St. Augustine’s Confessions: What’s Missing?
Brendan McGoldrick
HIST 103: The Midevil World
Professor Paul Evans
25 August 2020
As routines become habits, and daily life grows monotonous, one may become less conscious of the minutiae surrounding him/her. Saint Augustine is no exception. Augustine’s autobiographical Confessions describes the author’s life in Late Antiquity, a period beginning around the year 300, marked by the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine. While Augustine includes much of his life in his memoirs, what he chooses to exclude, intentionally or unintentionally, holds similar significance. Confessions may be interpreted as Augustine’s personal journey of self-reflection to an eventual spiritual awakening. He discusses his internal struggle between good and evil; in his sinful mischievous acts as a teenager and in his revelry of inherent innocence later in life. If I were to describe my own life’s journey, I might find it too personal to share such intimate details with my audience. Also, familiar and seemingly insignificant details can be communicated in context. Still, Augustine may have left out details unintentionally, leaving out crucial historical information. Although today technological advancements make it much easier to record details, I might choose to exclude some information so that, like Augustine, my story could inspire reflection in the future.
If I were to write an autobiography similar to Augustine’s, I would try my best to relay only the most essential information so that readers could interpret lessons and purposes of their own from my experiences. While I would like to think a journal describing my whole existence would be influential to historians in the future, as Confessions is to us now, it seems pretentious to believe myself as so elite. Still, if I were to do so, I would likely include a brief summary of the state of the world at specific important moments. I might include things like the Great Recession and Hurricane Katrina during a description of my childhood and early adolescence, and worries about climate change and the growing social divide under President Trump in current times. While these significant global crises might not have affected me personally, I think it would be essential to paint a complete picture of the world around me. Personal achievements and other notable events may also be included, as many people resonate with stories of success and defeat. I may choose to omit more private struggles as well as the meaningless tiffs that have come to define much of my memory of early adulthood and high school. However, it may be hard to describe a typical day, as details are muddled by routine and repetitive action. So much of my life is draped in habits that aspects of it would seem trivial to include. But it is in these details that paint the most vivid picture.
In Augustine’s autobiography, he includes a description of much of his life leading up to his conversion to Christianity. Although he also excludes many details that would have given modern historians insight into daily life in medieval times. Augustine’s descriptions of everything from his education to international and domestic travel to theatrical performances are much different than in modern times. Since the immigration and emigration of worldwide populations in recent history, the whole globe has become a melting pot for cultures, religions, and ethnicities, making it difficult for modern-day historians to study such change in specific populations. Confessions is a window into this lost world, but many specifics St. Augustine omits. In his intention to do so, Augustine primarily focuses on the events in his life that influenced his ultimate conversion to Christianity. His reflection of his sinfulness, his lack of guilt following such wrongdoings, and his criticisms of the blasphemous ideologies taught in schools are a few of Augustine’s main influences to convert. His story focuses on his overall struggle to become a devout Christian and is representative of all Christians’ journey to spiritual awakening. Some things Augustine may have unintentionally left out, perhaps because he did not recognize them as influential in his mission to Christian enlightenment, such as a description of the basic setting. While it may have been helpful to set a scene for readers, Augustine likely wanted to communicate most purposefully the events leading up to his conversion to Christianity.
Augustine sought direction in his life and found balance and meaning in Christianity and its doctrines. It is this journey that he portrays in his autobiographical Confessions. But he also excludes many details that may describe a different interpretation. If I were writing a similar piece in my perspective, I would likely omit some details as well, intentionally and unintentionally. Augustine’s perspective of religion and sinfulness is arguably much more literal and traditional than how much of the world practices worship today. Perhaps it is our ignorance of faith that leads us to sinfulness in our daily lives. Augustine hopes to inspire his readers to their own self-reflection through his memoirs, and his careful exclusion of details makes his story timeless. While a description paints a picture, its absence encourages reflection.