The confessions of Saint Augustine (1910) PDF, edited by Scott Temple

The confessions of Saint Augustine

Excerpt from the book's introduction:

The translation of the 'Ten Books of ' The Confessions' of St. Augustine here reprinted is that made by the Rev. Dr. E. B. Pusey, in 1838. At that time Pusey had given his strenuous adhesion to the great Oxford movement, and to the School of that movement, he rendered yeoman service by his scheme for translating the more important writings of the Fathers. 

It was Pusey who planned ' The Oxford Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Anterior to the Division of East and West,' and the fast volume of this library was his own translation of St. Augustine's ' Confessions.' The present reprint does not include the erudite preface which Pusey wrote for the original edition. That preface dealt mainly with the value and necessity of the study of patristic literature, a subject that does not come within the scope of this series.

Confessions is generally considered one of Augustine's most important texts. It is widely seen as the first Western Christian autobiography ever written.

Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa.

Excerpt from Wikipedia 

The work is not a complete autobiography, as it was written during Saint Augustine's early 40s and he lived long afterward, producing another important work, The City of God. Nonetheless, it does provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. 

It is a significant theological work, featuring spiritual meditations and insights. In the work, Augustine writes about how he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about his friend Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil and Saint Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity.

 The first nine books are autobiographical and the last four are commentary and significantly more philosophical. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins and writes on the importance of sexual morality. 

The books were written as prayers to God, thus the title, based on the Psalms of David; and it begins with "For Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." The work is thought to be divisible into books that symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief.

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