The Confessions of Saint Augustine

The Confessions of St. Augustine, Villanova Edition for Students and Faculty e-book is a multi-modal resource designed to supplement deeper reading with highlighting and notation and to engage students through audio, visual, and critical analysis. It includes standard features, such as highlighting, search, and notation, as well as custom elements, like a timeline, map, and art gallery. The audio reader enhances the reading experience, and critical commentaries, written by experts especially for this edition, aid student comprehension of key sections and concepts of the text.


The Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered to be the greatest Christian classic. Augustine's notorious life before his baptism raised questions about the genuineness of his conversion. It is his honest struggle with the faith which has given The Confessions such timeless appeal over the last sixteen centuries.


Augustine's Confessions is more than mere autobiography, for it is also an impassioned admission of past mistakes (confession at a level most might think of it) and praise of God (confession of another sort, that of love and awe). Given his checkered past, Augustine addressed the concerns of those who doubted the sincerity of his conversion to Christianity and his claim to the post of bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa. Thus, the text, made up of 13 chapters called ”books,“ serves as an apologia (formal written defense) as well as a hortatory inspiration to others who have not yet converted.


Influenced by the Christian approach to reading sacred text as the living Word of God (lectio divina), The Confessions also require a deeper reading than readers may be accustomed to. Lectio divina, rooted in monastic practices of the 4th century AD, is prayerful and approaches a text with a fourfold reading process: read, reflect/meditate, pray and rest in God's presence, and resolve to grow and change in this new understanding. Augustine's great work has impacted not only theology but also philosophy, especially in discussion of time and memory.