Confessions, St. Augustine

Now that I have finished this book, I can't believe how long it took me to read it. I think, somehow, I have retained the idea that classics, especially non-fiction ones and those in translation, are difficult reads. Lies. However, let me make a few clarifications. I read a 1961 Penguin Classics edition with a translation that was accessible. If I had found another version, I may have found the going a little tougher. Also, I have been a long time at reading this book. I picked it up about a year ago, left my borrowed copy at home when I returned to St. Louis, bought a copy, read it for a bit, got distracted by the Epistles, picked it up again, got distracted by novels, finally decided I needed to finish, and devoured the last five or six books.

In his Confessions, Augustine describes his story of gradual conversion and the consequences of it. He shares his life before and after he realized the Truth of the Church, with an emphasis on the process of change. His story covers philosophy, as he seeks the meaning of concepts such as Truth and Beauty; identity, as he seeks to know God in the Trinity and himself; and morality, as he struggles with the lifestyle implications of the Christian Way.

I knew intellectually that people see Augustine as still applicable to the world today, but the modernity of his questions and struggles struck me. He follows the ways of the intellectuals of his time who have twisted the way of truth to make it easier. He prays, famously, "God grant me continence and chastity, but not yet." He longs to give his life to God, but does not go all the way, holds back. And God breaks through all his opposition, partly through the steadfast intervention of his mother.

After his conversion, Augustine begins to chronicle some of the blessing which God has bestowed upon him and to meditate on some lines of Scripture. In fact, he starts with Genesis 1:1a : "In the beginning." After writing at length he moves on to Genesis 1:1 : "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth." He lost my interest for a while as he mused over abstract ideas of time and matter, mostly because he has a tendency to repeat himself seven or eight times over in the section. However, in the last book, he writes that he does not have the time, nor his readers the energy (true!) to go through the Scripture in such detail, and he addresses the six days of Creation in one fell swoop, regaining my interest.

If you are Catholic, read this book. If you are a non-Catholic type of Christian, read this book. Augustine speaks of joining the Catholic Church, but he wrote at a point in history where all our modern denominations did not exist. If you are not a Christian, I still recommend it for an interesting theological and philosophical read. It would be an excellent book for a discussion group, because it has a lot to digest.