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St. Augustine Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
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Average Rating:  out of 47 Reviews
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Price: $7.95
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Sale: $3.89
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Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780192833723
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Saint Augustine
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Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
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Dewey Decimal Number: 230
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Publication Date: 1998-06-25
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Reading Level: 352
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Description: In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood. Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context. The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Wonderful |
Date: 2008-06-09 |
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Details: Augustine is one of these characthers from antiquity who illustrates that humanity is always an everywhere the same - we share the same form, namely the soul and we thirst always and everywhere for the same thing, namely the infinite, which is God. Augustine is poetic in his treatment of God, he addresses him as a bride to her husband. Let him speak for himself:
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
His own struggle is the struggle of every man and woman to find God. And, yet, not only was Augustine the master of the inner life, he was a great philosopher - witness the chapter on time, which is wonderful. Miss not also his shared ecstatic vision with his mother, Monica.
This is a great work - but, there are bits that are not easy (his exegesis of Genesis, for example) but persevere, its worth it!.
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Review Summary: Augustine is great! |
Date: 2008-02-29 |
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Details: Saint Augustine is spiritual, philosophical and always profound.
Warning: Likely to blow your mind. |
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Review Summary: Confession as prayer |
Date: 2007-12-28 |
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Details: Augustine's confessions are confessions to God, and thus, prayer. Augustine bares his soul--his doubt, fear, guilt, as well as his joy, peace, and love. All this is addressed to God as prayer. Like the Psalms, these prayers are shockingly intimate--you can't read these properly from a comfortable distance.
I am grateful to Augustine for sharing his personal relationship with God in a way that leads me closer, too. |
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Review Summary: Interesting historically, bad theology/philosophy |
Date: 2007-09-10 |
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Details: As a non-believer, some of the more entertaining bits were Augustine pining that he wishes he'd been made a eunuch as a boy, and describing at length the sensual dreams that aroused and tormented after he gave up his lecherous ways and escaped the lesser torment of marriage.
Interesting historically as a document of how Platonism was explicitly wedded with Christianity, but some of the theology is a bit strained, i.e., his exposition of Genesis chapter one in which he attempts to explain how God created everything outside of time and without any effort, and yet this took six days and he rested on the seventh. His attempts to solve the problem of evil also do more to confuse the issue than to clarify it, but that is to be expected.
But it is definitely far better in terms of both literary style and quality of thought than the efforts of today's believers, and it is worth reading for anyone interested in intellectual or religious history. |
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Review Summary: The problem with evil is that it is good |
Date: 2007-08-02 |
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Details: It is said that St. Augustine invented the autobiographical genre and that is significant. But more significant seems to be his great insight into the problem of temptation and evil. With deep conviction and personal examination, he studies the motivations toward sin and sees the paradox that we choose evil not for evil sake but because it seems good. Of all the actions in Augustine's life he could have examined as sinful acts, he chose the most simple on which to concentrate - a boyhood prank of stealing fruit captures the microscope of his self-examining eye. Bit by bit he takes apart the incident conveying how it relates to other incidents in his life and what it tells us about the human condition in general. It is the genius of Augustine to use an apparently innocuous event to convey some of the most profound thinking on human nature and the problem of evil. A groundbreaking work of its kind and content. |
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