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What are readers saying about The Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)?
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-22 05:44:07.
(Language: English)
 
Augustine's influence is huge; one does not have to agree with him to see that, for better or worse, he massively changed Western civilization. His life story is strangely compelling--his struggles are/were my struggles, basically, and some of the stuff about friends and his mom and the sinful violence of (gasp!) the circus was really interesting-- though I find his views on, say, stealing pears or the sins of babies to be pretty extreme. I can safely say that, given how he feels about sin, I would not like to be a saint in my lifetime. And Books XII and XIII? I was about ready to shoot myself!they're so long and tedious. I mean, it's interesting that there are like 28 interpretations of how God created the heavens and the earth, but a long discussion on whether matter actually existed before God artificed it (or whatever) is really dry stuff. Soooo...I'd say that the book has a special place in books I've read, but that I probably think more highly of it than I should. It's OK if you hate Augustine, I think.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-24 11:51:18.
(Language: English)
Started out with a thoughtful meditation on the nature of God in relation to his infancy. I persevered over the first 128 pages then gave up. Random nuggets of wisdom are scattered around but theres only so much you can write about your examination of your soul - it gets tiring after a while. The woodcuts of the Folio Society version make it worth the price though.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-31 06:57:09.
(Language: English)
A wonderful book for the young and old Christian. I find when reading Confessions that I am not reading an account of another man's journey to God but of my own as well. Just finished rereading this for the third time and every time Augustine manages to add new sweetness to the grace of God. Augustine goes so deep into the heart of man that reading of his journey is like reading of my own.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-03 05:23:20.
(Language: English)
I enjoyed it for the insight into life hundreds of years ago (gladiator fights!), and some clear observations on human nature. But I'm not sure I gained anything except the ability to say "Well, Augustine thinks this (look how clever and learned I am everybody)...". A more modern translation than the one I own might have helped.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-20 11:10:26.
(Language: English)
The reviews of this book are some of the best on I read, I echo them, and I would like to talk about humility. I get the impression when I read a lot material by religious leaders that they realize they are saints. They don't come out an say it but from their tone and expression they produce an air of arrogance. I realize that they want to appear authoratative, and that this is what St. Paul did, but for me it's a turn-off. Augstine, wrote as though he had no idea he would ever be a saint. He describes struggles with sexual immorality at legnth, and makes it a central point in his Christian journey. He mentions that he is a sinner in a manner similar to tax collector in Luke 18. This perspective gives the unfamiliar reader a refreshing sense of honesty.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-27 10:33:42.
(Language: English)
One of the pinnacle books of western thought. It is a must read for anyone interested in theology or philosophy.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-20 02:05:07.
(Language: English)
"Confessions" by St. Augustine is a powerful book. The honest account of his spiritual journey, conversion, and reflections upon them are as potent today as when it was written. There is a vulnerability to his writing that is refreshing and comforting in seeing the great gift of grace. A pillar of the Church showing his dark past, his scars, and the redemption available to all of us contrasts with so much of what we see in the modern church that tries to hide its failings. This book should be read by every Christian. It can speak to our hearts even across the span of ages.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-10 05:39:32.
(Language: English)
Augustine is one of history's greatest geniuses. Although the setting is ancient Rome, this book often reads like to was written in the past century. You will find it easy to indetify with Augustine and his many struggles. This book will forever be a classic because it will forever be relevent.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-20 10:39:27.
(Language: English)
Good read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-27 08:19:02.
(Language: English)
This is one read I have come back to like clockwork since the day I first read it. Augustine writes of his journey of faith from infancy to adulthood, describing the numerous ways in which he rebelled and subsequently came to rely upon God's grace. "Those who seek the Lord will praise Him, for those who seek shall find Him, and those who find will praise Him." His rhetoric seamlessly blends biblical verses and quotations with his own experience and thoughts on ideas of grace, sin, memory, and many more.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-31 01:48:06.
(Language: English)
The Confessions details Augustine's journey from birth to the Christian faith and finishes with a purely theological section. The details of his intellectual struggle to understand God and the nature of being are intrinsically linked to the story of his life. Until the final chapters, autobiography and doctrine go hand in hand and much of his praise of God comes from his increased awareness of theological truth - this combination offers a much needed lesson for our contemporary, atheological, experience-driven Christian culture. For anyone, Christian or otherwise, seriously interested in the Middle Ages it is practically a must read and those with a literary bent will enjoy a look at the first significant autobiography ever written in the west.If you open this book you are signing up for a difficult, but quite worthwhile read. There were certainly sections I had to go back over four or five times to make sure I understood them properly. The ending section, his allegorical exposition of Genesis, is particularly thick.I highly recommend this version of the book, by Henry Chadwick. Its historical annotations are quite useful at clarifying parts of the text and teaching a little bit of early Christian history along the way.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-11 02:38:43.
(Language: English)
The last sentence of Conf. 1.1.1, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you,' announces the major theme of Augustine's work. If read with this theme in mind, one will have an easier time detecting the unity of the content of 'The Confessions'. As when Augustine compares himself and his friends to a bum in Bk VII, believing a homeless man to possess less cares and anxieties than he himself, and when Augustine weeps copiously in the garden in Milan, in Bk. VIII, one can perceive the restlessness within the heart of this sensitive and intelligent young man. His search for God is marked by this anxiety, beginning with his having read Cicero's 'Hortensius' at the age of nineteen. And it is only through God that Augustine finally musters the will to Christian conversion, showing to his readers that God is both the means and the end of his conversion.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-24 02:22:18.
(Language: English)
I thought that Augustine would be impenetrable and oblique. He is the opposite. Confessions is the story of his conversion to Catholicism, after a crazy, rowdy youth. He asks the same questions we all ask about faith, the existence of God, the meaning of suffering, the competing wills within us (what we want to do to satisfy ourselves vs. what we should do to be a better person). The best books on Christianity, to me, are written by converts: Scott Hahn, CS Lewis, Chesterton, and Augustine. Why? Because they came around to the church not because they were afraid and wanted something to make them feel better about their mortality, but because they analyzed religion, they picked it apart, they made logical sense of it-- with skepticism. This, in combination with sending a big "I don't know what's out there and I'm too stupid to get it myself" is the first step to getting buckets of grace poured down onto your mind and heart-- to understanding things that our feeble minds can't grasp.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-01 10:07:10.
(Language: English)
I am captivated by Augustine's profound thought and child-like faith. His reflections on the nature of good, evil, sin, God, the Word, their existence in relation to time, and various other topics are clearly seen to survived in Church teaching today. What makes this book truly beautiful would probably be his sincerity, vulnerability, and his passionate love for God. The moments where Augustine breaks from his train of thought to write praises to God remind the reader that it is not enough to know God; you must serve Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-01 03:02:23.
(Language: English)
what a whiny man
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-09 04:35:29.
(Language: English)
Augustine's Confessions truly shows a man who has been sanctify by God's Holy Spirit. On every page you can tell that God has done something in his life, Augustine is truly in love with God. A beautiful look at God's creation from a philosophical and theological point of view.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-25 08:42:19.
(Language: English)
As a non-believer, some of the more entertaining bits were Augustine pining that he wishes he'd been made a eunuch as a boy, and describing at length the sensual dreams that aroused and tormented after he gave up his lecherous ways and escaped the lesser torment of marriage.Interesting historically as a document of how Platonism was explicitly wedded with Christianity, but some of the theology is a bit strained, i.e., his exposition of Genesis chapter one in which he attempts to explain how God created everything outside of time and without any effort, and yet this took six days and he rested on the seventh. His attempts to solve the problem of evil also do more to confuse the issue than to clarify it, but that is to be expected.But it is definitely far better in terms of both literary style and quality of thought than the efforts of today's believers, and it is worth reading for anyone interested in intellectual or religious history.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-05 09:49:37.
(Language: English)
Some parts are fascinating, some I didn't get (the older-English version I read didn't help), and some was a bit ponderous. But it's a classic and, often, amazingly relevant.
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Aaron posted a review at 2008-03-11 11:01:22.
(Language: English)
This book is very dear to me. I read "Confessions" in a very difficult personal time and quickly became overwhelmed by Augustines sincerity, intellect, and love for The Immutable Light. Augustine presents us with a very interesting time period in as where Christianity and Roman Paganism lie in juxtaposition. Besides Augustine's personal confessions, I enjoyed his examination of Genesis and his hefty discourse on time, or perhaps I should say the lack of the past and future. Rather than prattle on in the present, which has become past, I will urge you, reader, to introduce yourself to an author you most assuredly will hold very close to your heart.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-23 12:24:23.
(Language: English)
fell asleep multiple times trying to read it during spiritual formation. that says all u need to know. I find Augustine to be a very drab writer. There are sections which are completely uncomphrehensible to the beginning theology. Of course, there are certain parts with depth that probably Augustine could understand alone. We tend to disagree on almost everything regarding theology. the book is more a documentation of his OWN life story and his journey into faith. It is true that after our own journeys into faith we tend to forget how we got there and how we rationalized it. he's got his psychology down pretty well. I have no intention of reading it again.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-12 12:16:30.
(Language: English)
Have only read books 1-4 and 11 thus far...the first four are worth trudging through for the later conclusions!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-29 02:24:03.
(Language: English)
as a sinner, it gives me hope...
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-07 08:42:36.
(Language: English)
This book was highly recommended, but I must give it 3 stars. I think in places his writing is incoherent, in other spots it is beautiful and poetic. I think he could have used a good editor. Overall of course a very honest book about common struggles many Christians face.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-31 01:25:25.
(Language: English)
A Total headache, It was trauma to know a person of his rank uses logics in faith and his views are sad, he is understanding God through his shitty head...i have abused this book at many places...infact as of now this is one of my most abused book.. this man is not on the right track...the references made to the scriptures are commendable...i rather read the BIBLE...he is a confuse soul and any one on dicy grounds of faith might withdraw his belief in the newly found truth...please read the the book of Proverbs or The New Testament but not this mad man's stupidity.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-23 09:02:55.
(Language: English)
This is not the sort of book you read. This is the sort of book you reread. Augustine is one of the most formative thinkers in the history of Christian theology, and his work is dense and intellectually demanding. The Confessions is one of the most influential texts in the history of Western culture, but the ideas herein have been denounced almost as much as they have been quoted with approval. One of the criticisms most often repeated by modern readers is that Augustine’s abstract philosophizing in the last section is unreadable, or worse, irrelevant to his conversion story. I would suggest, however, that this last section really is relevant, and that meditations on time and creation are, in fact, absolutely central to the themes of the book as a whole. I suspect that his attempts to deal with the relationships between time and memory are his way of explaining his autobiographical project, and his exegesis of the biblical creation story is one more affirmation of the goodness of creation (against the Manichees), and it is also part of his attempt to place himself and the Church in God’s providential plan of world history. No, this book is not an easy read. But as Augustine once pointed out in his De Doctrina, a reader is more appreciative of that which he or she understands with great effort than of that which he or she learns effortlessly. (By the way, this particular translation is pretty readable, compared to a lot of older ones.)
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