Confessions
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~110,000 words · 516 passages
Cite this work
- APAAugustine. (n.d.). Confessions. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/the-confessions-of-st-augustine
- MLAAugustine. "Confessions." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/the-confessions-of-st-augustine.
- ChicagoAugustine. Confessions. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/the-confessions-of-st-augustine.
What it is about
Augustine's account of his own life, told to God: his youth in Carthage, the years of doubt, the conversion in a Milan garden, and the questions of what time is and what memory is.
Context and history
Written around 397-400, when Augustine was already bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa. It is the first great introspective book of Western literature: no one before had examined their own inner life at this depth, or written it down addressing God directly. The conversion it recounts — the summer of 386, a child's voice singing 'take up and read' — is among the most influential scenes ever written, and the whole genre of modern autobiography owes it its existence.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud: yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth Thee not, may call on Thee as other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call on Thee that we may know Thee? but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher? and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him: for they that seek shall find Him, and they that find shall praise Him. I will seek Thee, Lord, by calling on Thee; and will call on Thee, believing in Thee; for to us hast Thou been preached. My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher. And how shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord, since, when I call for Him, I shall be calling Him to myself? and what room is there within me, whither my God can come into me? whither can God come into me, God who made heaven and earth? is there, indeed, O Lord my God, aught in me that can contain Thee? do then heaven and earth, which Thou hast made, and wherein Thou hast made me, contain Thee? or, because nothing which exists could exist without Thee, doth therefore whatever exists contain Thee? Since, then, I too exist, why do I seek that Tho