Return to the Heart: The Biblical Spirituality of St. Augustine's Confessions

by Shane Owens

"He is most intimately present to the human heart, but the heart has strayed from him. Return to your heart, then, you wrongdoers, and hold fast to him who made."— St. Augustine

St. Augustine’s Confessions is the first autobiography in Western literature and a perennial classic of rhetoric, philosophy, and theology. It is also one man’s journey away from and back to God, finding himself along the way. And though Augustine’s sin and his desires for love, happiness, and peace are his own, in them we can recognize aspects of our own experience.

Return to the The Biblical Spirituality of St. Augustine’s Confessions invites readers to follow in the footsteps of an enduring spiritual master. Bringing St. Augustine’s wisdom to a new generation, Shane Owens reveals that it is only in the heart-to-heart encounter with God that we become whole and understand ourselves.

Return to the Heart gives convincing testimony from St. Augustine to the reality that an ever-present God is at work in our lives to bring us to conversion—and to eternal life.

176 pages, Hardcover

Published April 14, 2025

Reviews

[Claire Raabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

To quote Matt, probably should have just read “Confessions” outright. The author is humble and has a good, pastoral voice, which I appreciated, but not quite as many revelatory insights as I was hopeful for.

[Jack Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding treatment of the key themes and thoughts of Augustine’s Confessions. The author found a wonderful balance of capturing something of the complexity of Augustine’s thought and theology while maintaining an Augustinian devotional tone throughout the book. Makes me eager to reread Confessions again.

[Bailey L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked first few chapters and definitely want to read Confessions now. The second half was a bit all over the place and had too many random stories and explaining of common stories in scripture. It didn’t feel very well organized after those first few chapters, which is a bummer because I was very excited about how good the book was seeming when I started it. So few new Christian books are worth reading these days. It’s a reminder we just need to trust we can read Augustine and similar scholars themselves!

[Krys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read through this really slowly during my prayer time & it was extremely beneficial.

[Jen Acosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it a little difficult to follow and found myself re reading a lot of it. I really enjoyed the last chapters and felt like the book took off.