Augustine: The Confessions (Greece and Rome Live) - Hardcover

"Gillian Clark has written an excellent handbook for use in undergraduate courses on late antiquity in general or Augustine in particular. The work is a revision of her 1993 book of the same name written for the Landmarks in Classical Literature series for Cambridge University Press. . . . . This handbook makes no claim to do more than, as Clark puts it, 'encourage those who have not yet become readers of Augustine and especially of "Confessions", and to be of some use to those who have.' Students will appreciate the straightforward division of the text into three sections on Augustine's world, a study of the "Confessions" themselves, and an up-to-date guide for further reading."--Philip Freeman "Bryn Mawr Classical Review " "Clark provides first of all a lucid exposition of the work's narrative, then analysis of the linguistic and stylistic media through which Augustine works, and finally two chapters . . . exemplifying reading of a very high order. . . . So much is covered in a brief compass that it may escape notice on first reading how thorough the treatment in fact is, and I have found it at every point sound, intelligient, and well written."--James J. O'Donnell "Speculum "

Augustine's 'Confessions', written at the close of the fourth century CE, is a highly significant text in the history of European culture. Augustine explains just how and why he came to abandon a successful career and the personal enjoyments of a largely secular existence to follow a life of prayer and study, leading to a true comprehension of God and the Bible. The avowed approach of this introductory book is to 'historicise' - to set Augustine's own experiences of religion, philosophy and Christian faith against the long-standing political, cultural and religious traditions of the classical world. Late antiquity saw the transformation of the classical heritage and its transmission by Christian authors. Augustine's ideas about how texts may be presented and read, how people respond to written and spoken language, find resonance in recent critical theory.The world in which Augustine lived, the structure, style and purpose of the Confessions, and the problems of rhetoric and truth posed by its author's personal search for himself are all scrutinised in this lucid introductory account. The volume also offers a useful guide to further reading.