I'm not going to rate this one because I didn't read the entirety of the volume. I only read through Book 8 of "The Confessions" as part of the Great Books Challenge I'm doing with my husband.
Augustine is frequently quoted by Christian scholars, so it was interesting to read this work. It is autobiographical and covers from the time he was born, to his conversion, and then some of his thoughts about the Bible. I don't love the Great Books formatting, but as usual, I got through the assignment with lots of breaks in between books.
One thing that helped me keep reading was focusing on the language. I really like some of the wording. I learned a few words too. I could have figured out most of them from context, but here are a few I looked up: "flagitiousness" means villainous; "mutable" means subject to change; "nill" I would have thought meant "nothing," but it is "unwilling" or "to refuse"; "chambering" means lewdness; "conventicle" is a religious meeting.
I also wrote down a few quotes that interested me. I'm going to write them out here just for myself. I looked up the scriptural footnotes in the King James version of the Bible for my own information.
From Book 2
"It was foul, and I loved it." He was referring to when he was stealing pears for the sake of stealing. Yes, he was confessing and condemning himself, but I thought it was funny.
"Thou hast melted away my sins as it were ice."
"Who can disentangle that twisted and intricate knottiness?"
From Book 3
"It was not possible that the son of these tears should perish." His mother worried for his soul.
"Which answer she took (as she often mentioned in her conversations with me) as if it had sounded from heaven." His mother didn't worry about him in silence, but expressed her concerns and hopes to him.
From Book 4
"I hated all places, for they had not him, nor could they now tell me, 'He is coming,' as when he was alive and absent."
"I became a great riddle to myself."
"Wretched is every soul bound by the friendship of perishable things."
"All things looked ghastly."
"Nor did the bones exult which were not yet humbled." This has a footnote referring to Psalms 51:8 which says in the King James, "Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice."
"Thou wilt carry us both when little, and even to hoar hairs wilt Thou carry us." This has a footnote to Isaiah 46:4 which says in the King James, "And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." "Hoar hairs" are gray hairs like those you'd see on an old man's beard, which makes me think of the spiky white hoarfrost which clings to the trees this time of year.
"A longing for what I had, as it were, perceived the odour of, but was not yet able to feed on." This refers to his perception of spiritual things.
From Book 7
"Eating and drinking have no pleasure, unless there precede the pinching of hunger and thirst."
"Everywhere the greater joy is ushered in by the greater pain."
"Therefore was I at strife with myself, and rent asunder by myself."
From Book 8
As he struggled and wept he thought he heard the words, "Take up and read. Take up and read." This led him to take the words of Paul where he "seized, opened, and in silence read that section, on which my eyes first fell." This ended up being Romans 13:13-14. The King James says, "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkeness, not in chambering and wontonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." He says, after reading, "All the darkness of doubt vanished away." This was the point where he decided to fully commit to the Lord and to stop being torn between his spirituality and his lusts. He was fully converted.