Augustine’s Conversion: A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX PDF
Preview Augustine’s Conversion: A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX
Augustine's Conversion A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX COLIN STARNES From the time of its composition (approximately A.D. 400) to the present day St. Augustine's Confessions has been regarded as one of the greatest classics of Western spirituality. Augustine's Conversion presents Augustine's argument in the first part of the Confessions. As a whole, the Confes- sions is composed of three confessions (hence the plural title) concerning three different aspects of Augustine's life. Augustine's Conversion's main claim on the reader's attention, and what has not been shown before, is that the first part of the Confessions is composed of a single con- nected argument in addition to its more obvious historical and autobiographical character. This guide, like all others, should be read in conjunction with the original. However, the author has also wanted to create a work accessible to the interested student, and in so doing uses direct quotations, enabling the reader to see the argument without having to flip back and forth between commentary and Confessions. Colin Starnes teaches Patristics in the Classics Depart- ment at Dalhousie University in Halifax. In addition to publishing numerous articles on the transition from antiq- uity to the medieval period, he is the author of The New Republic: A Commentary on Book I of More's Utopia Showing Its Relation to Plato's Republic (WLU Press, 1990). This page intentionally left blank Augustine's Conversion A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX s This page intentionally left blank Augustine's Conversion A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX s COLIN STARNES Wilfrid Laurier University Press Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Starnes, Colin. Augustine's conversion Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-88920-991-X 1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. Confessiones. Book 1-9. 2. Conversion. 3. Christian saints - Algeria - Hippo - Biography. 4. Hippo (Ancient city) - Biography. I. Title. BR65.A62S8 1990 242 C90-095340-3 @) Copyright © 1990 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5 Cover design by Leslie Macredie Printed in Canada All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical — without the prior written permis- sion of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, tap- ing, or reproducing in information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 379 Adelaide Street West, Suite Ml, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1S5. Cover illustration after an illuminated initial from Plate XII of Courcelle's Recherches sur les Confessions de saint Augustin (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1968), CONTENTS Abbreviations ix Preface xi Notes xiv Chapter One Commentary on Book I 1 Notes 24 Chapter Two Commentary on Book II 33 Notes 46 Chapter Three Commentary on Book III 53 Notes 76 Chapter Four Commentary on Book IV 89 Notes 106 Chapter Five Commentary on Book V 113 Notes 135 Chapter Six Commentary on Book VI 145 Notes 162 Chapter Seven Commentary on Book VII 169 Notes 199 Chapter Eight Commentary on Book VIII 213 Notes 237 Chapter Nine Commentary on Book IX 247 Notes 267 Appendix An Essay on the Historicity Debate 277 Notes 285 Bibliography 291 Index 297 vii This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS s References to the Confessions only are normally given without any title: thus, I,i,l = Confessions I,i,l. Quotations without references come from the book, chapter, and section of the Confessions as indicated in the heading of the commentary. In the notes the page and line numbers of Skutella's text (as reproduced in the Bibliotheque Augustinienne [=BA] edition of the Confessions s— Oeuvres de saint Augustin, Paris, Desclee de Brouwer, 1962, volumes 13 and 14 with the Introduc- tion and Notes of A. Solignac and the French translation of E. Trehorel and G. Bouissou) are given along with the first and last words. The titles of other works and series are abbreviated as follows. Augustine CEF Contra epistulam Manichaei quam vacant Fundamenti CFM Contra Faustum Manichaeum CFeM Contra Felicem Manichaeum CJI Opus imperfectum contra secundam Juliani responsionem DEC De bono conjugali DBV De beata vita DCD De civitate Dei DCM De cura pro mortuis gerenda DDA De duabus animabus contra Manichaeos DDC De doctrina Christiana DD7 De diversis quaestionibus VII ad Simplicianum DD83 De diversis quaestionibus LXXXIII DGC De gratia Christi etpeccato originali DGL De Genesi ad litteram liber imperfectus DM De magistro DMM De moribus ecclesiae Catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum DO De ordine DT De Trinitate DUC De utilitate credendi EP Ennarationes in Psalmos LDH Liber de haeresibus ad Quodvultdeum Letter Epistulae Retr Retractationes Ser Sermones Sol Soliliquia TJ In Joannis Evangelium tractatus IX
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