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Editorial Review Book Description
The greatest spiritual autobiography of all time, this classic work is a literary and theological masterpiece. John K. Ryan's masterful translation brings out the luster of Augustine's unmatched tale of his soul's journey to God. ... Read more Customer Reviews (13) 
More contemporary translation
Any edition of Confessions of Saint Augustine is "must" reading for anyone who has traveled a road of self-examination about right/wrong, good/evil and finding truth.Augustine surely dissected his own belief system and came to terms with the meaning and purpose of life.I have read several translations of Confessions and have found them all worthwhile reading.I shall yet, read them again.
Confessions of Saint Augustine (Image Book)
In The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Augustine concentrates on his powerful and zealous ongoing spiritual questions.His dairy- type book tells of the history of one man's struggle to obtain and maintain a close spiritual walk with God.John K. Ryan translated the book in an attempt to make Augustine's work more reader friendly.
John K. Ryan's translation of "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is a very easy book to read.His 22-page introduction and notes with Bible scriptures at the back of the book help the reader understand and tie together St. Augustine's work.The scriptures that Ryan provided the reader appeared to come from the King James Bible.With this in mind, I examined the possibility that Ryan was Protestant and not Catholic in his own spiritual ideology.I than questioned if that had tainted his translation.Therefore, I read parts of other translations of the Confession found on the Internet and discovered them all to be like-minded. I concluded that Ryan's translation didn't show any bias, but tried to relay to the reader that Saint Augustine's true desire was to understand God's "Will". Therefore, Augustine was portrayed as a sinner turned saint. The book was organized in a chronological manner, taking the reader from the beginning of Augustine's spiritual journey to being known as a saint and a church father.Ryan's approach to translating "The Confession of Saint Augustine" was a social history because his translations were geared toward the aspects of civil society that show the evolution of social norms, behaviors, and more.
"The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is a valuable read because it offers a first hand look at how Augustine struggled to understand God's divine power and aspiration for his life, and to be of assistance to others in the future.He raised questions that men and women since time began have questioned during their sacred walk with the Supreme Being known as God.His personal thirst for righteousness consumed his life, and he is known as one of the great Christian thinkers.
The Confession was not what I thought it would be.I truly thought it would be a book full of confessions from a saint that was "suppose" to be a prefect person that had fallen by the spiritual wayside.Instead, the Confession was like an autobiographical journal, which did included doctrine, scriptures, studies, praise, memories, and confessions.I was impressed by his ability to swing from scriptures to his own thoughts, but had you not read the scriptures prior to reading the book you may not have realized the source of this information.
Augustine was a wonderful philosopher/thinker and his writings have been the subject of many discussions throughout history since it was written in 397 A.D.However, the Confession was written in a prayer-like manner addressing various issues making it difficult to focus on the subject for long periods of time.
Some of the things Augustine questioned to the "simple-minded" or should I say "non-philosopher type" is somewhat of a given.For example: in The Infant Augustine, he wrote, "I myself do not remember this. Therefore, the comfort of human milk nourished me, but neither my mother nor my nurse filled their own breast. Rather, through them you gave me as an infant's food in accordance with your law and out of the riches that you have distributed even down to the lowest level of thing." (7) Why did he question such things? Female animals of all types feed their young from the breast. This is natural.He apparently was so far above me as a thinker that where he was going with this is beyond my comprehension, unless, he was just saying, "Thank you Lord for supplying my needs even as a child, when I knew you not."He almost said these same words in the next few sentences but to go back so far and question every aspect is as I said before, beyond my comprehension.
As you can tell I have never read a book of this nature before unless you count the King James Bible, but I did try to keep an open mind.I was surprised that he didn't appear to be a happy Christian in all his efforts to be "Christ like".This disappointed me.However, there were times while reading the book I could relate to Augustine and many of his questions.This book reminded me that no matter what God a person chooses to serve, as human beings we want to become the best we can be spiritually.
During my reading I realized that Augustine through his quest for righteousness must have gone through many of the same stages that persons in earlier cultures and time periods have.For example:he questioned what pleased God, how should he praise and show his thankfulness to God, and in what way did he want to serve God. Throughout world history these same questions have been asked at one time or another.
Ryan did a wonderful job of translating the Confession. Augustine's book written like a diary made the confessions more personal.He was one of the greatest thinkers and Christian fathers of his era.His spiritual struggles were genuine; his desire for righteousness was obvious in his writing.I sit in awe at his wisdom and his pursuit of knowledge.This book was a good read and I will study it again someday.It gave me insight to what other cultures throughout history underwent to comprehend and to determine what path of Christianity they would embrace.
The best book (other than the Bible) that I have read so far
Let me just begin by saying that this book is brilliant.Augustine is one of the greatest thinkers that the world has ever known, and it shines through in this book.In this book, Augustine manages to cover an amazing number of topics, and does so in a beautiful way, filled with prayers to God.
I am not sure what the reviewer from June 10, 2005 is talking about.I think that they were reviewing the wrong book.This book is 400 some pages, not 90, and it is the complete version, not an introduction or abridgement.
Normally when I read books I underline quotes or passages that I think are especially good, or that I think I will be able to use in papers in the future.I then write the page numbers of the pages that have underlining on the back page.In this book, however, I ended up writing the pages numbers of pages I DIDN'T underline in on the back, since I underlined something on nearly every page.This book is absolutely filled with wisdom and knowledge of God and how He and the world He created works.This book inspired me to find a copy of The City of God, which I am now just beginning.If it is one-tenth as good as the Confessions, it will be well worth the money.
A Spiritual Autobiography - written by a Saint.
This is a beautiful book even if you aren't familiar with the Saints.It opens like a flower as you read.It is completely about this wonderful man's own thoughtful analysis of his own emotional experiences.He reflects on his early life when he was actually a pagan worshipper, and then focuses on his conversion to the Christian faith.Once he converted Saint Augustine returned to Africa and set up a monastic community.What makes this book so special is that is told with the utmost candor and he holds nothing back.It is also a beautiful book in praise of God and how he changed Saint Augustine's life.Although religious in tenure, this is not a totally religious work.So many observations and thoughts that this man had in his lifetime (354 AD is when he was born).It is a book about friendships (both true and false), faith, celibacy and love.
For the patient reader with plenty of time
This book is a Roman Empire era classic, but not for the reader in a hurry. The translation appears to attempt to faithfully follow the original Latin long sentences and has therefore had to deploy advanced literary English to deal with the frequent multiple midsentence clauses. This is one of the reasons I found it slow going from a time perspective, but worth persisting with. One really good addition to the book is the notes section with all the Bible references; this is where having a cleric as the translator is clearly a bonus.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the book is a combination of St Augustine's personal life and his discussion of theology and philosophy.His personal life details include petty theft of fruit from an orchard, sitting around unemployed, youthful indiscretions, living a few years with his girlfriend until they split up, and his personal spiritual realignment from a heretical sect to the Catholic tradition. The Biblical references are mainly letters from the Apostle Paul, the Genesis story of the creation, and the Psalms, and there is nothing much from the Gospels or the Prophets.The philosophy component includes a review of his personal experiences with sense of time and memory which was no doubt drawn from his experience as a professional teacher of rhetoric and philosophy.
What one gains from all this is a great snapshot of what someone of religious conviction in the fading days of the Roman Empire saw and thought, including the experience of just scraping by to make a living.Overall, recommended for the patient reader!
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