Out of complete honesty, Confessions
by Saint Augustine struggled to keep my attention as his form of writing
was quite difficult to understand and the alternating pattern of switching
between the narrative of his life and a dialogue with/praising God obscured the
main idea for me in the former chapters of the book. However, later on, this
method became of great importance as it revealed to be Saint Augustine’s own approach
to disclosing his life i.e. in light of the Scriptures.
Throughout
the text, Saint Augustine has repeatedly cited the Bible. But what effect does
this have on his interpretation of his life? Personally, I occasionally like to
look at the Bible as a novel, with Genesis serving as the introduction, Jesus’s
death and resurrection as the climax and Revelations as the conclusion. This
gives the impression of the Old Testament as extremely integral passageway for
the coming of the Lord in human form to save us from our sins. Then, in order
to save us from our sins, we must first be sinful. Here we see that our
sinfulness, though so awful that it resulted in the Great Flood in Genesis, the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the capture of Jesus, was a necessary journey
for us to be saved and experience the extent at which we are held in the grace
of God. Similarly, that is how Saint Augustine interprets his life. He sees his
passage through great sinfulness as essential in order to arrive at a place of
faithfulness. He does not see his crimes as a young boy (stealing pears just
for the sinful act of stealing), excessive lust and association with heretic
Manichees as something to be ashamed of, but simply a part of his journey
towards becoming a God fearing individual; just like humanity’s sinfulness was
a part of the journey towards the coming of the Messiah. For this reason, it is
probably no coincidence that his book was written at a time in his life when
his autobiography would be only partly done as he lived much longer following
the book. This can in some way mirror the stage creation is in right now i.e.
after the resurrection but before the “conclusion” (the events portrayed by
Revelations).
This method
of interpreting life is an interesting one and contributes to the notion of
reading the Bible figuratively. Saint Augustine, when in the process of
refuting Manichean beliefs but not yet embracing Christian faith, did not find
the Bible convincing and did not believe that it made sense. It was only when
he began looking at the Bible from a moral and spiritual level, with the help
of Ambrose, was he able to understand and believe. In theology, we are told as
fact that there are numerous levels at which the Bible can be read, but do we
completely understand what that means? Personally, I did understand but what I
did not understand was how. Saint Augustine’s method of using Scripture
presented a unique approach at viewing his life, which allowed me to view my
own life in such a manner. It is thought-provoking to look at the life my live, my errors and successes as a means towards something greater. This
allows me to pay attention to the finer details that are constantly looked
over in my life on a day-to-day basis. It is then these small aspects that
seem to have the most profound impact on my life and future.
