Augustine's Confessions is one of the most influential and most innovative works of Latin literature. Written
in the author's early forties in the last years of the fourth century A.D. and during his first years as a bishop,
they reflect on his life and on the activity of remembering and interpreting a life. Books I-IV are concerned with
infancy and learning to talk, schooldays, sexual desire and adolescent rebellion, intense friendships and intellectual
exploration. Augustine evolves and analyses his past with all the resources of the reading which shaped his mind:
Virgil and Cicero, Neoplatonism and the Bible. This volume, which aims to be usable by students who are new to
Augustine, alerts readers to the verbal echoes and allusions of Augustine's brilliant and varied Latin, and explains
his theological and philosophical questioning of what God is and what it is to be human. The edition is intended
for use by students and scholars of Latin literature, theology and Church history.
The greatest spiritual autobiography of all time, this classic work is a literary and theological masterpiece.
John K. Ryan's masterful translation brings out the luster of Augustine's unmatched tale of his soul's journey
to God.