Augustine's Confessions : a biography

177 Pages·2011·0.96 MB·English

by  Wills

Lives of Great Religious Books
Augustine’s Confessions
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Augustine’s Confessions, Garry Wills
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Augustine’s Confessions
A Biography
Garry Wills
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2011 by Garry Wills
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be
sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire ox20 1tw
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Jacket illustration: Vision of Saint Augustine, by Vittore Carpaccio
(1455–1525). Photo: Mauro Magliani, 1998; courtesy of Alinari / Art
Resource, NY
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wills, Garry, 1934–
Augustine’s Confessions : a biography / Garry Wills.
p. cm. — (Lives of great religious books)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-14357-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. Confessiones. 2. Christian
saints—Algeria—Hippo (Extinct city)—Biography—History and
criticism. I. Title.
BR65.A62W55 2011
270.2092—dc22 2010016452
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
Th is book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
A Note on the Translation vii
Chapter 1 Th e Book’s Birth 1
Chapter 2 Th e Book’s Genre 17
Chapter 3 Th e Book’s African Days 26
Chapter 4 Th e Book’s Ambrose 41
Chapter 5 Th e Book’s “Conversion” 58
Chapter 6 Th e Book’s Baptismal Days 78
Chapter 7 Th e Book’s Hinge 98
Chapter 8 Th e Book’s Culmination 112
Chapter 9 Th e Book’s Aft erlife: Early
Reception, Later Neglect 133
Notes 149
Basic Readings 155
Index 157
v
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a note on the translations
All translations are by the author. Th ose from the
Bible are given according to Augustine’s Latin cita-
tions of it.
References to O’Donnell are to volume and page
of James J. O’Donnell, Augustine “Confessions,”
3 vols. (Oxford University Press, 1992).
vii
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Lives of Great Religious Books
Augustine’s Confessions