My Musings On The Confessions, Book One

 

I just finished Book One of St. Augustine’s “Confessions” and while it is still fresh in my mind, I will try to lay out my thoughts concerning the content. Please bear with me, as it is in the wee hours of the morning and I am somewhat scatter-brained.

I was fortunate enough to find a free audiobook version which I can listen to on my phone/mp3 player, provided by LibriVox. (If you are interested in reading “The Confessions” yourself, I highly recommend downloading it.The reader has a delightful British accent and I found listening to be much easier than sitting in front of the text. Click here for the free audio.)

One thing that struck me was how many of St. Augustine’s  early questions and self-debates about the sin nature of man seem almost childlike, yet are posed by a sharp and philosophizing intellect. He attempts to reconstruct his infancy and boyhood, grasping painstakingly at any and all clues to possible motives of juvenile sin, while both berating and excusing himself, alternatively.

This introspective monologue is broken up by his dumbstruck adoration for the role of Divine destiny in the minutiae of daily existence and punctuated with various exclamations at the wonderful attributes of God. There were several profound phrases throughout, although, the one in the image above is my favorite by far.

I was further surprised to find humor hidden in the text! From time to time, tiny bits of tongue-in-cheek are sprinkled in, subtly bleeding through the translation.

So far, I am quite glad that I put this title on my list and I fully look forward to continuing onward with my listening/reading. I will update you again soon!

Please do feel free to share your own experiences with “The Confessions” in the comment section of this post.

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