Confessions by Saint Augustine

Confessions by Saint Augustine

A book review

Short review: I recommend reading the first book (it's divided into short "books"), but don't waste your time with the rest of it. Augustine's presentation of who God is in the first book is astounding, and brought me into worship and praise of God.

Long review: In my opinion, this book starts out great and gets progressively worse until an absolutely miserable ending. (Just being honest). Augustine's presentation of who God is in the first book is well worth the read. It is powerful. However, as the books continue, Augustine seems to deal with issues about which he is less and less unsure. It's a classic, so I read the whole thing. But other than the beginning, It really wasn't all that fantastic. Augustine reveals that his early philosophy was unorthodox, and it seems to have continuing effects on some of his ideas. He shares his testimony, struggles, and challenging growth in philisophical context, and it is interesting. My impression of about the last third of this work is that he was exploring ideas that he really didn't have any idea what he was talking about. Read the first "book" for sure, and maybe about half of the total work. But save yourself the time, and go read something else after that.