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amymo73's review against another edition
3.0
VICTORY IS MINE. Well, sorta.
This is on the St. Bonaventure 39 and for some reason I already had a copy of the book. I plunged in and ... holy hat is it a difficult read. I suppose that's to be expected since it was written in A.D. 397. I truthfully struggled at times, particularly the second half of the book where Augustine writes his religious philosophy on memory, time and the theology of Genesis. I used Spark Notes. It didn't help much.
Augustine writes about his conversion to Catholicism, which was a long slow process. What stayed with me most from that part of his story were two things:
1. His mom never stopped praying for her son's conversion. She never gave up hope.
2. He was very bothered by an episode in his youth when he stole some pears with a friend. I mean really bothered. Part of me is like, "Dude, they were just some pears." But he explains that what bothered him was his intention, that he did it for the thrill of stealing, not because, say, he was hungry.
I'm pretty sure at one point, he criticized his mom for leaving an abusive relationship, but it is possible I misread that.
Reading Confessions reminds me that I am not smart and makes me wonder how I passed three philosophy courses in college.
But for real, it did get me thinking about memory and time. And it gave me an appreciation for aspects of my Catholic dogma tradition I take for granted.
This is on the St. Bonaventure 39 and for some reason I already had a copy of the book. I plunged in and ... holy hat is it a difficult read. I suppose that's to be expected since it was written in A.D. 397. I truthfully struggled at times, particularly the second half of the book where Augustine writes his religious philosophy on memory, time and the theology of Genesis. I used Spark Notes. It didn't help much.
Augustine writes about his conversion to Catholicism, which was a long slow process. What stayed with me most from that part of his story were two things:
1. His mom never stopped praying for her son's conversion. She never gave up hope.
2. He was very bothered by an episode in his youth when he stole some pears with a friend. I mean really bothered. Part of me is like, "Dude, they were just some pears." But he explains that what bothered him was his intention, that he did it for the thrill of stealing, not because, say, he was hungry.
I'm pretty sure at one point, he criticized his mom for leaving an abusive relationship, but it is possible I misread that.
Reading Confessions reminds me that I am not smart and makes me wonder how I passed three philosophy courses in college.
But for real, it did get me thinking about memory and time. And it gave me an appreciation for aspects of my Catholic dogma tradition I take for granted.
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