| The Confessions of Saint Augustine (Image Book) |  | Author: St. Augustine
Creator: John K. Ryan
Publisher: Image
Category: Book
List Price: $10.95
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Seller: econgo
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 72,704
Media: Paperback
Edition: Image Books ed
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0385029551
Dewey Decimal Number: 242
EAN: 9780385029551
ASIN: 0385029551
Publication Date: August 23, 1960
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Outline Augustine's Confessions is arguably the first, and unequivocally the most influential, religious autobiography in the Christian tradition. Augustine (who was a hard-core hedonist before his s
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
 a fabulous prayer March 12, 2000
George Schaefer (Croydon, PA USA)
99 out of 122 found this review helpful
I will begin by stating that I am an estranged ex-catholic. But as a philosopher and writer, I always wanted to read The Confessions of St. Augustine. The famed quote of Give me chastity and continence but not yet is one that I have often used out of context with a wicked smile. It was great to read these lines within the intended framework of Augustines writing. This is a beautiful book. Augustines gradual turn toward God is glorious. This book beautifully illustrates the human ability for transformation and transcendence. Along with Meister Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas it gives one a good grasp of the early Christian and Catholic theory. As a cynic I must question what went wrong but my sarcasm should not detract from the sheer beauty and power of St Augustine. It brought me closer to God if not back to my original faith. Like the Bible itself, this is a book that many Christians in general and Catholics in specific really ought to read.
The best book (other than the Bible) that I have read so far July 30, 2005
Jesse Rouse (Kenosha, WI)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Let me just begin by saying that this book is brilliant. Augustine is one of the greatest thinkers that the world has ever known, and it shines through in this book. In this book, Augustine manages to cover an amazing number of topics, and does so in a beautiful way, filled with prayers to God.
I am not sure what the reviewer from June 10, 2005 is talking about. I think that they were reviewing the wrong book. This book is 400 some pages, not 90, and it is the complete version, not an introduction or abridgement.
Normally when I read books I underline quotes or passages that I think are especially good, or that I think I will be able to use in papers in the future. I then write the page numbers of the pages that have underlining on the back page. In this book, however, I ended up writing the pages numbers of pages I DIDN'T underline in on the back, since I underlined something on nearly every page. This book is absolutely filled with wisdom and knowledge of God and how He and the world He created works. This book inspired me to find a copy of The City of God, which I am now just beginning. If it is one-tenth as good as the Confessions, it will be well worth the money.
Biography and philosophy August 17, 2000
Patrick Koucheravy (Fairfax, VA United States)
23 out of 30 found this review helpful
I was asked to read this book as a freshmen in college and I loved it. It is not an easy read, but once you read over a part once more, Augustine's logic makes perfect sense. If you've read any other Augustine, such as "Freedom of the will", this book fits right in there and explains it perfectly. In fact, this book explains most of Augustine's tenants perfectly. If anyone wants to know why Christianity took such a harsh stand against sexual sins...it's Augustine lashing out at his past. He was really tormented. Worship God or worship sex. He chose God and I'm sure he thought about going back. Augustine also developed the full Christian idea of free will, which is manifested in this book as well. Augustine is an incredible figure and a role model for modern Christians. His trials are not much different from ours, seeing as we live in a society so obsessed with sex. Augustine's Confessions is one of my favorite books. A must-read for any theologian and philosopher.
Confessions of Saint Augustine (Image Book) October 5, 2005
Lori Duhl
17 out of 22 found this review helpful
In The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Augustine concentrates on his powerful and zealous ongoing spiritual questions. His dairy- type book tells of the history of one man's struggle to obtain and maintain a close spiritual walk with God. John K. Ryan translated the book in an attempt to make Augustine's work more reader friendly.
John K. Ryan's translation of "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is a very easy book to read. His 22-page introduction and notes with Bible scriptures at the back of the book help the reader understand and tie together St. Augustine's work. The scriptures that Ryan provided the reader appeared to come from the King James Bible. With this in mind, I examined the possibility that Ryan was Protestant and not Catholic in his own spiritual ideology. I than questioned if that had tainted his translation. Therefore, I read parts of other translations of the Confession found on the Internet and discovered them all to be like-minded. I concluded that Ryan's translation didn't show any bias, but tried to relay to the reader that Saint Augustine's true desire was to understand God's "Will". Therefore, Augustine was portrayed as a sinner turned saint. The book was organized in a chronological manner, taking the reader from the beginning of Augustine's spiritual journey to being known as a saint and a church father. Ryan's approach to translating "The Confession of Saint Augustine" was a social history because his translations were geared toward the aspects of civil society that show the evolution of social norms, behaviors, and more.
"The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is a valuable read because it offers a first hand look at how Augustine struggled to understand God's divine power and aspiration for his life, and to be of assistance to others in the future. He raised questions that men and women since time began have questioned during their sacred walk with the Supreme Being known as God. His personal thirst for righteousness consumed his life, and he is known as one of the great Christian thinkers.
The Confession was not what I thought it would be. I truly thought it would be a book full of confessions from a saint that was "suppose" to be a prefect person that had fallen by the spiritual wayside. Instead, the Confession was like an autobiographical journal, which did included doctrine, scriptures, studies, praise, memories, and confessions. I was impressed by his ability to swing from scriptures to his own thoughts, but had you not read the scriptures prior to reading the book you may not have realized the source of this information.
Augustine was a wonderful philosopher/thinker and his writings have been the subject of many discussions throughout history since it was written in 397 A.D. However, the Confession was written in a prayer-like manner addressing various issues making it difficult to focus on the subject for long periods of time.
Some of the things Augustine questioned to the "simple-minded" or should I say "non-philosopher type" is somewhat of a given. For example: in The Infant Augustine, he wrote, "I myself do not remember this. Therefore, the comfort of human milk nourished me, but neither my mother nor my nurse filled their own breast. Rather, through them you gave me as an infant's food in accordance with your law and out of the riches that you have distributed even down to the lowest level of thing." (7) Why did he question such things? Female animals of all types feed their young from the breast. This is natural. He apparently was so far above me as a thinker that where he was going with this is beyond my comprehension, unless, he was just saying, "Thank you Lord for supplying my needs even as a child, when I knew you not." He almost said these same words in the next few sentences but to go back so far and question every aspect is as I said before, beyond my comprehension.
As you can tell I have never read a book of this nature before unless you count the King James Bible, but I did try to keep an open mind. I was surprised that he didn't appear to be a happy Christian in all his efforts to be "Christ like". This disappointed me. However, there were times while reading the book I could relate to Augustine and many of his questions. This book reminded me that no matter what God a person chooses to serve, as human beings we want to become the best we can be spiritually.
During my reading I realized that Augustine through his quest for righteousness must have gone through many of the same stages that persons in earlier cultures and time periods have. For example: he questioned what pleased God, how should he praise and show his thankfulness to God, and in what way did he want to serve God. Throughout world history these same questions have been asked at one time or another.
Ryan did a wonderful job of translating the Confession. Augustine's book written like a diary made the confessions more personal. He was one of the greatest thinkers and Christian fathers of his era. His spiritual struggles were genuine; his desire for righteousness was obvious in his writing. I sit in awe at his wisdom and his pursuit of knowledge. This book was a good read and I will study it again someday. It gave me insight to what other cultures throughout history underwent to comprehend and to determine what path of Christianity they would embrace.
 horrible May 23, 2007
Eppy (middle earth)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Bernard Mayes mutilates the reading of this wonderful book. He sounds like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. His reading is just horrible. Some word pronouncements are barely audible, the sounding of the letter s, makes it sound like he has some teeth missing. I am continually having to adjust my sound dial as he is up and down with the sound of his voice. I have no idea why blacstone audio went with this guy.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
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