Ep.3 The Confessions by Saint Augustine
In this third episode of The Berean Bookclub we talk through a classic: The Confessions by Saint Augustine.
The confession was written around 400 AD. Some would call it an autobiographical account of Augustine's life, but as one delves into it you'll recognize that its more than just that. It is part spiritual autobiography, memoir, dialogue between himself and friends, but ultimately a dialogue between himself and God. It's an extended prayer to God as he reflects on his life before knowing Christ. In the first couple of chapters he traces his upbringing from North Africa to Rome and Milan. He later describes his conversion and the role of his mother. He dabbles in philosophical discussions on time, memory, sin and the happy life. His honest reflection draws the modern person in a unique way with his ability to dissect the heart and point it towards God.
In this episode we discuss what Augustine teaches us about confessing, an unfamiliar motivation behind sin, searching for fulfillment with a restless heart and the beauty of a mother’s persistent prayers for her son.
Quotes:
I wish now to review in memory my past wickedness and the carnal corruptions of my soul—not because I still love them, but that I may love you, my god. For love of your love I do this, recalling in the bitterness of self-examination my wicked ways, that you may grow sweet to me, you sweetness without deception! You sweetness happy and assured! Thus you may gather me up out of those fragments in which I was torn to pieces, while I turned away from you - Confessions, Book 2
You are great, lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and infinite is your wisdom. And man desires to praise you, for he is a part of your creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that you resist the proud. Still, he desires to praise you, this man who is only a small part of your creation. You have prompted him, that he should delight to praise you, for you have made us for yourself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in you. - Confessions, Book 1
This is what happens whenever you are abandoned, fountain of life, who are the one and true creator and ruler of the universe. This is what happens when through self-willed pride a part is loved under the false assumption that it is the whole. Therefore, we must return to you in humble piety and let you purge us from our evil ways, and be merciful to those who confess their sins to you, and hear the groanings of the prisoners and loosen us from those fetters which we have forged for ourselves. - Confessions, Book 3
To overcome self-absorption—and the whirling eddies of comparison and shame—we cannot merely scrap or empty ourselves in some Zen-like forgetfulness. Read the Confessions to discover a path toward whole selfhood oriented toward our true end, true fulfillment, and true completion in the praise of God. “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You” (Conf. 1.1). The way toward this rest is confession. Follow Augustine’s lead. Take up and read. Take up and be read. - Ryan Reeves
References:
Augustine, (2020). The Confessions. Narrated by Smith, L., Available at: https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/476724163/The-Confessions
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