St. Augustine's work is a masterpiece. It is a spiritual, intellectual, and psychological autobiography that provides a vital link between classical and Christian traditions. This illustrated edition, perfect for college-level students, features passages that show the grandeur and significance of the work.
Selections include the following: I.I.1, I.IV.4, I.VI.7-8, I.VIII.13, I.IX.14-I.XX.31, II.I.1-II.IV.9, II.VIII.16, III.I.1-III.VI.10, III.XI.19-III.XII.21, IV.I.1-IV.II.2, IV.IV.7-IV.IV.9, IV.VI.11-VIII.13, IV.XVI.31, V.III.3, V.VI.10-V.IX.17, V.XII.22-V.XIV.25, VI.I.1, VI.III.3-VI.III.4, VI.IV.6, VI.X.17-VI.XI.18, VIII.VI.13-VIII.VIII.19, VIII.XI.25-VIII.12.30, IX.IV.7-IX.VIII.18, IX.X.23-IX.XIII.37.
Special Features
- Extensive 55-page introduction with section on grammar and style
- Unadapted Latin selections from Confessions Books I–IX with English summaries
- Updated list of variant readings in Latin
- Same-page notes
- Complete vocabulary
- Selected, updated bibliography
- Illustrations
- Index
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What Christian classic of the late ancient world speaks more directly to today’s student than Augustine’s Confessions? This should find a grateful audience, happy for ready access to Augustine’s language, mind and heart.
The Confessions Of St. Augustine: Books I-IX (Selections) is a Latin textbook and work of literature. It is not a formal instructional book, but rather a reader that presents the biographical writings of St. Augustine, which reflect his profound faith and insight into human motives, ideals, and man’s need for God, in the original Latin. Although a glossary, an extensive introduction, and numerous translation footnotes aid the reader in understanding the Latin text, there is no English translation per se of Augustine’s words - the advanced Latin student is left to contemplate them on his or her own. A core addition to college-level Latin students’ reference shelves and reading lists.
I am glad to see back in print this excellent edition of Latin selections from St. Augustine’s Confessions, with its helpful introduction, notes, and vocabulary. This is another good service this publisher to the cause of Classical and Christian education, by way of making available again textbooks for the study of our great cultural tradition.
The Confessions rightfully rank among the most splendid and influential works of Western Man. Here is one of the most illuminating and moving of autobiographies, a profound treatise on the ways of God with men, a pioneer essay in psychological analysis of human motives and ideals, and a noble example of the grandeur, power, and rhetorical beauty of the Latin language. To read Augustine in his own words is to come to know a magnificent human being, a brilliant master of literary style, and the rich mellowness and sublimity of mind and spirit which results from giving divine grace its full scope in its potential impact on human life. Anyone who knows enough Latin to read this timeless masterpiece will be inspired and humanized by the experience. Making that experience possible is a contribution to civilization. The world today has much to learn from Augustine’s story, his humility, his spiritual perspective and insights, and his authentic love. His is a voice and a message little heard in our time — and therefore all the more imperative to hear.
Reasons for enthusiasm for Augustine the man and his thought are many. Reading his own meditations in the selections here provided will justify my claims. I am happy also to have been able to provide illustrations of places connected with Augustine’s life, and the delightful portrait of him wrapped in thought that deserves to be better known.
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