Confessions

I suspect most people today would not imagine that they have much in common with a Christian saint who lived over 1500 years ago. Remarkably enough however if they read this book I think they'd find much to relate to, just as I did. The Confessions is the famous autobiography of St. Augustine of Hippo, a North African saint. It is in part his life story, but to me it is really his spiritual biography. It is in effect a long letter from himself directed towards God, explaining his path towards the divine. It is the story of how Augustine went from a sinner — someone who in his own words had a restless soul and disordered mind — into the realm of divine knowledge and awareness. It is a familiar story to anyone who has read Ibn Arabi, al-Ghazali or any other individuals who have counseled taking what is often referred to as the spiritual path.

What was most notable to me about the book were how "normal" St. Augustine and his thoughts seem by today's standards. He did not want to surrender his bad habits and he did not want to be ridiculed for believing something that he'd (incorrectly) assumed was ridiculous. He wanted real knowledge and the company of his beloved friends and family. He loved his mother and he wanted to do what was right in his life, a life that he knew was inherently transient. The book describes the process of his spiritual awakening, likening it at one part to the resistance one feels to waking up in the morning and the efforts we take to remain asleep even when we know we must get up. He describes the components of existence as being like the words of a sentence, with one dying so the other can live and none but the highest intellect able to see the meaning of the entire sentence. His heart desires to come to a place of rest, rather than being in endless search for a thing that our minds cannot name. The prose is beautiful.

This is a book that deserves to be described as timeless, because it deals with the core issues of the human condition: who we are, why we are here and what we must do to be enlightened, peaceful and successful. It is also an advised read for those who incorrectly believe that Christianity is a superficial or intellectually unstimulating religion. This could not be further from the truth. To me St. Augustine was another Ibn Arabi, an earnest seeker of the truth who found his riches by looking within. As long as human beings still exist, this book has something very important to say to them.

Há muito que queria ler as Confissões de Agostinho de Hipona. Achava curioso que um «santo» tivesse exposto a sua vida numa altura em que os intelectuais e os religiosos se debatiam ainda com o legado platónico e aristotélico, por um lado, e por outro com a legitimação do cristianismo trinitário (ou catolicismo), resultante do primeiro concílio de Niceia (325), face às múltiplas «heresias» que vinham grassando por todo o espaço do Império Romano. Agostinho (n. 354-m. 430), refere-o aqui, aderiu à heresia maniqueísta até aos 28 anos, altura em que se dirige a Roma e depois a Milão. Aí, através das conversações com Ambrósio, bispo daquela cidade, abraçará o catolicismo e dedicar-se-á a combater as correntes doutrinárias que em Niceia haviam sido consideradas heréticas. Muito do que escreverá ao longo da sua vida, de carácter teológico-filosófico-psicológico, é movido pela vontade de arrasar os sofismas dos arianos, maniqueus, donatistas e pelagianos, mas também contra os académicos (dualistas) e neo-platónicos.

Formado em retórica durante a juventude em Tagaste, cidade onde nasce, e em Cartago depois, será mais tarde professor em Roma. Toda essa informação nos é dada nos primeiros 8 livros deste livro (composto por 13 no total), juntamente com uma proclamação dos dogmas da Trindade. Agostinho expõe os seus pecados da carne, o seu concubinato até aos anos de Milão, as travessuras de criança, a sua relação com a escola (onde pelos vistos não gostava de estar) e com a família. É, se quisermos, um santo a mostrar-se homem. Santo ou não (prefiro chamar-lhe só Agostinho), é um dos grandes génios da humanidade a contar-nos a sua vida e a lamentar os seus erros. Vai, por isso, muito para além dos faits divers: o conhecimento da Bíblia e dos autores gregos e latinos atravessa todo o livro, assim como as disputas teológicas da época, o que nem sempre é fácil de acompanhar. É, no entanto, um documento histórico impressionante e de grande valor, sobretudo para o conhecimento dos sécs. IV-V.

Agostinho nasce entre a promulgação do Édito de Milão (313), que terminava com as perseguições aos hereges (cristãos e judeus) e outorgava uma liberdade de culto, e o Édito de Tessalónica (380), que estabelecia o cristianismo como culto oficial do Imperador e do Império. (Os restantes cultos, de acordo com aquele édito, eram doravante julgados «dementes e loucos sobre os quais pesará a infâmia da heresia» [reliquos vero dementes vesanosque iudicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere], curiosamente). Assiste, em 395, à morte do imperador Teodósio I e à consequente divisão do Império Romano entre Ocidente (cuja queda acontece em 476, embora Carlos Magno volte a reivindicar o título imperial no ano de 800, sob a designação de Sacro Império Romano-Germânico, e que perduraria até 1806) e Oriente (que subsistirá com a designação de Império Bizantino até 1453). Não viveu o suficiente para assistir à presúria de Roma pelos povos germânicos, mas os seus 75 anos de vida serviram-lhe para sintetizar muito do pensamento anterior e projectar o pensamento medieval. Não é pouca coisa.

De facto, os pensamentos de Agostinho influenciaram muito do que se escreveu ao longo da Idade Média. Desde a adopção do estilo de vida monástico do bispo de Hipona, preconizada pelos cónegos regrantes de Santo Agostinho (que se fixam em Santa Cruz de Coimbra por outorga de Afonso Henriques, por exemplo, de onde emanariam uma forte influência espiritual e cultural, produzindo várias hagiografias, anais e crónicas entre o séc. XII e XV, mas também posteriormente) e outros ramos da chamada família agostiniana regrante, à influência intelectual. Nesse domínio são exemplos a Autobiografia de Guibert de Nogent, confessional ao estilo agostiniano, os Contra de Tomás de Aquino ou o De planctu eclesiae de Álvaro Pais (um ilustre desconhecido que em boa verdade devíamos conhecer, ou ouvir falar, tanto quanto Aquino ou Agostinho). Na realidade a influência de Agostinho ainda não cessou de se exercer. O que escreve aqui sobre o tempo, sobre a memória ou sobre a verdade pode ainda hoje servir para iniciar uma profunda e séria reflexão. Noutros casos, entrega-se a dogmas de que ainda hoje a Igreja se alimenta. São por isso as confissões e o pensar de um homem de fé. Essencialmente, um homem.

After reading the full 1100 pages of City of God, I picked up Confessions. Admittedly, this was a breath of fresh air, after reading a long winded, and at times arcane, tome on theology... Still, I decided to put down Confessions after reaching chapter 11. The book simply fails to impress me in any significant way. But before I explain why, let me briefly give a sketch of the book itself.

The word 'confession' can be interpreted in either of two ways: a confession of sins and a confession of faith. And actually, Augustine's Confessions is both at the same time. In the first 9 chapters of the book he explains how he lived his earlier life. The main aim is twofold: to explain how much he sinned and how he gradually steered towards becoming a true Christian. Basically, Augustine was too greedy for milk at his mother's teat; he stole apples because his friends would like him because of it; he believed in the Manichean doctrine of Good and Evil being the two guiding principles of the world; and he was obsessed with sexual intercourse.

Luckily, Augustine's mother Monica was a devout Christian who prayed to God almost continuously to show her son the true path of Good. When he went from Carthage - where he studied rhetoric and became a professional teacher (others would say sophist, or rather, a swindler) - to Rome his world gradually started to shift. He became more frustrated by his obsession with sex and he started to doubt the truth of the Manichean worldview (everthing is composed of Good and Evil) more and more. Now, when he started reading books on Neo-platonism, he became convinced, for the first time in his life, that God is not material but immaterial. This opened him up to the notion of the Christian God - who is, supposedly, a transcendent, immaterial, perfect Being - and finally convinced him of the falsity of Manichaeism.

After he went from Rome to Milan, and met the Milanise priest and saint to-be Ambrose, he started to delve ever deeper into Christianity. Augustine read the epistles of Paul and felt he became a true Christian. Yet, he also became more and more frustrated because now he had two 'wills' inside him. He really wanted to become a true Christian, if only he could stop thinking about/desiring sex. This cognitive dissonance leads to such a nervous breakdown that at some point he runs into a garden, falls to the ground and starts to weep. One can almost hear some modern-day movie music when reading this supposedly dramatic scene. After this epiphany, Augustine decides forever to leave sex alone, instantly doesn't desire it anymore and becomes a Christian.

At this moment in the autobiography - just when Augustine, his mother and his friends are on their way back to Africa (after years of living in Italy) - his devout mother Monica dies and the internal struggles are allowed one last piece in the stage play of Augustine's life. He wants to weep for his mother but he doesn't want to allow it - in the end he still weeps. End of story.

After this, the 9 chapters of the book are over. 4 chapters still remain: chapter 10 is an introspective evaluation of sins and confessions - something like the theological and psychological principles of the first 9 chapters (his life). After this strange chapter, chapters 11-13 are analyses of Genesis. I haven't read these chapters, since I have had enough theology after recently struggling through his immense City of God. I read some summaries on internet and it seems to be the exact same method: reading the Bible (Genesis in this case) and then allegorically interpreting the words to explain theological propositions. Thanks, but no thanks.

So what to think of Confessions? As a historical document it is interesting. Even though Augustine's goal is to describe his life, one learns a lot about the contemporary world he lived in. The importance of stage plays in peoples lives; the workings of the Roman state; the means of travel; the relationships between different classes and sexes; etc. In this regard, Confessions has satisfied me. But the story itself I find rather pitiful and empty. We witness a person grovelling before some sky-daddy, and resenting himself because of his desires. It cannot really become more pitiful than this. Yet I do recognize some strange quirks in Augustine - a fact that rather makes me uncomfortable. Especially his need for intellectual closure and the high importance he places on the mind, as opposed to the body (meant in a metaphorical way - there's such a thing as dualism); at the same time feeling intense bodily desires for all things material; and the cognitive dissonance (i.e. stress) that results from this inner struggle. All this sounds too familiar for my taste - but then again, don't most humans feel this way?

Anyway, I did like the book but I didn't find it really that interesting. At least it's much shorter, and easier to digest, than his 'magnum opus' City of God.

It keeps getting better

Reading the Confessions I feel like I am encountering Augustine face to face, his voice has such passion and immediacy.

“Why then should I be concerned for human readers to hear my confessions? It is not they who are going to ‘heal my sicknesses’. The human race is inquisitive about other people’s lives, but negligent to correct their own.”

I was very excited to read this book; Confessions by St Augustine. Having been an inspiration to so many including John Calvin, Martin Luther and so many others. It is a memoir like few others. One of the first of its kind. In that fact alone my curiosity was peaked. To read of a life from so long ago pulled me. It is so much more than that. It is indeed a confession. I laying out of all his early life filled with doubt and various ideas of the age he grew up in. It is also a great study of philosophy and theology. The result of this work laid out much of the thought of the reformation leading to the protestant faith.

It is broken in to thirteen books. Starting with a pouring out of his self and leading us through his earliest memories growing up in North Africa in the 300’s. His relationship with his parents and particularly to his mother’s faith as an early Christian is a big part of his growth. His sins and reflective disgust with his youthful dalliances are not white washed. Including his wanting of woman’s company in his bed.

“How stupid man is to be unable to restrain feelings in suffering the human lot! That was my state at that time. So I boiled with anger, sighed, wept, and was at my wits’ end. I found no calmness, no capacity for deliberation. I carried my lacerated and bloody soul when it was unwilling to be carried by me. I found no place where I could put it down. There was no rest in pleasant groves, nor in games or songs, nor in sweet-scented places, nor in exquisite feasts, nor in the pleasures of the bedroom and bed, nor, finally, in books and poetry.”

The first half of the book is more or less a memory of his early life into his late 20’s and early 30’s. His relationships with woman and birth of his son out of wedlock, his friends, mentors, and his mother Monica leading to his conversion. The second part of the book get more into philosophical discussions.

His discussion on time is both interesting and honestly confusing to me. I found many of his discussions long and winding roads that lead us to his understanding of time. It was at times difficult to follow yet fascinating.

His argument for the existence of God who is good and how evil can exist simultaneously is here and all of it is written beautifully. The entire novel is readable and enjoyable regardless if you are a believer or not. There is much here to mine. It is a novel that could be read several times and probably should be to fully grasp all that is in it.

I have no doubt most would read and be startled to know how relatable it is to our own individual doubts on the existence of God. The fact that this Saint could have many of the same doubts in his life as me gave me pause. As he lays out many streams of thought I caught myself wondering why I had not thought of that myself. And then there were times I read his thoughts and was lost and found myself rereading parts to try to grasp it all.

The entire confession is eye opening and revealing that we are all human. The titles of Bishop and Saint matter not. We all struggle with the same issues.

“Give me chastity and continence, but not just yet”

I gave it 4 stars only because I enjoyed the first part far more than the second. I struggled with many of the concepts but the writing was beautiful. However I think many would read the second half or the last three of four books and enjoy these pieces more than I.
There is much in here to enjoy and think about.

I tried this book once before in the Great Books series and found it extremely difficult. I wondered, if one was going to bother to translate it from Augustine's Latin, why leave it so difficult to read? Whether from a few years maturity or the clarity of Henry Chadwick's translation, I really enjoyed Confessions this time. The warmth of the author's passion and remorse really came across as though he were not dressing it up for a scholarly presentation to impress people. For a deep thinking Latin father, he is actually a master of the sound bite as demonstrated by some of the quotes I picked up. Yes, at times he seems to wander onto a trail that only he is following or at least is passionate about, as when he spent an entire book talking about the passage of time. But most of the time, the things Augustine grapples with our things that we have grappled with for many centuries since. With so many good books to read, I seldom think about rereading one regularly, but this is one that could merit that consideration.

Not my favorite, but I can appreciate it!