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Great for Research Papers
This book is accurate source of material for research papers. For those who simply want to know more about the life and theology, it offers a great overview of it all.

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By his own account, St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D.354-430) lived a life of sin until his conversion to Christianity at the age of 32. Twelve years later he gave a personal account of his search for truth in The Confessions of Saint Augustine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you
Augustine's writings have withstood the test of time and it is clear to see when reading. The confessions begin with Augustine giving praise to God. It proceeds then into early childhood of Augustine and how his parents made him go to school to study Latin. As he continued to grow in his studies he also began to grow an addiction to sexuality. He brags to his friends of the sexual encounters that he has been through. In this same chapter he also speaks of how he and his concubines stole pears. He explains how this is something that he would have never done on his own, but with his friends he enjoyed it for the shear sake of stealing.

Augustine's studies increased as he continued to search for wisdom. These searches led him into the direction of the Manichaeism and to becoming a teacher of rhetoric. Shortly after this, one of his friends was baptized right before his death. Augustine teased his friend in regard to his conversion. However this also left Augustine with many questions regarding Manichaeism. He became very excited because he had the opportunity to meet the Manichee bishop Faustus. He had many questions for him, but after meeting with him, he found that Faustus did not have any answers to give him than what he had already known. This left Augustine to turn from Manichaeism and shortly after that he began to lean more towards Christianity.

Augustine's mother Monica had arranged for him to get married to a Christian girl. During this time he had been reading profusely and finally came to a conclusion about Jesus. He was in a moment of despair and heard a young girl's voice singing, "take up and read, take up and read." Upon hearing this he grabbed his Bible and began to read a passage in the book of Romans and after reading it he gave his life to Christ. He continued to give lengthy illustrations of memory and temptation. The remaining chapters of his book went into great detail about creation, the deity of Christ and the Trinity.

There are many pearls of wisdom to be gleamed from Augustine's work. Augustine does a fantastic job of tackling many questions in regards to Genesis. Also, the confessions would be great for a defense regarding the Trinity. This is great to appeal to since the confessions were written around 397. This could help show someone that the teachings of the Trinity were not just something that was conjured up, but have a historical standing. I highly recommend that you "take up and read."

Take and read
Augustine's 'Confessions' is among the most important books ever written. One of the first autobiographical works in the modern sense, it also represents the first time a psychological and theological enterprise were combined. It also helps to bridge the gap between the Classical world and the Medieval world, exhibiting strong elements identifying with each of those major historical periods.

Most undergraduates in the liberal arts encounter the book at some point; all seminarians do (or should!). Many adults find (or rediscover) the book later, after school. For many in these categories, there are concepts, narrative strands and historical data new and unusual for them. However, Augustine's 'Confessions' is still generally more accessible in many ways that truly classical pieces; it has interior description as well as external reporting that we are familiar with in modern writing.

The 'Confessions' shows Augustine's personality well - he was a passionate person, but his focus wavered for much of his life until finally settling upon Christianity and the Neoplatonic synthesis with this faith. Even while remaining a passionate Christian and rejecting the sort of dualism present in the Manichee teachings, he varied between various positions within these systems. Augustine's varied thought reaches through many denominational and scholarly paradigms.

The 'Confessions' are divided into thirteen chapters, termed 'Books' - the first ten of the books are autobiographical, with Augustine describing both events in his life as well as his philosophical and religious wanderings during the course of his life. The text is somewhat difficult to take at times, as this is writing with a purpose, as indeed most autobiographies are. The purpose here at times seems to be to paint Augustine in the worst possible light (the worse his condition, the better his conversion/salvation ends up being); at other times, one gets a sense (as one might get when reading the Pauline epistles) that there is some significant degree of ego at work here (Paul boasts of being among the better students, and so does Augustine, etc.).

Augustine also uses his Confessions as a tract against the Manichean system - once a faithful adherent, Augustine later rejects the Manichean beliefs as heretical; however, one cannot get past the idea that Augustine retained certain of their intellectual aspects in his own constructions even while denouncing them in his official life story.

The whole of the conversion turns on two primary books - Book Seven, his conversion to the Neoplatonic view of the world, including the metaphysics and the ethics that come along with this system; and Book 8, which describes his conversion to Christianity proper. This is where perhaps the most famous directive, 'Tolle! Lege!' ('Take and read!') comes from - Augustine heard a voice, and he picked up the nearest book, which happened to be a portion of the Pauline epistles, arguing against the undisciplined lifestyle Augustine lived. Scholars continue to debate whether Augustine's conversion to Christianity was more profound or more important than his conversion to Neoplatonism; in any event, Christianity interpreted through a Platonic framework became the norm for centuries, and remains a strong current within the Christian world view; Protestant reformers as they went back to the 'original bible' in distinction from the Catholic interpretations of the day also went back to the 'original Augustine' for much of their theology.

The final three books are Augustine's dealing with the creation of the world via narrative stories in Genesis 1 exegetically and hermeneutically. This is very different from what is done in modern biblical scholarship, but is significant in many respects, not the least of which as it gives a model of the way Augustine dealt with biblical texts; given Augustine's towering presence over the development of Western Christianity in both Catholic and Protestant strands, understanding his methods and interpretative framework can lead to significant insights into the ideas of medieval and later church figures.

This translation by Henry Chadwick is one of the standard editions of the book available. Chadwick, a noted scholar of early Christianity, provides a good introduction that gives synopses of the books as well as background and contextual information. This is a book that will be of interest to novice readers of Augustine as well as scholars, to students, clergy and laypersons, and anyone else who might have an historical, literary, philosophical, theological or other interest in Augustine - something for everyone, perhaps?

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Book Description
The political and social ideas of St Augustine of Hippo are of central importance to the historian of late classical and medieval political thought: Augustine offers a penetrating critique of the moral and political claims of imperial Rome, and he is one of the founders of the Christian political thought of the middle ages. But the student's task is made difficult by the fact that Augustine did not write a single, systematic political treatise. His political remarks are always incidental to his theological and pastoral concerns; they occur in many different contexts; they have to be dissected out from a great variety of works. In this volume, Dr Dyson brings together an extensive selection of primary sources and provides a detailed commentary on them. The result is a full and wide-ranging narrative account of St Augustine's thinking on the human condition, justice, the State, slavery, private property and war. This comprehensive sourcebook will be of value to students of St Augustine at all levels.Dr R W DYSON lectures in the department of politics, University of Durham. ... Read more

Book Description
The Confessions of Saint Augustine is an autobiographical work written by St. Augustine of Hippo between AD 397 and AD 398. Originally published in thirteen volumes, it is being published here in its modern form in one volume. This publicatioin describes the sinful youth of Augustine as well as his conversion to Christianity. Many scholars believe this work to be the first Western autobiography. It has been a widely influential model of Christian writers during the Middle Ages. The Confessions of Saint Augustine is highly recommended for those who enjoy the writings St. Augustine of Hippo and also those interested in learning the history and lessons from his life. ... Read more

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ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHY OF ST. AUGUSTINENIHIL OBSTAT ... Read more

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A modern-day missionary whose live will captivate and inspire young Christians. With great full-color illustrations and thorough information, this serie is excellent for ages 10 - 16 and is great for homeschool groups. ... Read more