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“Whereas on the contrary, ordinary humanity would seem to require not merely that we refrain from exciting or increasing wrath among men by evil speaking, but that we study to extinguish wrath by kind speaking” (852)

� � Author � Time/Date of Composition � Contextual Information � Form � Major Themes

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� Author

� Augustine (354 CE 430 CE) was born to a Roman family in modern-day Algeria

� His father was Patricius (Latin version of Patrick) and his mother was Monica �  His mother was a

devout Christian (“The Four Doctors of the Western Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo” by Gerard Seghers via Wikimedia Commons)

� � Augustine first attended school in Madaurus

(modern-day Algeria) and then in Carthage à he studied rhetoric and philosophy (Norton 832)

� He describes himself as a bright, but mischievous boy who was frequently punished at school:

I, poor wretch, could not see the use of the things I was sent to school to learn; but if I proved idle in learning, I was soundly beaten. For this procedure seemed wise to our ancestors: and many, passing the same way in days past, had built a sorrowful road by which we too must go, with multiplication of grief and toil upon the sons of Adam (49)

Author

� � Augustine was a teacher and public speaker for a

good part of his life, teaching in Thagaste, Carthage, Rome, and Milan (Norton 832)

� But his successful career as a teacher and public speaker made him unhappy, and he describes his students in Carthage as “a pack of madmen” who “play havoc with the order which the master has established for the good of his pupils” (Norton 844)

Author

� � Augustine describes a moment in the garden in

which he hears a child’s voice singing “take and read, take and read.” The song inspires him to turn to a random part of the Bible:

“not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences” (849)

� Augustine saw this occurrence as a sign that he should convert to Christianity, which he did

Author

� Time/Date of Composition

�  Augustine began work on the Confessions around 397, when he was in his early 40s

�  According to our textbook, “He seems to have been suffering from a terrible case of writer’s block, with several half-finished pieces of work on hand” (Norton 833) �  Writing the Confessions

“cured” his writer’s block

(“Writer’s Block” from Writers Write)

� � Augustine explored a variety of religious sects before

converting to Christianity, namely: Manicheanisn and Neoplatonism

� Manicheanism was: “a dualistic religion that resembled Christianity in emphasizing the life of the mind and the drive toward increasing spiritual purity, though the two religions differed very significantly in their views of the nature of God” (Norton 832)

� You can read more about it here

Contextual Information

� � Neoplatonism was a school of thought that extended

the philosophy of Plato (largely an academic philosophy) into religious and/or mystical matters.

� Neoplatonists believed that creation emanates from a single source of goodness, and that every creation away from the “single source” is less perfect (“Neoplatonism” from New World Encyclopedia)

� They also believed that evil does not exist, and that it is basically the absence of good

Contextual Information

� � Augustine’s Confessions have two forms, or genres:

the autobiography and the confession � An autobiography is the story of a person’s life in

their own words. Note: the autobiography was virtually unknown in Augustine’s time—his Confessions is one of the early examples! �  E.g.: Augustine recounts biographical moments of his

life, like his childhood in Thagaste and going to school

Form

� � A confession is: “a full account of one’s sins” (Norton

833) �  E.g.: Augustine confesses sins like stealing pears from

a neighbor’s tree and having multiple mistresses � Augustine reasons that confessing his sins will show

others it can be good to examine one’s personal struggles, and that “everyone is on a spiritual journey”

Form

� Thus Augustine explains in Book 10, Chapter 5 (not in our textbook):

But there is hope, because thou art faithful and thou wilt not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist, but wilt with the temptation also make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it. I would therefore confess what I know about myself; I will also confess what I do not know about myself. What I do know of myself, I know from thy enlightening of me; and what I do not know of myself, I will ocntinue not to know until the time when my “darkness is as the noonday” in thy sight” (Confessions trans. & ed. by Dr Albert Outler)

Form

� � Sin, sinfulness � Knowledge � Suffering � Pride, lust � Earthly love vs heavenly love (i.e., God’s love)

Major Themes