Book Review: Saint Augustine's Confessions

Henry Chadwick's translation of Saint Augustine's Confessions is, considering the difficulty of the content, a very readable work. Students should be grateful that this scholar of church history made the effort to make another translation of this historical and much loved work.

Chadwick included a one-page biography of Augustine and a chart with dates so that students can keep the writing in the appropriate historical context of the events of Augustine's life and the time in which he lived. The text includes footnotes explaining the more obscure doctrines of heretics to which Augustine refers, references to other classic works with similar themes that may hve influence Augustine, and other helpful information. The index makes it easy to jump quickly to points of interest. This translation also includes the section and paragraph numbers so popular in Catholic Church publications so that references can easily be made to particular sections.

Chadwick's 26-page introduction starts with a description of the Confessions that I can imagine being delivered to a class and then he begins a summary of the work itself. The summary seems like an excellent reading assignment for students who want to know something about the Confessions but lack the time or interest to read the entire work.

The Confessions was not entirely what I thought it would be. I expected, well, confessions, one after the other. Instead Augustine's Confessions includes doctrine, scriptural studies, praise, arguments against heresies, prayer, memories, and yes, confessions. Chadwick, in his introduction, says that "the contemporary reader may find much of it so 'modern'." I read some contemporary reviews of the Confessions on the internet before starting this work and found that my contemporaries read Augustine's work and respond with, "That's all!" It seems that today's readers do not find the Confessions modern or even intersting unless they are interested in the elements of doctrine, scriptural analysis and church history that the work presents.

I myself confess that after only a few pages, I looked up and announced, "This is stupid!" Augustine begins with confessions of the selfishness of an infant writing as if he actually remembered being an infant. That being hard to believe made Augustine appear absurd to me. But since I had to read this work for an assignment, I continued and came to the end of that section. There Augustine explains that he does not remember being an infant, but wrote those words based on what he had been told about himself and what he had observed in other children. I had to take back my announcement that the Confessions was stupid and found no other cause for criticism during my reading.