READING GUIDE FOR AUGUSTINE

Confessions Book 1

• Book 1 of Augustine’s Confessions opens with a long prayer.  What is its main theme?

• As the prayer closes (p. 6), what is its rhetorical effect?

• People rarely start their autobiographies with their own infancy.  Why, do you think, does Augustine do so?

• What issue proccupies him most in this section, as he discusses his infancy and boyhood?

• What was Augustine’s exposure to Christianity during this period of his life?

• What criticisms does he level against the classical system of education?  And against the rationale for sending him to school?  (Note:  this is going to be a running theme, as Augustine excels in his studies and becomes a teacher himself.)

Confessions Book 2

• Book 2 starts out with sex, yet the central story is about stealing from a pear tree:  What is the connection?

• Augustine berates himself excessively for what seems like an insignificant crime:  why?  What points does he want to make by exaggerating the depravity of his nighttime theft?

• Note here Augustine’s remarks on friendship: he will return to this theme over and over again in later chapters.

Confessions Book 3

• Note this Book's very famous opening line! Also note the plural of the final noun: what is he referring to?

• The first sections discuss various emotions (love, lust, suffering, mercy, pleasure, friendship, etc.).  How does he distinguish between "authentic" and false emotions?

• What book most impresses Augustine as an 18-year-old?  How does he compare it to the Bible?

• In its entirety, this Book hinges on issues of fiction and truth, reality and unreality.  What examples do you notice?

• How does Augustine's treatment of law and custom relate to this theme?

• This is the first appearance of the Manichees, about whom much more later.  For now, how do they—and Monica—fit the theme?

Confessions Book 4

• Note the public/private distinction with which Book 4 opens.

• What is Augustine's view of, and experience with, astrology?

• He goes through a period of what sounds like depression.  What causes it?  How does he get over it?

• Who is Hierius and what is Augustine's relationship to him?

• What does Augustine make of Aristotle?

Confessions Book 5

• Who is Faustus?  And what kind of expectations of, and encounters with, him does Augustine have?

• What is the tenor and tone of Augustine's compaint against Mani?

• Why does he go to Rome (sneaking out on his mother!)?  And why does he leave there for Milan?

• What does he say was "the principal and almost sole cause of my inevitable error"?

• How does Ambrose compare to Faustus?

• What fateful decision does Augustine make at the end, and why?

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Confessions Book 6

• Book 6 opens with Augustine experiencing another bout of depression. What causes it?

• What is his relationship to Bishop Ambrose?

• Augustine discovers that several of the beliefs he had disapprovingly attributed to Christians they do not actually hold.  Give an example.

• He lays out here relatively clearly the reasoning process that led him back to the Christian Scriptures.  What is it?

• How does Augustine compare himself to the beggar he sees in the street?

• As Augustine dithers about his future, what options is he weighing?  What does he decide?

• What role does Alypius play in Augustine's life at this stage?

• Notice that the closer Augustine comes to the Christian faith, the more we hear of Monica.  Any explanations?

Confessions Book 7

• Book 7 is the Confessions' most philosophical.  Augustine here begins to correct that "principal and almost sole cause of my inevitable error" mentioned in Book V.  How?

• What issues preoccupy him?

• How do the "Platonist books" help?  And what does he find they lack?

Life of Antony

• Why, does he say, is Athanasius writing this vita?

• How does Antony spend his early 20s?

• What happens to him in the tombs?

• How does he spend the next 20 years?

• How does Antony define demons?

• How does he conceive the relationship between body and soul?

• What brings him out of his cell and to Alexandria?

• Afterward, why does he retire still further into the desert?

• What vision does he see in Chapter 66?

• What is Antony's attitude toward heterodox Christian groups, according to Athanasius?

• What kind of education does Antony have?

• How does he die?

• What, according to Athanasius, is Antony's legacy?

• What will Augustine see in Antony, do you think?

Confessions Book 8

• Who are Simplicianus and Victorinus?  What kind of example and encouragement do they provide Augustine?

• What does Augustine say about his "two wills"?

• How does he come to hear about Anthony?

• How many years have passed since Augustine read Cicero's Hortensius?

• What happens in the garden?!?

• What role does Alypius play?

Confessions Book 9

• After his conversion experience, what does Augustine plan to do?

• How does he spend his days as Cassiciacum?

• This is the first time Augustine talks opely about Adeodatus:  what is he like?

• Only at the time of her death do we finally learn about the woman who has haunted the Confessions from the beginnning:  What was Monica's life like?  What does it tell us about the lives of women in this era?

• What experience do Augustine and Monica share at Ostia?

• What are Monica's last words?