You Made Us for Yourself: Creation in St. Augustine’s Confessions

Description

Augustine's Confessions is probably the most commented upon text of early Christianity. Yet, there is a general consensus that this justly famous work is neither well composed nor structurally unified. "You Made Us for Yourself" aims to challenge this common notion by approaching the Confessions in light of what Augustine himself would have considered most fundamental: creation, understood in a broad sense. Creation, for Augustine, is an epiphany, a light that reveals who God is and who human beings are. It is not merely one doctrine or theme among others, but is the foundational context which illumines all doctrines and all themes. Moreover, creation, for Augustine, is dynamically ordered toward the church, toward the deified destiny the body of Christ both is and brings about. Thus, the Confessions itself can be understood as Augustine's prayer of praise in thanksgiving for the unmerited gift of creation (and re-creation). It is his self"gift back to God—a kind of eucharistic offering intended to take up and bring about the same in his readers. Augustine's rich understanding of creation, then, can account for the often despaired of meaning, structure, and unity of the Confessions. Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi A Note on Texts and Translations xiii Introduction xv 1. Augustine’s Understanding of Creation 1 2. Coming to Terms with Creation 41 3. The New Context Creation Establishes 101 4. Creation and the Church 151 5. Creation as the Structure, Unity, and Meaning of the Confessions 191 Conclusion: Creation in the Confessions 229 Bibliography 235 Index 253