Book Review: Confessions Of Saint Augustine

We were able to take advantage of the chance for free books a while back. One of them was The Confessions of Saint Augustine. I started reading it in September, and wasted no time in underlining the crap out of it. A couple hundred pages later, I lost momentum a bit. Between then and a couple of days ago, the reading had slowed to a stop. Then friends asked me "Have you read anything good lately?" and I didn't feel like discussing The Road or Watchmen. That wouldn't necessarily count as "good" in their books. That successfully guilted me into reading the last hundred pages, give or take.

I know people say classics are classics for a reason, and I guess this counts as one, at least in Christian circles. It takes a lot of patience to read, but it has some good food for thought swimming in some delightfully confusing whirlwinds of reason. My favorite example is at the end, where he wonders for at least ten pages how exactly memory works. I was begining to question the theological or practical importance of this when he phrased an immortal question for the ages: do we remember when we forget? I felt like I was in my dorm room talking to my roomates again. Ah, the memories.

The payoff for patience in reading that part was the last few pages, where he reflected on the lusts of the flesh and eyes, and the pride of life. He made a comparison to the lust of the eyes and curiosity, and how gossip seemed to fit in that category. His description reminded me of celebrity "news", and reminded me of why I don't care much for that sort of thing.

He even had some interesting points on food and music and how they could be sinful if they became distracting. If that's really what he struggled with at that point, I'm impressed and challenged.

I also felt challenged by the context of his famous "...not yet" quote. For many years and hundreds of pages he was on the verge of conversion to following Christ. However, he didn't want to change his life, as he enjoyed partying and making babies out of wedlock. So at one point he said, "Give me chastity and self control, but not yet."

I never before realized this quote was prior to conversion. How many of us seem to have this at least in the back of our minds after we've "made a decision for Christ"? Augustine knew what it meant, that it would cost him something to follow Christ. Eventually he did, and became a confusing but influencial servant of the Truth.

I'm also challenged by the examples of his mom, who never stopped praying for and agonzing over his salvation, and Christian friends and other believers Augustine heard of who were above reproach. A friend told him and another unbeliever about some of these Christians, and they couldn't deny these "uneducated men" were making more of a difference in the world than they ever could with education and rhetoric alone. Challenging stuff.

Hopefully, by writing some of these tidbits down, I won't forget. Of course, if I do, will I remember that? If only I had the patience to ramble about it.