Engaging

Fantastic book. it's an awesome achievement for the narrator as he uses an expressive voice throughout

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An intimidating classic, made approachable

An intimidating book, but this translation and narration made it approachable. I enjoyed listening to it and Augustine’s ideas make me stop and seriously think at several points. Second time through I read along with a physical book which I would recommend if you really want to get into the text.

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Wonderful literature from church father

It is interesting to hear the biography of Augustine and his interpretation of the Bible.

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Surprising.

In the most positive way this account is as far from “saintly” as it is possible to imagine. St Augustine’s account of his life and progress towards Christ is amazingly direct and to use modern parlance, real. He pulls no punches and gives a warts and all account of his very un-saintly youth. A very worthwhile read.

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Better than I expected but Augustine is a awful

This book is regarded as a classic and it was fine to listen to. You might have seen a version of The Confessions with lots of "thees" and "thous" well this is in modern English and is not at all a problem to listen to - the delivery is excellent.

The content follows the life of Augustine from his birth to his conversion - it is pretty interesting to hear what life was like in the fourth century and he travels from Africa to Italy - Milan and Rome - and it shows clearly that Christainity was in no way "anti-rational" - educated Christians read and respected the classics the same as all other educated people. After his conversion the narrative stops and Augustine then spends the rest of the book - which is perhaps a fifth or a quarter of the whole - contemplating philosophical and theological issues such as what is time and how did the world come into being.

I did not find these philosophical reflections particularly enlightening but it does show after his conversion he continued to ask intellectual questions and reflect on philosophical topics.

The religion of Augustine however is another matter. This is not the religion of Jesus and not even the religion of Paul although Paul's influence is the greater. Augustine is and remains a gnostic, hating the world, seeing only temptation and evil everywhere, he sees all humans full of sin and deceit and longs to escape this world and live in heaven.

He hates his body with its desires that he struggles to control - even in eating he constantly worries if he has eaten too much or not enough, either being of course for him a sin. He sends the mother of his child back from Italy to Africa - never to see her only child again and so upset she tells Augustine she will never go with another man - yet of all the sins he confesses this - perhaps the most shocking - never appears to have troubled his conscience at all.

Augustine presents a horrifying picture of the spiritual life, and has been responsible for a sick and in many ways wicked spirituality whose pollution is responsible for countless wrecked lives. He has hidden the beauty and love of God and replaced it with a spiteful, mean and cruel God whose anger has to constantly be placated with acts of self-mortification.

This might be worth listening to to educated yourself on how the love of Christianity was replaced by the sickness of Gnosticism but it doesn't tell you anything about the true message of Jesus.

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11 people found this helpful