Other editions of book Confessions of Saint Augustine: The Autobiography of a Prodigal Who Became A Saint

Saint Augustine's contributions to Christian theology are second to no other post-apostolic author in the whole sweep of church history. Yet along side his doctrinal treatises, Augustine tells a story of his life devoted to Christ as his only satisfaction. The Confessions is at once the autobiographical account of Augustine's life of Christian faith and at the same time a compelling theology of Christian spirituality for everyone. Among the most important classics in Western literature, it continues to engage modern readers through Augustine's timeless illustrations and beautiful prose. Augustine's Confessions is a work to relish the first time through and then profoundly enjoy over a lifetime of revisiting.

In Confessions, regarded as the first true Western autobiography, Saint Augustine of Hippo lays bare his heart, body, and soul. In this unguarded prayer, a fallible Augustine admits to the indiscretions, selfishness, and licentious obsessions of his youth. He reveals a man of contradictory desires and beliefs, a regretful libertine torn between sin and morality on a spiritual journey toward his conversion to Christianity.Meditative and philosophical, personal yet universal, Confessions has a surprising modernity—nearly sixteen hundred years after it was written—and still resonates, influencing and shaping our discourse on living a life filled with meaning.Revised edition: Previously published as Confessions, this edition of Confessions (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

The Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered one of the greatest Christian classics of all time. It is an extended poetic, passionate, intimate prayer that Augustine wrote as an autobiography sometime after his conversion, to confess his sins and proclaim God's goodness. Just as his first hearers were captivated by his powerful conversion story, so also have many millions been over the following sixteen centuries. His experience of God speaks to us across time with little need of transpositions.This acclaimed new translation by Sister Maria Boulding, O.S.B., masterfully captures his experience, and is written in an elegant and flowing style. Her beautiful contemporary translation of the ancient Confessions makes the classic work more accessible to modern readers. Her translation combines the linguistic accuracy demanded by 4th-century Latin with the poetic power aimed at by Augustine, not as discernable in previous translations.

Written between 397 and 400 A.D., “The Confessions of Saint Augustine” is thought to be the first autobiography in Western civilization and is considered by many to be one of the most important religious works of all time. While not a complete account of Augustine’s life, for Augustine wrote “Confessions” in his early forties and would live well into his seventies, it is one of the most complete first-hand accounts of anyone’s life from the fourth or fifth century, in which the author outlines the sins of his youth and conversion to Christianity. “The Confessions” tells of its author’s upbringing in Algeria, his place at the Imperial court of Milan, his struggle to overcome his sexual desires, and the ultimate dedication of his life to Christ and Christian ways. “The Confessions” are not simply a recount of the author’s life but a true exploration of what it is to be Christian and the struggles that one must overcome in order to find Christ and live a more pious life. A pioneering work of autobiography, “The Confessions” remains one of the most important works of spiritual devotion ever written. This edition follows the translation of Edward Bouverie Pusey and includes an introduction by Arthur Symons.

At once both an autobiography and a philosophical treatise, The Confessions of Saint Augustine outlines Augustine's regrets of his sinful youth, his embrace of Manichaeism and astrology as a young man, and finally his conversion to Christianity in the latter part of the 4th century. The work is thought to be the first autobiography of a Western figure ever written, and provides valuable insight into the life and philosophy of one of early Christianity's greatest thinkers.

The Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered by many to be one of the most important religious biographies of all time. Written in the middle of the 4th century "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" tells of its author's upbringing in Algeria, his place at the Imperial court of Milan, his struggle to overcome his sexual desires, and the ultimate dedication of his life to Christ and Christian ways. "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is not simply a recount of the author's life but a true exploration of what it is to be Christian and the struggles that one must overcome in order to find Christ and live a more pious life.

Confessions is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books (what moderns call chapters, by Saint Augustine of Hippo, written in Latin between AD 397 and 400. The work outlines Saint Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of Saint Augustine in order to distinguish the book 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 book being a complete unit.Confessions is generally considered one of Augustine's most important texts. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the Middle Ages. Professor Henry Chadwick wrote that Confessions will "always rank among the great masterpieces of western literature".

It would not be right to overlook a charge that has been brought against the book by Lord Byron. He says, “Augustin in his fine Confessions makes the reader envy his transgressions.” Nothing could be more reckless or further from the truth than this charge. There is here no dwelling on his sin, or painting it so as to satisfy a prurient imagination. As we have already remarked, Augustin’s manner is not to go into detail further than to find a position from which to “edify” the reader, and he treats this episode in his life with his characteristic delicacy and reticence. His sin was dead; and he had carried it to its burial with tears of repentance. And when, ten years after his baptism, he sets himself, at the request of some, to a consideration of what he then was at the moment of making his confessions, he refers hardly at all to this sin of his youth; and such allusions as he does make are of the most casual kind. Instead of enlarging upon it, he treats it as past, and only speaks of temptation and sin as they are common to all men. Many of the French writers on the Confessions institute a comparison in this matter between the confessions of Augustin and those of Rousseau. Pressensé draws attention to the delicacy and reserve which characterise the one, and the arrogant defiance of God and man manifested in the other. The confessions of the one he speaks of as “un grand acte de repentir et d’amour;” and eloquently says, “In it he seems, like the Magdalen, to have spread his box of perfumes at the foot of the Saviour; from his stricken heart there exhales the incense most agreeable to God—the homage of true penitence.” The other he truly describes as uttering “a cry of triumph in the very midst of his sin, and robing his shame in a royal purple.” Well may Desjardins express surprise at a book of such foulness coming from a genius so great; and perhaps his solution of the enigma is not far from the truth, when he attributes it to an overweening vanity and egotism.The Soliloquies introduce us to the converted man at the very moment of his conversion. The Confessions give us the Bishop of Hippo’s recollection of that man after years of absorption in the exacting duties of ecclesiastical function and doctrinal debate. Who, seeking to confront the real self of early years, would accept for such his own random recollections at a much later period, recalled of necessity piecemeal, amid the distractions of professional routine, in exchange for the diary into which was poured at the crucial moment the inmost self of those very days and hours? Harnack says: “The foundations of Augustine’s religious characteristics can be best studied in the writings that are read least, namely in the tractates and letters written immediately after his conversion, and forming an extremely necessary supplement to the Confessions.” “What was written earlier was, undoubtedly, in many respects less complete, less churchly, more Neoplatonic; but, on the other hand, it was more direct, more personal.

Confessions is one of the most moving diaries ever recorded of a man's journey to the fountain of God's grace. Writing as a sinner, not a saint, Augustine shares his innermost thoughts and conversion experiences, and wrestles with the spiritual questions that have stirred the hearts of the thoughtful since time began. Starting with his childhood in Numidia, through his youth and early adulthood in Carthage, Rome, and Milan, readers will see Augustine as a human being, a fellow traveler on the road to salvation. Though staggering around potholes and roadblocks, all will find strength in Augustine's message: when the road gets rough, look to God! Previously released in 1977, this book invites readers to join Augustine in his quest that led him to be one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the history of the church.