Confessions by Augustine — Introduction

1. 1. Augustine's Confessions is not a simple autobiography but a sophisticated polemical work of self-vindication and praise, addressed to God but intended for human readers.
2. 2. Augustine wrote the Confessions partly to answer critics who questioned his ordination as bishop, including Donatists who exploited a letter from the presiding bishop of Numidia.
3. 3. The Confessions was also stimulated by a request from Paulinus of Nola for an autobiography from Alypius, which Augustine expanded into the work.
4. 4. Augustine's dismissal of his concubine of fifteen years, the mother of his son Adeodatus, was socially acceptable in the fourth century but later judged by him as sin.
5. 5. Augustine's conversion was influenced by Neoplatonism, which provided a model for mystical union with God, but he found the experience transient and insufficient without Christ.
6. 6. The last four books of the Confessions (X–XIII) connect Augustine's personal story to the universal story of creation's fall and return, using Neoplatonic themes.
7. 7. Augustine rejected the Manichee solution to the problem of evil, which made God good but not omnipotent, and instead adopted the Neoplatonic view that evil is a privation of being.
8. 8. Augustine's mature view of marriage emphasized companionship and procreation, and he defended the goodness of the sexual impulse against Manichee dualism.
9. 9. The Confessions uses extensive quotations from the Psalms, which were integral to its literary structure and reflect Augustine's daily monastic practice.
10. 10. Augustine's interpretation of scripture in the Confessions allows for multiple valid interpretations as long as they adhere to the apostolic rule of faith.