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by: Saint Augustine
Amazon.com's Price: $7.95 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9780192833723
ISBN: 0192833723
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: June 25, 1998
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Sales Rank: 1010
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Product Description:
In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood.
Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context.
The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Augie and his MONSTER SIZE mommie complex
All you one and 2 star commentators will like what I have to say on this alleged *saint*.
Look its one thing to havea mother complex, most men do, a few succumb til death, Augie was one of these who never got over his complex.
Monica, his mother was the typical type that drowns the son , a power monger.
She was the one who advised her son to dump his *wife* of 17 years (was a forced marriage as the girl was a concubine he got pregnant when he 17 yrs old!!!) Augie was 34 and ... Read More
Rating:  - An amazing look at the life of a spiritual giant
This book is a very powerful, memorable spiritual autobiography and Augustine tells his story like none other. He is transparent and honest at every turn, holding nothing back. He tells of his faith struggles, his sins and his temptations very candidly. The story of his conversion is truly beautiful and will stay with you. He has written in such a way that you truly see the hand of God at work in his life. A phenomenal read that will stay with you. Highly recommended.
Rating: - Wonderful
Augustine is one of these characthers from antiquity who illustrates that humanity is always an everywhere the same - we share the same form, namely the soul and we thirst always and everywhere for the same thing, namely the infinite, which is God. Augustine is poetic in his treatment of God, he addresses him as a bride to her husband. Let him speak for himself:
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it ... Read More
Rating: - Augustine is great!
Saint Augustine is spiritual, philosophical and always profound.
Warning: Likely to blow your mind.
Rating: - Confession as prayer
Augustine's confessions are confessions to God, and thus, prayer. Augustine bares his soul--his doubt, fear, guilt, as well as his joy, peace, and love. All this is addressed to God as prayer. Like the Psalms, these prayers are shockingly intimate--you can't read these properly from a comfortable distance.
I am grateful to Augustine for sharing his personal relationship with God in a way that leads me closer, too.
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