The Confessions of St. Augustine

"For Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." As the son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Augustine spent his childhood torn between the two conflicting faiths and their opposing world views. When he was in his early forties, he wrote His Confessions, a remarkably honest and revealing spiritual autobiography. In it, he provides an unbroken record of his development of thought and recounts how slowly and painfully, he turned away from his youthful ideas and sinful, immoral lifestyle to instead become a staunch advocate of Christianity and one of its most influential thinkers. It is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries and widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written. Written as prayers to God confessing his faith despite past mistakes, and recognizing the ways that God has transformed his heart, these spiritual meditations and insight make The Confessions of St. Augustine a significant theological work which will always rank among the great masterpieces of western literature.