"The Confessions of St. Augustine"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the life of St. Augustine and particularly focuses on his autobiography entitled "The Confessions of St. Augustine". The paper begins by describing Augustine's life before his conversion to Christianity and his journey to God. The paper then describes St. Augustine's book as a spiritual autobiography and a series of meditations upon how the author believes he came to be led to the path of God.

From the Paper:

"Augustine also attempts to rationalize his devotion to the Manicheans, a competing sect, by explaining that now he knows what real love for God feels like, he sees what seemed real to be transient: "the fantasies of the Manicheans were not in any way like thee as thou hast spoken to me now. They were simply fantastic and false. In comparison to them the actual bodies which we see with our fleshly sight, both celestial and terrestrial, are far more certain." (III.VI.10) Without God's help, however, Augustine even sees all of his later success in law as meaningless, and as unguided. Even good aspects of the world before his conversion, like God's creation of human beings, were filtered through his desire for either approval or sex, rather than an appreciation of God."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Augustine. The Confessions. Newly translated and edited by Albert C. Outler. Document from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College. Last updated on May 27, 1999. [17 Jun 2006] http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/confessions-bod.html
• Outler, Albert C. "Introduction." Document from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College. Last updated on May 27, 1999. [17 Jun 2006] http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/confessions-bod.html

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