Augustine's Confessions - Book I

Augustine takes the first few sections of Book I to praise God. For Augustine, praising God is a confession.

Then Augustine starts his biography. He not only takes us back to his birth (depicted in the painting on the left), but he speculates on his life in the womb, and even before the womb, which reflects his philosophical bent.

Instead of telling us what others told him about his childhood, or reflecting on his earliest recollections, Augustine tells us about his childhood from what he has learned from observing children, and then drawing inferences and conclusions about them and about him as a child. He concludes that children, including himself as a child, regardless of how cute they may appear, are sinners.

He also notices that the children, who start out by playing children's games, grow up to be adults who play more elaborate versions of children's games in business and politics.

Augustine tells us he did manage to learn a few good things in school, like how to read and write. (The painting to the right shows young Augustine being taken from his mother, Monica, to go to school.) However, he found that his teachers mostly wasted his time, since they seemed intent on teaching their pupils how to play the more elaborate games adults spent their time engaged in.

Back to Introduction.

On to Book II.