The Confessions,9781565480834

The Confessions

by ; ;
ISBN13: 9781565480834
ISBN10: 156548083X
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 1996-11-01
Publisher(s): New City Pr
List Price: $59.95

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Summary

Considered one of the greatest Christian classics, The Confessions of Augustine was written with the conviction that God wanted him to make this confession. It is, in fact, an extended poetic, passionate, intimate prayer that has captivated those who have heard it for the past 16 centuries. He was probably 43 when he began this endeavor, and had been a baptized Catholic for ten years, a priest for six, and a bishop for only two. His pre-baptismal life raised questions in the community. Was his conversion genuine? This new translation masterfully captures his experience of God, which speaks to us across time with little need of transpositions.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9(25)
Chronological Outline of Augustine's Life for the Period Covered by The Confessions 34(2)
Revisions 36(3)
The Confessions 39(342)
Book I--Infancy and Boyhood
39(23)
Opening prayer and meditation
39(3)
Infancy
42(5)
Learning to speak
47(1)
Augustine goes to school
48(2)
His baptism is deferred
50(2)
Latin and Greek studies
52(7)
Childish sins
59(1)
Thanksgiving
60(2)
Book II--Adolescence
62(13)
Sexual awakening
62(2)
A year at home
64(1)
Adolescent lust
65(2)
He robs a pear tree
67(1)
Question of motives
68(5)
The prodigal's wanderings begin
73(2)
Book III--Student Years at Carthage
75(17)
Student life: sex and shows
75(3)
The "wreckers"
78(1)
The quest for wisdom: Cicero's Hortensius
79(1)
Distaste for scripture
80(1)
He joins the Manichees
80(9)
Monica, grieved, is consoled by a vision
89(1)
"A son of tears"
90(2)
Book IV--Augustine the Manichee
92(21)
Augustine sells rhetorical skills
92(1)
He begins to cohabit with an unnamed girl
93(1)
He investigates astrology
94(2)
Death of a friend at Thagaste
96(4)
Consolation in other friends at Carthage
100(1)
Transience of created things
101(4)
What is beauty? He writes a book
105(4)
He reads Aristotle's Categories
109(4)
Book V--Faustus at Carthage, Augustine to Rome and Milan
113(21)
Augustine hopes to question Faustus
115(1)
Valid observations of the natural world by "philosophers"
115(3)
Manichean assertions about natural phenomena are astray
118(1)
Augustine is disappointed in Faustus
119(3)
Indiscipline among his students prompts move to Rome
122(1)
Monica's opposition; Augustine departs by stealth
123(2)
Illness in Rome; Manichean contacts
125(2)
Appeal of Academic skepticism
127(2)
Augustine teaches in Rome
129(1)
He wins a teaching post in Milan
130(1)
He arrives in Milan and meets Ambrose
131(3)
Book VI--Milan, 385: Progress, Friends, Perplexities
134(24)
Monica comes to Milan
134(3)
Bishop Ambrose
137(2)
Augustine finds some enlightenment
139(3)
Hollowness of his secular ambitions; the drunken beggar
142(2)
Alypius
144(6)
Nebridius
150(1)
Perplexities and plans: philosophy and the problem of continence
150(4)
Projected marriage
154(1)
Dream of an ideal community
155(1)
Dismissal of Augustine's common-law wife. his grief
156(2)
Book VII--Neo-Platonism Frees Augustine's Mind
158(26)
Materialistic notions of God insufficient
158(3)
The problem of evil
161(3)
He finally rejects astrology
164(3)
Still searching
167(2)
He reads "the books of the Platonists"
169(3)
He attempts Platonic ecstasy, but is "beaten back"
172(2)
New light on the problem of evil
174(2)
Fresh attempt at mounting to God; he attains That Which Is
176(2)
He realizes the need for Christ the Mediator
178(2)
Christ the Way
180(1)
Augustine discovers Saint Paul
181(3)
Book VIII--Conversion
184(25)
Conversation with Simplicianus
186(1)
Story of Victorinus' conversion
186(6)
Augustine longs to imitate him, but is hindered by lustful habit
192(2)
Conversation with Ponticianus
194(2)
Story of conversion of two court officials at Trier
196(3)
Struggle in the garden
199(7)
"Pick it up and read"
206(1)
Conversion of Augustine and Alypius; Monica's joy
207(2)
Book IX--Death and Rebirth
209(28)
Augustine decides to renounce his career
210(3)
To Cassiciacum with his mother, son and friends
213(1)
He lives with the psalms
214(5)
They return to Milan and are baptized
219(1)
Use of hymns in liturgy
220(1)
Discovery of the bodies of two saints
221(1)
Monica's story
222(4)
Ostia
226(4)
Monica's death
230(1)
Augustine's grief
231(4)
Peace
235(2)
Book X--Memory
237(47)
Motives for confession
237(4)
Looking for God in creatures
241(3)
Looking for God in himself: the fields of memory
244(12)
Universal desire for happiness
256(4)
He knows God
260(3)
"Give what you command"
263(1)
Concupiscence of the flesh: sense of touch
263(2)
Taste
265(3)
Smell
268(1)
Hearing
269(1)
Sight
270(3)
Concupiscence of the eyes
273(2)
The third great temptation: pride
275(5)
Summary of all his discoveries
280(1)
The Mediator, priest and victim
281(3)
Book XI--Time and Eternity
284(28)
Augustine prays for understanding of the scriptures
284(3)
"In the Beginning God made heaven and Earth"
287(1)
God creates in his word
288(2)
This Word is eternal
290(1)
The eternal Word is "the Beginning"
291(2)
"What was God doing before that?" Meaningless question
293(2)
Time a creature of God-what is it?
295(7)
Movements of the heavenly bodies are not time itself, but only markers of it
302(3)
Perhaps time is tension of our consciousness
305(5)
Our time and God's eternity
310(2)
Book XII--Heaven and Earth
312(30)
"Heaven's heaven" is the spiritual creation
312(1)
Formless matter, the abyss
313(4)
There was no time there
317(2)
Summary of foregoing remarks on spiritual and material creation
319(2)
Some people disagree with me about the spiritual and material creation
321(3)
Augustine's response to those who disagree
324(3)
The author's intention must be sought in charity
327(7)
"If I had been Moses"
334(1)
How fruitful are these verses of Genesis!
335(4)
Conclusion: the one Truth, many human approaches
339(3)
Book XIII--The Days of Creation, Prophecy of the Church
342(39)
Why did God create?
343(1)
Not for any deserving on the creature's side
344(1)
God's Spirit, Third Person of the Trinity
345(5)
Allegorical interpretation of Gn 1. Day One: Light
350(3)
Day Two: The vault of scripture
353(3)
Day Three: Bitter sea, dry land, fruitfulness
356(1)
Day Four: Lamps of wisdom and knowledge
357(3)
Day Five: Sea creatures represent signs and sacraments
360(2)
Day Six: Animals, the "living soul"
362(2)
Humanity in God's image and likeness
364(4)
"Increase and multiply"
368(2)
God assigns them their food
370(3)
God saw that it was exceedingly good" (against the Manichees)
373(3)
Summary of literal exegesis; man and woman
376(1)
Summary of allegorical exegesis
377(2)
Conclusion: rest on the seventh day
379(2)
Index of Scripture 381(2)
Index 383

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