In this new translation the brilliant and impassioned descriptions of Augustine's colourful early life are conveyed to the English reader with accuracy and art.

Augustine tells of his wrestlings to master his sexual drive, his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of high power at the imperial court of Milan, and his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage as he recovered the faith that his mother had taught him. It was in a Milan garden that Augustine finally achieved the act of will to Christian conversion, which he compared to a lazy man in bed finally deciding it is time to get up and face the day.

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Features

• The first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey.
• The most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context.
• Edited by an eminent scholar of early Christianity.

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For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Introduction
Bibliographical note
Dates
The Confessions
Index

Saint Augustine

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Henry Chadwick.

`Chadwick's translation is superb.' -- Church History, June 1993

`If the Latin is a "work of high art", so is this translation.' -- The Times

`A masterpiece beyond classification.' -- Church Times

`My favourite translation is Henry Chadwick's (Oxford World's Classics), always clear, often racy, and capable of rising when necessary to Augustine's sublimer moments." -- Eamon Duffy,  The Tablet

`How good it is to have this new translation - apparently the first for thirty years - of a work which, says Henry Chadwick in a brilliant 18-page introduction, "will always rank among the greater masterpieces of western literature" ... Professor Chadwick has the gift for being able to pinpoint significant, as well as sometimes unfamiliar aspects of the life of the church: and in this respect his footnotes in the present volume do not disappoint us.' -- Expository Times

'excellent translation ... this new translation is the most readable version in modern English' -- Vernon J. Bourke, Saint Louis University, Manuscripta 35 (1991)/3

'It is a great pleasure to welcome a translation of the Confessions from one who is both a scholar and a lover of Augustine. There is a concise but very informative introduction, and a bibliography which will be extremely helpfull to the students who wants to read some of the work of Augustine's contemporaries in extenso. The translation itself is clear and accessible ... of available English version, this offers the most comprehensive identification of scriptural allusions in the text.' -- Rowan Williams, Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 44, No. 1, April 1993