Augustine's Confessions : a biography

by Garry Wills

Hardcover, 2011

Publication

Imprint: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2011. Series: Lives of Great Religious Books. OCLC Number: 608687795. Physical 1 volume : vi, 166 pages ; 20 cm. Features: Includes bibliography, index.

Call number

History / Wills

Barcode

BK-07658

ISBN

9780691143576

Original publication date

2011

CSS Library Notes

Named Work: Confessions of Augustine.
Named Person: St. Augustine of Hippo.

Description: " ... Tells the story of the Confessions--what motivated Augustine to dictate it, how it asks to be read, and the many ways it has been misread in the one-and-a-half millennia since it was composed. Following Wills's biography of Augustine and his translation of the Confessions, this is an unparalleled introduction to one of the most important books in the Christian and Western traditions. Understandably fascinated by the story of Augustine's life, modern readers have largely succumbed to the temptation to read the Confessions as autobiography. But, Wills argues, this is a mistake. The book is not autobiography but rather a long prayer, suffused with the language of Scripture and addressed to God, not man. Augustine tells the story of his life not for its own significance but in order to discern how, as a drama of sin and salvation leading to God, it fits into sacred history. "We have to read Augustine as we do Dante," Wills writes, "alert to rich layer upon layer of Scriptural and theological symbolism." Wills also addresses the long afterlife of the book, from controversy in its own time and relative neglect during the Middle Ages to a renewed prominence beginning in the fourteenth century and persisting to today, when the Confessions has become an object of interest not just for Christians but also historians, philosophers, psychiatrists, and literary critics"--Jacket.

Table of Contents: The book's birth --
The book's genre --
The book's African days --
The book's Ambrose --
The book's "conversion" --
The book's baptismal days --
The book's hinge --
The book's culmination --
The book's afterlife : early reception, later neglect.

FY2017 /

Physical description

vi, 166 p.; 20 cm

Description

In this brief and incisive book, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills tells the story of the Confessions--what motivated Augustine to dictate it, how it asks to be read, and the many ways it has been misread in the one-and-a-half millennia since it was composed. Following Wills's biography of Augustine and his translation of the Confessions, this is an unparalleled introduction to one of the most important books in the Christian and Western traditions. Understandably fascinated by the story of Augustine's life, modern readers have largely succumbed to the temptation to read the Confessions as autobiography. But, Wills argues, this is a mistake. The book is not autobiography but rather a long prayer, suffused with the language of Scripture and addressed to God, not man. Augustine tells the story of his life not for its own significance but in order to discern how, as a drama of sin and salvation leading to God, it fits into sacred history. "We have to read Augustine as we do Dante," Wills writes, "alert to rich layer upon layer of Scriptural and theological symbolism." Wills also addresses the long afterlife of the book, from controversy in its own time and relative neglect during the Middle Ages to a renewed prominence beginning in the fourteenth century and persisting to today, when the Confessions has become an object of interest not just for Christians but also historians, philosophers, psychiatrists, and literary critics. With unmatched clarity and skill, Wills strips away the centuries of misunderstanding that have accumulated around Augustine's spiritual classic.… (more)

Language

Original language

English

User reviews

LibraryThing member JBD1
Another volume in this series that doesn't have nearly as much of a biography of the book as I would have expected - it's far more about Augustine and his thinking rather than the context of the book and its publication history.

Rating

(7 ratings; 4.1)
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