Confessions Essay -- essays research papers

Augustine titled his deeply philosophical and theological autobiography Confessions to implicate two aspects of the form the work would take. To confess, in Augustines time, meant some(prenominal) to give an account of unitys faults to God and to praise God (to speak ones get by for God). These two aims come together in the Confessions in an elegant only if complex sense Augustine narrates his ascent from sinfulness to faithfulness not simply for the practical edification of his readers, but also because he believes that narrative to be itself a story of Gods greatness and of the fundamental love all things maintain for Him. Thus, in the Confessions form equals content to a large degree&151the inseparable form for Augustines story of redemption to take would be a fill address to God, since it is God who must be thanked for such redemption. (That said, a straightaway address to God was a highly original form for Augustine to withdraw used at the time). This idea should also help us transform the app arently lopsided and unusual structure of the text. The first nine Books of the Confessions are devoted to the story of Augustines life up to his mothers death, but the last quaternity Books make a sudden, lengthy departure into pure theology and philosophy. This turn on should be understood in the same context as the divalent meaning of confessions&151for Augustine, the story of his sinful life and redemption is in concomitant a profoundly philosophical and religious matter, since his story is only one exampl...