Confessions

Confessiones

Augustine of Hippo · c. 397–400 · Latin

Cornerstone
Autobiography & biography
Early Church (shared)
Augustinian
Spirituality & mysticism
Theology & doctrine

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What it is

Written as a long prayer addressed to God, the Confessions retraces Augustine's restless youth, his years among the Manichees, his career as a teacher of rhetoric, and his conversion in a Milan garden in 386. The final books turn from memory to meditations on time, memory, and the creation account in Genesis.

Why it matters

Often called the first Western autobiography, it made the inner life a subject of serious writing and gave Christianity its most influential conversion story. Its account of grace, desire, and the divided will runs through nearly all later Western theology.

Reading it

About 300 pages.

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Influenced by3

Built on
The Bible · Composed over many centuries
The Confessions is woven from Scripture, especially the Psalms, and its last three books are an extended reading of Genesis 1.
Confessions, Books XI–XIII
Built on
Enneads · Plotinus · c. 253–270; edited by Porphyry
Outside this canon
In the Confessions (Book VII), Augustine credits 'the books of the Platonists', chiefly Plotinus in Latin, with freeing him to think of God as immaterial.
Confessions VII.9.13–VII.10.16
Built on
Life of Antony · Athanasius of Alexandria · c. 357–362
In the Confessions (Book VIII), hearing the story of Antony's conversion from Ponticianus moves Augustine to his own conversion in the garden.
Confessions VIII.6.14–VIII.8.19

Influenced1

Built on it
The Book of Her Life · Teresa of Ávila · 1565 (first draft 1562)
In The Book of Her Life, Teresa says reading Augustine's Confessions moved her deeply and marked a turning point in her conversion.
Book of Her Life 9

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