Augustine: Confessions, Volume II: Commentary, Books 1-7

by Augustine of Hippo, James J. O'Donnell (Translator/Editor)

The Confessions of Augustine have long both demanded and eluded the sustained and serious attention to detail that a scholarly commentary can provide. The present work, which is in three volumes, seeks to supplement that lack. A revised Latin text of the Confessions in Volume I forms the basis for a detailed line-by-line commentary (Volumes II-III) designed to elucidate the many layers of meaning in the work. Placing the emphasis primarily on exegesis, Professor O'Donnell opens up new lines of interpretation, as well as giving an abundance of fresh detail to some more familiar themes. At the same time, he clears the way for further scholarly work by furnishing the materials for others to draw on and press the task of interpretation further. A particular feature of the commentary is its attention to the influences in the Confessions of other texts of the Greek and Latin traditions - biblical, ecclesiastical, philosophical, and literary; whilst the place of the Confessions in Augustine's own life and in the history of Christian literature is also illuminated with greater precision.

482 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2013

About the author

Early church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical Confessions in 397 and the voluminous City of God from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.

An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.

People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."

The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."

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