The Theology of Augustine's Confessions

This study of the Confessions engages with contemporary philosophers and psychologists antagonistic to religion and demonstrates the enduring value of Augustine's journey for those struggling with theistic incredulity and religious narcissism. Paul Rigby draws on current Augustinian scholarship and the works of Paul Ricœur to cross-examine Augustine's testimony. This analysis reveals the sophistication of Augustine's confessional text, which anticipates the analytical mindset of his critics. Augustine presents a coherent, defensible response to three age-old problems: free will and grace; goodness, innocent suffering, and radical evil; and freedom and predestination. The Theology of Augustine's Confessions moves beyond commentary and allows present-day readers to understand the Confessions as its original readers experienced it, bridging the divide introduced by Kant, Hegel, Freud, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and their descendants.

Introduction; 1. Confessio; 2. Fatherhood: from neurotic phantasm to compassionate symbol; 3. Narcissism and narrative's vital lie; 4. Evil, suffering, and dualistic wisdom; 5. Original sin: an ineluctable triple hatred; 6. Original sin and the human tragic; 7. 'The platitudes of ethical monotheism'; 8. Inscrutable wisdom; 9. Lyrical voice; 10. The life of a bishop: reinventing Plato's celestial clock, Confessions 11-13; 11. Resurrection and the restless heart.

Paul Rigby is a professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences at Saint Paul University. He is the author of Original Sin in Augustine's Confessions.