When Saint Augustine wrote his Confessions he was facing, and responding to, a growing spread of asceticism in the Roman world.
His task was twofold: to explain to himself the significance of his conversion to Christianity, and to do so in terms that would convince his readers that this was indeed the one, true faith.
In his attempt to achieve these aims, Saint Augustine produced a masterpiece of intellectual biography. The Confessions are written with an emotional intensity that sets him apart from the academic tradition to which he belonged, and it is this intensity, combined with ferociously self-honest analysis, that has given his work its lasting appeal. Beautifully written and suffused with philosophical and theological learning, the Confessions are an outstanding account of the search for truth by a sinner who became a great saint.
Contents:
Introduction
- Augustine's life, thought, and influence
- Putting together Augustine's Confessions
- Intertextuality and Augustine's use of Scripture
Essential Scriptures
Notes on the Latin Text
Notes on the Translation
Abbreviations
Suggestions for Further Reading
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Book Six
Book Seven
Book Eight
Book Nine
Book Ten
Book Eleven
Book Twelve
Book Thirteen
Appendix A: Psalm 4
Appendix B: Psalm 41
Appendix C: Psalm 100
Appendix D: Reconsiderations, Book 2, Chapter 6
Topical Index
Scriptural Index
REVIEWS:
"The best overall translation of Augustine's Confessions to date. . . . Williams captures the immediacy of Augustine's prayer, the playfulness of his language, and (without striving too hard) the properly elevated poetry of the text. As priest and philosopher and an Anglican with a good sense of English, Williams understands Augustine from the inside. For the foreseeable future, this will be my go-to translation for the Confessions."
—Jared Ortiz, Hope College, in Catholic World Report
"Williams’s masterful translation satisfies (at last!) a long-standing need. There are lots of good translations of Augustine’s great work, but until now we have been forced to choose between those that strive to replicate in English something of the majesty and beauty of Augustine’s Latin style and those that opt instead to convey the careful precision of his philosophical terminology and argumentation. Finally, Williams has succeeded in capturing both sides of Augustine’s mind in a richly evocative, impeccably reliable, elegantly readable presentation of one of the most impressive achievements in Western thought—Augustine’s Confessions."
—Scott MacDonald, Professor of Philosophy and Norma K. Regan Professor in Christian Studies, Cornell University
"It might be wondered why we need yet another translation of Augustine's Confessions, when so many fine and mellifluous ones already exist. But Thomas Williams supplies a compelling answer in his Introduction to this volume: nowhere else will the philosopher reading Augustine find complete consistency in the translation of key words in Augustine's armoury, vital for understanding his distinctive views about the self and God; and nowhere else is the reader guided so accurately to Augustine's biblical sources, yet with full clarification of the creative freedom with which he uses them.
"This is a masterly achievement, and will from now on be my own favoured translation for teaching and philosophical reflection."
—Sarah Coakley, University of Cambridge and Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
"A major new translation of what is no doubt Augustine’s best known and most influential work. There are many good translations of the Confessions, but this is the first one to be carefully sensitive to the philosophical nuances of Augustine’s text. The careful yet readable translation is accompanied by an informative and thoughtful Introduction, ample notes, and appendices."
—Paul Vincent Spade, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Indiana University, Bloomington
". . . A model of the translator’s art. Williams’s Confessions, accurate to the nuance, is as perfect a mirror of Augustine’s Latin text as the English language will allow."
—Stanley Lombardo, Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Kansas
"The best translators of Augustine's Confessions are not rivals of one another, but comrades and co-conspirators. They have a worthy friend in Thomas Williams, whose frank, graceful, wise, thoughtfully annotated English rendering is a brand new revelation of the power and beauty of Augustine's scripturally infused philosophical prose.”
—Carol Zaleski, Professor of World Religions, Smith College
"Williams is the one I’d hand to an Augustine newcomer. In both its lyrical prose and its excellent, spiritually rich apparatus you can feel Williams's teaching experience. . . . [A] surprisingly necessary new Confessions."
—Eve Tushnet, in The University Bookman
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