theft of a pear from his neighbor's orchard, despite never wanting for food. In this volume, he explores the question of why he and his friends stole pears when he had many ameliorate pears of his own. He explains the feelings he experienced equally he ate the pears and threw the residuum away to the pigs. Augustine argues that he about likely would non take stolen anything had he not been in the company of others who could share in his sin.
3. He begins the study of rhetoric at Carthage, where he develops a love of wisdom through his exposure to Cicero'due south Hortensius. He blames his pride for lacking organized religion in Scripture, so he finds a way to seek truth regarding proficient and evil through Manichaeism. At the end of this book, his mother, Monica, dreams almost her son'south re-conversion to Catholic doctrine.
4. Between the ages of 19 and 28, Augustine forms a relationship with an unnamed woman who, though true-blue, is not his lawfully wedded wife, with whom he has a son, Adeodatus. At the same fourth dimension that he returned to Tagaste, his hometown, to teach, a friend vicious ill, was baptized in the Cosmic Church building, recovered slightly, then died. The death of his friend depresses Augustine, who then reflects on the meaning of beloved of a friend in a mortal sense versus love of a friend in God; he concludes that his friend'south death affected him severely because of his lack of love in God. Things he used to dear get mean to him because everything reminds him of what was lost. Augustine then suggests that he began to dear his life of sorrow more than his fallen friend. He closes this volume with his reflection that he had attempted to find truth through the Manicheans and astrology, still devout Church members, who he claims are far less intellectual and prideful, have constitute truth through greater faith in God.
5. While Saint Augustine is anile 29, he begins to lose organized religion in Manichean teachings, a process that starts when the Manichean bishop Faustus visits Carthage. Augustine is unimpressed with the substance of Manichaeism, but he has not yet establish something to supercede it. He feels a sense of resigned acceptance to these fables as he has not however formed a spiritual cadre to evidence their falsity. He moves to teach in Rome where the education organisation is more disciplined. He does not stay in Rome for long because his teaching is requested in Milan, where he encounters the bishop Ambrose (Saint Ambrose). He appreciates Ambrose's way and attitude, and Ambrose exposes him to a more than spiritual, figurative perspective of God, which leads him into a position as catechumen of the Church.
6. The sermons of Saint Ambrose draw Augustine closer to Catholicism, which he begins to favor over other philosophical options. In this department his personal troubles, including ambition, go on, at which point he compares a beggar, whose drunkenness is "temporal happiness," with his hitherto failure at discovering happiness.^[5] Augustine highlights the contribution of his friends Alypius and Nebridius in his discovery of religious truth. Monica returns at the end of this volume and arranges a union for Augustine, who separates from his previous concubine, finds a new mistress, and deems himself to be a "slave of lust."^[6]
7. In his mission to discover the truth backside expert and evil, Augustine is exposed to the Neoplatonist view of God. He finds fault with this thought, however, because he thinks that they sympathize the nature of God without accepting Christ as a mediator betwixt humans and God. He reinforces his opinion of the Neoplatonists through the likeness of a mountain superlative: "It is 1 thing to see, from a wooded mount top, the land of peace, and not to notice the way to it [...] information technology is quite another matter to go along to the way which leads in that location, which is made safe by the care of the heavenly Commander, where they who accept deserted the heavenly army may non commit their robberies, for they avoid it as a penalty."^[seven] From this point, he picks up the works of the apostle Paul which "seized [him] with wonder."^[eight]
8. He further describes his inner turmoil on whether to catechumen to Christianity. Ii of his friends, Simplicianus and Ponticianus, tell Augustine stories nearly the conversions of Marius Victorinus and Saint Anthony. While reflecting in a garden, Augustine hears a child's voice chanting "take up and read."^[ix] Augustine picks up a book of St. Paul's writings (codex apostoli, 8.12.29) and reads the passage it opens to, Romans 13:thirteen–14: "Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in immoderacy and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy; simply put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and every bit for the mankind, take no thought for its lusts."^[10] This activeness confirms his conversion to Catholicism. His friend Alypius follows his example.
9. In grooming for his baptism, Augustine concludes his didactics of rhetoric. Saint Ambrose baptizes Augustine along with Adeodatus and Alypius. Augustine and so recounts how the church at Milan, with his female parent in a leading function, defends Ambrose against the persecution of Justina. Upon his render with his mother to Africa, they share in a religious vision in Ostia. Before long afterwards, Saint Monica dies, followed presently after by his friends Nebridius and Verecundus. Past the cease of this volume, Augustine remembers these deaths through the prayer of his newly adopted organized religion: "May they remember with holy feeling my parents in this transitory light, and my brethren under Thee, O Father, in our Catholic Mother [the Church], and my fellow citizens in the eternal Jerusalem, for which the pilgrimage of Thy people sighs from the beginning until the render. In this way, her last request of me will be more than abundantly granted her in the prayers of many through these my confessions than through my ain prayers."^[11]
10. Augustine shifts from personal memories to introspective evaluation of the memories themselves and of the self, every bit he continues to reflect on the values of confessions, the significance of prayer, and the means through which individuals can reach God. It is through both this last betoken and his reflection on the body and the soul that he arrives at a justification for the existence of Christ.
11. Augustine analyzes the nature of cosmos and of time as well as its relation with God. He explores bug surrounding presentism. He considers that at that place are three kinds of fourth dimension in the listen: the present with respect to things that are past, which is the memory; the present with respect to things that are present, which is contemplation; and the present with respect to things that are in the future, which is expectation. He relies on Genesis, especially the texts concerning the creation of the sky and the earth, throughout this book to support his thinking.
12. Through his word of creation, Augustine relates the nature of the divine and the earthly equally function of a thorough analysis of both the rhetoric of Genesis and the plurality of interpretations that one might utilise to clarify Genesis. Comparing the scriptures to a leap with streams of water spreading over an immense mural, he considers that at that place could be more one true interpretation and each person can depict whatever true conclusions from the texts.
13. He concludes the text past exploring an allegorical interpretation of Genesis, through which he discovers the Trinity and the significance of God's creation of man. Based on his interpretation, he espouses the significance of remainder too as the divinity of Creation: "For, and then shalt Thou rest in united states of america, in the aforementioned way that Thou workest in u.s.a. at present [...] So, we see these things which Thousand hast made, because they exist, just they be considering 1000 seest them. Nosotros see, externally, that they exist, but internally, that they are good; Thou hast seen them made, in the same place where Thou didst run across them as yet to be made."^[12]

Purpose [edit]

Confessions was not only meant to encourage conversion, but it offered guidelines for how to convert. Saint Augustine extrapolates from his ain experiences to fit others' journeys. Augustine recognizes that God has always protected and guided him. This is reflected in the structure of the piece of work. Augustine begins each book within Confessions with a prayer to God. For instance, both books VIII and IX begin with "you have broken the chains that bound me; I volition sacrifice in your award."^[13] Because Augustine begins each volume with a prayer, Albert C. Outler, a Professor of Theology at Southern Methodist University, argues that Confessions is a "pilgrimage of grace [...] [a] retrac[ing] [of] the crucial turnings of the way past which [Augustine] had come. And since he was certain that it was God's grace that had been his prime mover in that manner, it was a spontaneous expression of his heart that cast his self-recollection into the grade of a sustained prayer to God."^[14] Non only does Confessions glorify God but it also suggests God's help in Augustine'south path to redemption.

Written after the legalization of Christianity, Confessions dated from an era where martyrdom was no longer a threat to most Christians as was the case two centuries earlier. Instead, a Christian'southward struggles were normally internal. Augustine clearly presents his struggle with worldly desires such as lust. Augustine'south conversion was quickly followed past his ordination as a priest in 391 Advertisement and then appointment as bishop in 395 Advertizing. Such rapid ascension certainly raised criticism of Augustine. Confessions was written between 397–398 Ad, suggesting self-justification as a possible motivation for the work. With the words "I wish to act in truth, making my confession both in my centre before y'all and in this book before the many who will read it" in Book X Affiliate 1,^[15] Augustine both confesses his sins and glorifies God through humility in His grace, the two meanings that ascertain "confessions",^[16] in guild to reconcile his imperfections non merely to his critics but too to God.

Hermeneutics [edit]

St. Augustine suggested a method to ameliorate the Biblical exegesis in presence of particularly hard passages. Readers shall believe all the Scripture is inspired by God and that each author wrote nothing in which he didn't believe personally, or that he believed to exist false. Readers must distinguish philologically, and keep separate, their own interpretations, the written message and the originally intended significant of the messenger and author (in Latin: intentio).^[17]

Disagreements may arise "either every bit to the truth of the message itself or as to the messenger'due south meaning" (XII.23). The truthfulness of the message itself is granted by God who inspired it to the extensor and who made possible the manual and spread of the content across centuries and among believers.^[17]

In principle, the reader isn't capable of ascertaining what the author had in heed when he wrote a biblical volume, but he has the duty to exercise his best to approach that original meaning and intention without contradicting the letter of the alphabet of the written text. The interpretation must stay "within the truth" (XII.25) and not outside it.^[17]

Audience [edit]

Much of the information about Augustine comes directly from his own writing. Augustine'due south Confessions provide significant insight into the commencement thirty-3 years of his life. Augustine does non paint himself as a holy man, but as a sinner. The sins that Augustine confesses are of many different severities and of many unlike natures, such as lust/adultery, stealing, and lies. For example, in the 2d chapter of Volume IX Augustine references his choice to look three weeks until the autumn break to leave his position of instruction without causing a disruption. He wrote that some "may say it was sinful of me to allow myself to occupy a chair of lies even for ane 60 minutes".^[18] In the introduction to the 1961 translation by R. South. Pino-Bury he suggests that this harsh interpretation of Augustine's own by is intentional and then that his audience sees him equally a sinner blessed with God's mercy instead of as a holy figurehead.^[19] Considering the fact that the sins Augustine describes are of a rather common nature (e.g. the theft of pears when a young boy), these examples might besides enable the reader to identify with the author and thus arrive easier to follow in Augustine's footsteps on his personal road to conversion. This identification is an element of the protreptic and paraenetic graphic symbol of the Confessions.^{[twenty] [21]}

Due to the nature of Confessions, it is clear that Augustine was not but writing for himself just that the work was intended for public consumption. Augustine'southward potential audience included baptized Christians, catechumens, and those of other faiths. Peter Brown, in his volume The Body and Society, writes that Confessions targeted "those with similar experience to Augustine's ain."^[22] Furthermore, with his groundwork in Manichean practices, Augustine had a unique connexion to those of the Manichean faith. Confessions thus constitutes an appeal to encourage conversion.

Legacy [edit]

Confessions is ane of the most influential works in not but the history of Christian theology, but philosophy in general. Kierkegaard and his Existentialist philosophy were substantially influenced by Augustine's contemplation of the nature of his soul.^[23]

Editions [edit]

• St. Augustine (1960). The Confessions of St. Augustine. New York: Image Books. ISBN0-385-02955-1. (translated into English, with an introduction and notes, by John K. Ryan.)
• Maria Boulding, O.South.B., Saint Augustine: The Confessions, Hyde Park NY: New City Printing (The Works of Saint Augustine I/1), 2002 ISBN 1565481542
• F. J. Sheed, Confessions, edited by Michael P. Foley. 2nd ed., Hackett Publishing Company, 2006. ISBN 0872208168
• Carolyn Hammond, Augustine: Confessions Vol. I Books 1–8, MA: Harvard Academy Press (Loeb Classical Library), 2014. ISBN 0674996852
• Carolyn Hammond, Augustine: Confessions Vol. Ii Books 9–13, MA: Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library), 2016. ISBN 0674996933
• Sarah Ruden, Augustine: Confessions, Modernistic Library (Penguin Random Business firm), 2018. ISBN 9780812986488

See as well [edit]

• Simulated of Christ
• Hermeneutic circle
• Faith and reason
• Soliloquies of Augustine
• The City of God

References [edit]

1. ^ Chadwick, Henry (1992). St. Augustine, Confessions (2008 ed.). Oxford University Printing. p. xxix. ISBN9780199537822.
2. ^ Saint Augustine (Bishop of Hippo.) (2006). Confessions. Hackett Publishing. pp. 17–. ISBN978-0-87220-816-two.
3. ^ Chadwick, Henry (14 August 2008). Confessions. Oxford University Press. p. 4 (ix). ISBN9780199537822.
4. ^ Saint Augustine (Bishop of Hippo.) (2006). Confessions. Hackett Publishing. p. 18. ISBN978-0-87220-816-2.
5. ^ Bourke 1966, p. 140
6. ^ Bourke 1966, p. 158.
7. ^ Bourke 1966, pp. 193–94.
8. ^ Bourke 1966, p. 194.
9. ^ Confessions, Chapter XII
10. ^ Bourke 1966, p. 225.
11. ^ Bourke 1966, p. 262.
12. ^ Bourke 1966, pp. 455–56.
13. ^ Saint Augustine of Hippo (1961). Confessions. Harmonds worth Middles ex, England: Penguin Books. Volume Nine, Chapter 1.
14. ^ Outler Introduction 1955, p. 5.
15. ^ Saint Augustine of Hippo (1961). Confessions. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. p. Volume X, Chapter 1.
16. ^ Outler Introduction 1955, p. vii.
17. ^ ^{a b c} Robert Clewis (2001). "Augustine's Hermeneutics: How to Read the Confessions" (PDF). Auslegung. 24 (role I): 73–75. ISSN 0733-4311. OCLC 205023604. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 24, 2020 – via Cadre.
18. ^ Saint Augustine of Hippo (1961). Confessions. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. p. Book IX, Affiliate two.
19. ^ Pine - Coffin, R.S. (1961). Introduction to Confessions. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. p. 12.
20. ^ Kotzé, Annemaree (2004). Augustine's Confessions: Chatty Purpose and audition. Leiden.
21. ^ Osseforth, Math (2017). Friendship in St. Augustine's Confessions. Amsterdam. pp. 17–20.
22. ^ Brown, Peter (2008). The Body and Society. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 388.
23. ^ Robert B. Puchniak. Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook. Nov 24, 2011. <https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110236514.181>. Obtained from <https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110236514.181/html> Accessed on October 21, 2021.

Sources [edit]

• Augustine Confessions, Trans. Vernon J. Bourke. Washington: Cosmic University of America Printing, 1966. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Spider web. 18 Feb. 2016.
• Augustine. Introduction. Confessions and Enchiridion. Ed. and Trans. Albert C. Outler. Library of Christian Classics, seven Vol. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955. Print.
• Chadwick, Henry (2008). Saint Augustine: Confessions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-nineteen-953782-2. (Translation into English.)
• Warner, Rex (1963). The Confessions of St. Augustine. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN0-451-62474-two. (Translation into English.)
• Carolyn Hammond, Augustine: Confessions Vol. I Books 1-8, MA: Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library), 2014. ISBN 0674996852
• Carolyn Hammond, Augustine: Confessions Vol. Two Books nine-13, MA: Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library), 2016. ISBN 0674996933

Further reading [edit]

• Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo, reprint edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
• Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, Twentieth Anniversary edition. New York: Columbia University Printing, 2008.
• Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Pierre de Labriolle. 3rd ed. Paris: Société d'édition "Les Belles Lettres," 1969. Print. Collection des Universités de France.

External links [edit]

• Text in Latin with commentary by James J. O'Donnell
• Augustine: Texts and translations
• Confessions public domain audiobook at LibriVox

English language translations [edit]

• Paradigm Books ^{[ expressionless link ]} , trans. John K. Ryan (New York: Paradigm Books, 1960).
• Christian Classics, trans. Albert C. Outler (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955).
• New Advent, trans. J.G. Pilkington (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886).
• Georgetown, trans. E.B. Pusey (Oxford : J.H. Parker; London: J.G. and F. Rivington, 1838).
• E.B. Pusey's 1838 Translation: Revised 'you' version (2012) by Cormac Burke [i].
• New Metropolis Press, trans. Maria Boulding, O.S.B.; ed. John E. Rotelle, O.South.A. (Hyde Park, NY: New Urban center Press, 1997).
• Confessions: St Augustine; trans. Fr Benignus O'Rourke O.Due south.A, foreword by Martin Laird (London: DLT Books, 2013)
• Saint Augustine of Hippo. Confessions, translated by R.S. Pine–Coffin. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1961.
• Augustine. Confessions: A New Translation by Sarah Ruden. New York: Modern Library, 2017.

[edit]

• "An Introduction to Augustine's Confessions", by James J. O'Donnell.
• In Latin with commentary by James J. O'Donnell

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_%28Augustine%29

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