Reading Old Books - Augustine's Confessions Book I

Today we begin our journey together through Augustine’s Confessions. We begin with Book I, and we will discuss Book II in two weeks, beginning December 18. If you’d like to read along with us but don’t have the book, you can read it online.

I’ll admit that I began without much prior knowledge about the book. It seems clear that this is an autobiographical work, as Augustine spends Book I discussing his early childhood and education. Some things haven’t changed much over the centuries. Augustine didn’t like his teachers and enjoyed some subjects more than others. He describes his childhood as one of unhappiness and humiliation at the hands of his parents and elders.

What I found most interesting was the spiritual progression Augustine lays out as he describes his youth.

He begins declaring the greatness of God, and ponders the incomprehensibility of God. When we call on God, we ask God to come into us. But how can we possibly contain God? Heaven and earth cannot contain God (Augustine ponders whether there is left over God), yet when He fills, He fill completely with His whole being.
He then describes God as being in ways that would seem completely incompatible in a person:

“most merciful, yet most just; most hidden, yet most present; most beautiful, yet most strong, stable, yet incomprehensible; unchangeable, yet all-changing”
In the end, the house of my soul is too narrow, and I need to ask God to make it wider.

Augustine moves on to discuss our state, which is sinful. He declares that none is free from sin, not even a baby whose life lasted one day. As he grew, he sinned all along the way; against his parents, against his teachers. Sin was the reason he likes fun and games rather than his studies; sin was the reason he hated Greek literature. In the end, all this was because he had no love for God. He would weep for tragic characters as he read, but had no concern for the death of his own soul.

Finally, Augustine discusses the folly of human wisdom. The great literature he read ascribed divine attributes to men, and thus was a “river of hell”, sweeping away those who learn these things. His examples were men who would be embarrassed to tell a story of great personal virtue if the grammar were incorrect, but proud to tell a story of personal vice if well spoken.

As he summarizes, Augustine says that no one was as loathsome as he. He speaks of stealing from his parents so that he can bribe the other boys so that he could win at their games. In the end, he declares that the only good things in him came from God.

Share you’re thoughts about the book by leaving a comment for this blog entry.

Posted by David Fenton on Dec 4, 08:51 AM