"Confessions" - читать интересную книгу автора (Augustine of Hippo St)

Christian vision of "Christendom." His metaphysical explorations
of the problems of being, the character of evil, the relation of
faith and knowledge, of will and reason, of time and eternity, of
creation and cosmic order, have not ceased to animate and enrich
various philosophic reflections throughout the succeeding
centuries. At the same time the hallmark of the Augustinian
philosophy is its insistent demand that reflective thought issue
in practical consequence; no contemplation of the end of life
suffices unless it discovers the means by which men are brought to
their proper goals. In sum, Augustine is one of the very few men
who simply cannot be ignored or depreciated in any estimate of
Western civilization without serious distortion and impoverishment
of one's historical and religious understanding.

In the space of some forty-four years, from his conversion in
Milan (A.D. 386) to his death in Hippo Regius (A.D. 430),
Augustine wrote -- mostly at dictation -- a vast sprawling library
of books, sermons, and letters, the remains of which (in the
Benedictine edition of St. Maur) fill fourteen volumes as they
are reprinted in Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, Series
Latina (Vols. 32-45). In his old age, Augustine reviewed his
authorship (in the Retractations) and has left us a critical
review of ninety-three of his works he judged most important.
Even a cursory glance at them shows how enormous was his range of
interest. Yet almost everything he wrote was in response to a
specific problem or an actual crisis in the immediate situation.
One may mark off significant developments in his thought over this
twoscore years, but one can hardly miss the fundamental
consistency in his entire life's work. He was never interested in
writing a systematic summa theologica, and would have been
incapable of producing a balanced digest of his multifaceted
teaching. Thus, if he is to be read wisely, he must be read
widely -- and always in context, with due attention to the
specific aim in view in each particular treatise.

For the general reader who wishes to approach Augustine as
directly as possible, however, it is a useful and fortunate thing
that at the very beginning of his Christian ministry and then
again at the very climax of it, Augustine set himself to focus his
experience and thought into what were, for him, summings up. The
result of the first effort is the Confessions, which is his most
familiar and widely read work. The second is in the Enchiridion,
written more than twenty years later. In the Confessions, he
stands on the threshold of his career in the Church. In the
Enchiridion, he stands forth as triumphant champion of orthodox
Christianity. In these two works -- the nearest equivalent to
summation in the whole of the Augustinian corpus -- we can find
all his essential themes and can sample the characteristic flavor
of his thought.