A Review / Report on the Confessions of St. Augustine
A Review of The Confessions of St. Augustine
June 19, 2006
Church History
David J. Manning
St. Augustine has been considered by many to be one of the foremost theologians, not only of the early church, but of all ages. One of Augustine’s most famous works is his Confessions. Part autobiography, part prayer, and part theology, Confessions has been a blessing to many throughout church history.
In the early portions of the book, Augustine presents the idea that our hearts were designed for communion with God and are restless until they do so. He then spends much of the rest of the book proving this very point. In great detail, the saint catalogues every major (and in some cases minor) infraction of his early childhood and young adulthood.
One of the great themes I found intriguing and beneficial, was how St. Augustine tied in God’s providence to his own sinfulness. Quite regularly he shows how God used his own follies, sins, and circumstances to mold him into an individual God could use to greatly influence the church. While he spent much time loathing his own sin (and rightly so), Augustine did not get so caught up in it so as to lose sight of the glory and sovereignty of God.
The middle portion of Confessions is spent explaining Augustine’s slow transition from Manicheanism to Catholic Christianity. He attributed this conversion to many sources, including (but not limited to) a growing restlessness with Manicheanism’s teachings, a truer knowledge of Christian doctrines, the preaching of Bishop Ambrose, the internal goading of the Holy Spirit, and especially the prayers of his mother Monica. Ultimately, Augustine’s philosophical arguments were defeated, and he was faced with the fact that his sole source of resistance to the Christian faith was his own love of sin. This disgusted Augustine and grieved him greatly. After being shown just how wretched he had become, St. Augustine converted to Catholic Christianity and became one of the most respected theologians of all time.
The last third of Confessions is dedicated to the discussion of creation and time and various other theological / philosophical oddities. The book is tied together by Augustine’s humble awe, devotion, and love of God in Christ Jesus.
To be honest, I had mixed feelings on The Confessions of St. Augustine. Perhaps because it has been so widely touted as such a great work of history, I found myself disappointed because it did not measure up to my expectations. While the idea of cataloguing, and thus confessing, the sins of one’s life to God is a great idea for devotional practice (I may even need to take up the idea of writing my own version of Confessions), I found Augustine’s endless inventory to be rather mundane and tedious. Sure there were small treasures of theological and devotional thoughts scattered throughout the first third of the book, but ultimately I found the material dry.
The middle third, however, was quite invigorating. Once Augustine began to focus on the events immediately leading up to his conversion, I was hooked. I found his story intriguing, familiar, and inspiring. His argument on never getting around to the research he needed to do in order to properly study Christianity seemed to echo my own life’s sentiments. I have a burning desire to teach, and I am currently off rotation at church. In this downtime, I have felt some sort of impulse or conviction that I should still be teaching through writing (perhaps in blog form for the use of the local church body). I simply have not gotten around to it. The same goes for the deeper Bible study I’ve been intending to do (primarily on the sacraments and Romans). It has simply not been expedient. But to Augustine’s point, it won’t be expedient unless deemed important enough to put forth a disciplined effort. It’s a matter of choice.
While I usually love a good theological challenge, I found the final third of the book to be the most exhausting reading I have done, if not ever, then at least recently. I hate to say it, but I found Augustine’s treatise on creation and time to be boring, tedious, and near painful. I will grant him this favor however: the discussion on the nature of eternity seemed to echo my own primitive thoughts on the matter and thus captured my attention if at least for a brief moment.
I do not discount the quality of his work in the final third of the book, however I just found myself uninterested. I did find one comfort in this portion of the book: it appears I am not the only one who spends his mind’s capitol meditating on the finer points of theology because it simply nags at me until I get it “figured out” (yea right). Unfortunately, that which captivated Augustine’s mind is not what is currently plaguing my own thoughts, thus I found this section of his work tedious. Perhaps in the future my affections will change and I will become enraptured with this section of his work.
Though I did not enjoy all of Confessions, I did find the conversion section quite beneficial, and there were enough nuggets of gold along the way, that I found the book a worthy read overall. I can now truly see why The Confessions of St. Augustine is considered one of the most monumental works in church history.
June 19, 2006
Church History
David J. Manning
St. Augustine has been considered by many to be one of the foremost theologians, not only of the early church, but of all ages. One of Augustine’s most famous works is his Confessions. Part autobiography, part prayer, and part theology, Confessions has been a blessing to many throughout church history.
In the early portions of the book, Augustine presents the idea that our hearts were designed for communion with God and are restless until they do so. He then spends much of the rest of the book proving this very point. In great detail, the saint catalogues every major (and in some cases minor) infraction of his early childhood and young adulthood.
One of the great themes I found intriguing and beneficial, was how St. Augustine tied in God’s providence to his own sinfulness. Quite regularly he shows how God used his own follies, sins, and circumstances to mold him into an individual God could use to greatly influence the church. While he spent much time loathing his own sin (and rightly so), Augustine did not get so caught up in it so as to lose sight of the glory and sovereignty of God.
The middle portion of Confessions is spent explaining Augustine’s slow transition from Manicheanism to Catholic Christianity. He attributed this conversion to many sources, including (but not limited to) a growing restlessness with Manicheanism’s teachings, a truer knowledge of Christian doctrines, the preaching of Bishop Ambrose, the internal goading of the Holy Spirit, and especially the prayers of his mother Monica. Ultimately, Augustine’s philosophical arguments were defeated, and he was faced with the fact that his sole source of resistance to the Christian faith was his own love of sin. This disgusted Augustine and grieved him greatly. After being shown just how wretched he had become, St. Augustine converted to Catholic Christianity and became one of the most respected theologians of all time.
The last third of Confessions is dedicated to the discussion of creation and time and various other theological / philosophical oddities. The book is tied together by Augustine’s humble awe, devotion, and love of God in Christ Jesus.
To be honest, I had mixed feelings on The Confessions of St. Augustine. Perhaps because it has been so widely touted as such a great work of history, I found myself disappointed because it did not measure up to my expectations. While the idea of cataloguing, and thus confessing, the sins of one’s life to God is a great idea for devotional practice (I may even need to take up the idea of writing my own version of Confessions), I found Augustine’s endless inventory to be rather mundane and tedious. Sure there were small treasures of theological and devotional thoughts scattered throughout the first third of the book, but ultimately I found the material dry.
The middle third, however, was quite invigorating. Once Augustine began to focus on the events immediately leading up to his conversion, I was hooked. I found his story intriguing, familiar, and inspiring. His argument on never getting around to the research he needed to do in order to properly study Christianity seemed to echo my own life’s sentiments. I have a burning desire to teach, and I am currently off rotation at church. In this downtime, I have felt some sort of impulse or conviction that I should still be teaching through writing (perhaps in blog form for the use of the local church body). I simply have not gotten around to it. The same goes for the deeper Bible study I’ve been intending to do (primarily on the sacraments and Romans). It has simply not been expedient. But to Augustine’s point, it won’t be expedient unless deemed important enough to put forth a disciplined effort. It’s a matter of choice.
While I usually love a good theological challenge, I found the final third of the book to be the most exhausting reading I have done, if not ever, then at least recently. I hate to say it, but I found Augustine’s treatise on creation and time to be boring, tedious, and near painful. I will grant him this favor however: the discussion on the nature of eternity seemed to echo my own primitive thoughts on the matter and thus captured my attention if at least for a brief moment.
I do not discount the quality of his work in the final third of the book, however I just found myself uninterested. I did find one comfort in this portion of the book: it appears I am not the only one who spends his mind’s capitol meditating on the finer points of theology because it simply nags at me until I get it “figured out” (yea right). Unfortunately, that which captivated Augustine’s mind is not what is currently plaguing my own thoughts, thus I found this section of his work tedious. Perhaps in the future my affections will change and I will become enraptured with this section of his work.
Though I did not enjoy all of Confessions, I did find the conversion section quite beneficial, and there were enough nuggets of gold along the way, that I found the book a worthy read overall. I can now truly see why The Confessions of St. Augustine is considered one of the most monumental works in church history.
posted by bigdaddydave at 4:56 PM
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