Product Description

In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood. Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context. The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33039 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780192833723
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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Review

"An excellent translation."--John Bowlin, University of Tulsa
"A masterly performance by the dean of English-speaking Patristic scholars. Better English than the Penguin and unlike Sheed this has Books X-XIII. The notes hint at hidden depths."--Oliver Nicholson, University of Minnesota
"Chadwick's translation is superb."--Thomas Renna, Saginaw Valley State University
"A beautifully translated, edited, and printed paperback edition."--Francis W. Nichols, St. Louis University
"I am impressed with this translation. It has the poetry and emotive power of the R.S. Pine-Coffin translation for Penguin Books; and it seems much more lucid. The notes are very helpful for my purposes, showing how Augustine wove together Neo-Platonism and Christianity."--David E. Timmer, Central College
"An extremely readable and accessible translation, superior to those of Edward Pusey and F.J. Sheed that we've used in the past."--Helen Moritz, Santa Clara University
"A very competent piece of work....The fact remains that this new translation is the most readable version in modern English."--Manuscripta
"This handsomely bound and printed volume is finely translated and annotated, thus making the Confessions as exciting to read in English as they deserve to be. The informative introduction provides excellent information on Augustine's life and writings."--Gary M. Godfrey, University of Utah
"Fine translation."--P.M. Hess, University of Santa Clara

About the Author

An expert on the early Church, Henry Chadwick is Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is the author of such books as Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition and Augustine in the Past Masters series.

Customer Reviews

Peeping into the soul of a man

Translation by Rex Warner (in Signet Classics)

This one is a very good translation, especially for the modern reader. It conveys the immediacy and vividness of a text written more than 1500 years ago. One feels almost as a voyeur peeping into the private confession of a man to his God. The honesty and unembarrassed disclosure of his sins, and fruitless search for worldly wisdom, is something we can personally identify with, even today. It is amazing how vivid the description of life in late 4th century is in this Confessions. What a wonderful way to approach History, places like Carthage, Rome or Milan, thru the eyes of a skilled and intelligent man who pours his heart on these pages for us to benefit from.

St. Augustine's life, however distant in time, is filled with events, desires, and troubles, as common today as in the year 400. We can identify fully with him, and in his longing and weakness we can see our own soul portrayed. He talks about his childhood, his family, his studies and his lifelong pursuit of wisdom and truth, specially since the age of 19. We get immersed in the daily life of people in the 4th Century under the Roman Empire, their daily worries, their intellectual debates, their religious confrontations. We see the social conditions of all classes of people, from the wealthy and idle to the slaves who fight in the Circus. We see people living, talking, traveling, dreaming, and going about their business as if we were present with them. No wonder this book is an authentic classic, one that I should have read long ago.

There are many reasons to read this book. Those interested in History are certainly going to find plenty of information from eye-witness perspective; those who like to read personal memories and autobiographies won't have it easy to find a better one. For those interested in the history of religion and Catholicism, this is a must, a landmark in Christian literature. Whatever you are looking for, this book is certainly one that will satisfy your intellectual curiosity as well as fill you spiritually.

One thing to bear in mind is that the Confessions are not addressed to us, readers, that is why certain things about the author's behavior seem inexplicable: certain things that would seem to us to merit more explaining, being only mentioned briefly (his behavior toward the woman he had a child with, for example), while other issues are given a lot more space. Of course the Lord knew his heart well, but still, one is intrigued at this man.

Essential classic of world literature
This is a good translation of St Augustine's 'Confessions', one of the most important works of Christian and also world religious and philosophical thought.

St Augustine's genius needs no advertisment. His brilliant intellect is more or less the founder of Western Christianity as we know it. Between St Paul and Aquinas, he is the most brilliant theological and philosophical mind the medieval period managed to produce. If Western philosphy is a cathedral, then Augustine is one of its capstones.

The Confessions is a personal narrative of Augustine's life, which describes his spiritual and intellectual journey from childhood to adulthood. Augustine is such a brilliant writer he manages to capture countless facets of experience in a book which itself is only about 340 pages long (thirteen books in total) and this work also has immense range and depth, from the strange nature of free will and sin to the inner quest for the indwelling image of the Trinity, to Augustine's mystical experiences, to his dramatic conversion, to his allegorical commentary on Genesis to his ceaseless praise of God's goodness and the beauty of creation.

Augustine is clearly influenced by several sources, especially Neo-Platonic Philosophy. Augustine read the Enneads of Plotinus in translation into Latin (thanks to Marcus Victorius, a Christian convert from Neo-Platonism) and found its concepts of God made more sense to him than that of the sect he was a member of, the Manicheans. The Manicheans, a syncretic sect who blended Buddhism, elements of Christianity, Zorastrianism and Gnosticism, and Platonism captivated Augustine for several years, seeming to provide a satisfying explanation for the baffling problem of evil. Yet Augustine, after reading Plotinus, thought the explanation of evil in terms of non-being made more sense than God making an evil world, or being ruled by an evil principle. In this sense Augustine made a crucial breakthrough in theology, not only by finding God 'within' the depths of his own soul, but also in associating God with the Platonic Good.

Yet Augustine's strongest influence is the Bible. References to the Bible abound far more than references to Plotinus, and for Augustine, pagan thought is mostly useful for articulating truths already main plain by the Word of God. However, Augustine is always too brilliant and original thinker to merely fall into a rigid pattern of dogma he never leaves (in contrast to many more mediocre minds in the Christian tradition) and reworks his theology consistently and constantly in a creative manner.

However the Confessions is too brilliant and profound a work to summarise in one review, and it is best if readers avail themselves to a copy of this work as soon as they can.

Moving expose of a divided man who comes to terms
A joy to read! It is personal and readable, near Poetical.

Augustine was on a path to learn truth, find God, and experienced twists and turns of self-doubt and a divided will that, I think, anyone pursuing knowledge might find of interests, or someone a bit delusioned and cynical about life may find solace in. Augustine's message is a passionate one, this passion is the shining attribute of his confession -- his giving himself over to a life of honest endeavor to do God's will. He defines what the spirit of an honest pursuit looks like, and could be somewhat applied to all pursuits of truth. It is a bit cathartic to read about this often divided and quite human of a man, who I can't see how anyone could apply the terms orthodox or evangelical too (an Effort/Endeavor seems more on terms with a Christian's experience), and how he came to terms with the mysteries that are in our world. His description why it is impossible to know truth ultimately, but his conlusions behind the message of the meaning of mysteries is powerful stuff in themselves.

Some interesting themes I found, that Augustine expounded on were:
The mysteries of time and memory and what their being mysteries means.
How the soul and music are akin.
Some differences in exegesis are just quibbles that one should agree to disagree on among sincere souls.
Physical delight needs to be checked by reason (Augustine was coming to terms with lust, apparently, even at the time of this writing).
Don't be overly dependant on the praise of man.
Even contempt of the vain can be a vanity of its own sort.
His descriptions of the third temptations.
His admiration of his mother and his descriptions of the sort of person she was.
The true search is the inner search.
There are things the church does to get people interested that are lower than the true spiritual Christian search
Confession is sacrifice...

Almost every page was interesting.

Augustine was always surrounded by friends and was never in serious wanting of food or such, that I understood anyway. It is just the account of a highly intelligent, but splinterd man in search of God, until he comes to terms with the Christian mysteries of good.

I could hear Shakespeare, Waugh, and Wilde echoing in some of his words. Mr. Chadwich also makes it clear that Augustine barrowed a lot from Neo-Platonist authors, especially Plotinus. The book also provides interesting insights into life in North Africa and Italy at that time, and their cultural differences. Augustine, like Aquinas, was North African.

The book was relatively light reading, and highly accessible -- but deep -- especially taken in its entirety. Chadwick's translation, although I cannot attest to the authenticity of it, as I know no Latin, was near poetical and his notes kept my interest by aiding my understanding, clarifying themes and points, without obfuscating the passion of Augustine's message.
Highly catharctic, enjoyable reading.