St. Augustine’s Confessions is a strikingly raw collection of sins and decisions Augustine has made in his life which he now wishes to confess to God. However, seeing as this is such a private piece of work, one would think that what Augustine would most want to keep to himself is the work as a whole. One might also expect a work like this to be kept between the writer and their God, even going so far as to destroy it before their death. Nevertheless, Augustine chose to make known all of his flaws. The more obvious answer as to why he displayed this publicly would be that he wanted to show God how vulnerable he could be. He wanted to exemplify full faith in God, showing him that no matter what his secular reputation was, he knew it did not matter because he ultimately only existed in the eyes of God. However, I think a subconscious motive of publicizing this work is to show all of his peers that they too can be saved by God. He wants to be an example to follow, showing that guilt and sadness can be eased if one confesses and confides in God. Even with all of the content and personal anecdotes he leaves in, one might say that there is actually more to be analyzed from what he leaves out. Augustine examines God’s help and his need for a savior in significant moments in his life. He emphasizes his “biggest” sins and moments he is most ashamed of in order to propagate that if God has relieved his guilt from those, he can help anyone with whatever they have done. However, it is striking that Augustine hesitates to add how God helps him in a preemptive sense, rather than just feeling that he if forgiven after he makes sinful decisions. Perhaps he leaves out his daily thoughts because they would not be as effective in portraying his intense message or worship. Explaining his everyday decisions and how God guides them might feel insignificant to Augustine, but one may argue that it actually weakens his point.

If I were trying to tell a story of my life and I had a point or moral to my story, I would probably try to incorporate as many engaging and extreme examples and stories as I could to really emphasize my message. In doing this, I would most certainly leave out how this message was relevant in smaller ways in my life because it would not seem as effective. This may be a mistake, but current readers may be able to infer how my ideas could incorporate into their daily lives naturally. Things like shopping at chain grocery stores where everyone nationally has access to the same products, communicating with both domestic and foreign friends using online messaging, and being aware of current news are what relate me, the author, and someone who is reading my story right when I publish it. Therefore, someone reading my story years later may not understand why I placed such emphasis on certain parts of my story as it is no longer relevant. For example, if my message was to explain how God guided my life and my most prominent example was how going to church led me to volunteering with an organization I like, a future reader might see that as having little significance because, perhaps, volunteering has become a routine practice in their society. Therefore, they would want to hear about the more mundane, consistent aspects of life that all humans have experienced in order to understand why religion positively impacts you in every large and small scenario.

By leaving out how God guides him in his mundaneness, he does not make his message as relatable as it could be. People in his time reading his work may not think anything of him omitting his more minute struggles, but as a timeless piece of work, it does not translate quite as smoothly because the sins that individuals grapple with today are different. Some of the sins he considers as most significant are no longer relatable. If you enjoy an emotional play or movie today, it would be considered a good thing. By this example, we can infer that actions we see as insignificant now were recognized as sinful acts back when he wrote this. Obviously, there were still moral qualms present back when he wrote this, but the world was admittedly less complicated than it is now. Problems seemed to be relevant to their communities and only a small amount of conflicts were nationally or internationally significant. Now, every story, product, and community is so complicated that dwelling on every aspect of everything we do would be crippling. Therefore, by leaving out how he is guided by God, and leaving in how he is forgiven, he loses some realness to the reader because they might not believe the sins he emphasizes are worth dwelling over, or even worth forgiving. Rather, he might be able to portray his message more effectively if he explained how someone could go about their life in a godly way in order to avoid sin. However, ultimately, Augustine most likely believed that extreme examples were the most effective in relaying his message and therefore did not even think of adding how developing a relationship with God has affected his everyday life.

With this being said, Augustine’s Confessions still easily holds up as an influential and substantial book. The way he portrays his message is effective and he definitely propagates his love and respect of God. I only wish that he would also include how God and his religion are actively helping Augustine be a better person in the moment, rather than just relieving his guilt after he acts sinfully.