The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine's Confessions / Edition 1

by Catherine Conybeare

Overview

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so.

The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is an engaging introduction to this spiritually creative and intellectually original work. This guidebook is organized by themes:

• the importance of language
• creation and the sensible world
• memory, time and the self
• the afterlife of the Confessions.

Written for readers approaching the Confessions for the first time, this guidebook addresses the literary, philosophical, historical and theological complexities of the work in a clear and accessible way. Excerpts in both Latin and English from this seminal work are included throughout the book to provide a close examination of both the autobiographical and theoretical content within the Confessions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138847989
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/23/2016
Series:	The Routledge Guides to the Great Books
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x (d)

About the Author

Catherine Conybeare is Professor and Chair in the Department of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies at Bryn Mawr College,USA

Table of Contents

Preface 1. Introduction Excerpt 1: part of the opening prayer 2. Language Excerpt 2: the firmament as bible 3. Creation and the sensible world Excerpt 3: the ascent at Ostia 4. Memory and time 5. Afterword Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is a remarkably lucid and intelligent introduction to one of the most important texts in the history of the Christian West. Through sensitive analysis of the language and structure of the Confessions, Professor Conybeare illuminates the key elements of Augustine’s thought, and brings out the depth and originality of this brilliant work."
Sara Lipton, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA

"As a guide to reading the Confessions, this book is a beautiful introduction to a classic of Western culture. Conybeare captures the spirit of Augustine's quest for God, confessing what is known and unknown, and invites readers in a delightful way to read much more than Augustine's words."
Allan Fitzgerald, Villanova University, USA

"When Augustine surrenders himself in confession before God and his audience, he could not have wished for a more sympathetic human hearer than Conybeare. She is no disinterested listener, but engages with the conversation in a way that, in turn, enables her own audience to participate in it. The experience is precisely the transformative one that Augustine intended his Confessions to be."
Carol Harrison, Oxford University, UK

"Catherine Conybeare offers an excellent guide to Augustine's autobiographical Confessions. She is not a theologian or church historian. Rather, she is a scholar of classical literature and there­fore lends a unique angle to the study of Confessions."
Jack Kilcrease, Aquinas College

From the Publisher