St. Augustine, His Confessions, and His Influence: (Mapping the Tradition)

This book introduces Augustine of Hippo and his influence on Christian theology. Part One works through all thirteen books of the Confessions, introducing the life and thought of the bishop of Hippo with commentary on frequent but brief quotations. The Confessions reveal Augustine’s major doctrinal concerns, some of them explicitly and thoroughly (such as the Manichees, Platonists, scripture), others implicitly (monasticism, Donatism, ministry), and some in passing (Trinity) or as a preview (Pelagians). Part Two sketches the medieval reception of the Augustinian theological legacy, not chronologically but topically, in the order of the concerns in the Confessions, such as original sin, St. Monica, medieval Manichees, monastic communities, new Donatists, Neo-Platonism, the introspective soul, symbolic scripture, the Trinity, and above all the recurring Pelagian controversies over free will and grace, election and predestination, that continued into the Reformation.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Augustine’s Confessions Part Two: Augustine’s Influence Appendix: Overview of Topics

About the Author :
Paul Rorem is B. B. Warfield professor of medieval church history at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Review :
This fine essay may be thought of as a handbook to the Confessions. Rorem's essay is tailor-made for the classroom. It might also be useful for a Christian reading club. Arguably no Christian writer has proven more influential than Augustine, yet the sheer range and volume of his writing - not to mention the often sharp disagreement over their proper interpretation - make the prospect of providing a short introduction of the man and his legacy daunting indeed. By using the Confessions as a lens through which to explore both the content and impact of Augustine's thought, Paul Rorem has hit upon an elegant solution to this challenge, showing how the themes that emerge from Augustine's own account of his early intellectual and spiritual struggles shape not only his own ideas, but also virtually the whole of later western thought. Paul Rorem’s book is a welcome and needed addition to studies of Augustine and his Confessions. Elegantly written, this book will hook those approaching Augustine for the first time, while enriching the understanding of those who have long been ruminating on Augustine. Taking the Confessions as a book-by-book “map”, Rorem provides a richly narrated and interpreted journey through Augustine’s life, friendships, ideas, writings, and controversies. Part Two traces the influence of Augustine’s life and ideas along varied threads (theological, cultural, political, mystical, and others) that weave through the fabric of post-Augustinian history. The net is cast wide: Petrarch, Aquinas, just war theory, female mystics, Augustinian friars, the nature of time/eternity, Luther, the nature of the self, the Triune God, and of course predestination. Always, however, Rorem ties the discussion to key passages in the Confessions. Born out of decades of ruminating on Augustine while regularly teaching a course on the Confessions, this book has the clarity of expression one expects from Rorem, along with the virtue of being succinct without being simplistic. Along the way current scholarship is deftly brought into play with nuanced presentation.