Confessions : Books I-Xiii

by Augustine of Hippo, Frank Sheed (Translator)

The text follows Pius Knöll's critical edition and has been checked against it carefully for this second edition. Every long vowel is marked, which makes the Latin easier to read and to pronounce correctly. The book opens with a Latin prooemium by Johanna Thornhill on Augustine's life and style.

This second edition is illustrated with paintings and engravings of Augustine, including works by Philippe de Champaigne and Fra Angelico. The text is set in clear type in a 6 x 9 format, and the book suits intermediate and advanced students of Latin.

354 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1993

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."

Santo Agostinho

Reviews

[Bernard]

Classic and unequalled spiritual autobiography of one of the great philosophical and theological thinkers. No other figure from Late Antiquity speaks to us as clearly as St Augustine does.
Sheed's translation is well-regarded and certainly reads well.

[Chris Herdt]

I had a huge collection of philosophy books that I had never read. Eventually I donated all but 2--this one, and The Problems of Philosophy (Bertrand Russell) to the library.