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The Confessions of Saint Augustine

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Garry Wills' translation of Saint Augustine's "Confessions" brings this work to life. Wills has rendered Augustine's Latin into beautifully flowing contemporary English. It is commendable that he was able to do this while preserving the personal character of this saint's life story and demonstrating the complexity and depth of Augustine's thought.

While reading this book, I often felt amazed that this work, despite being written so long ago, appears to be so contemporary. Augustine's life and ideas really transcend time and are insightful reflections on the basic human condition. If you would like to read a good translation of the "Confessions" written in contemporary English, I highly recommend this edition to you.

This looked like the right Confessions for my students to read, so I assigned it. As I read it, I have qualms. Though I don't doubt it's fine for my students, there's too much in it that's Wills and not Augustine. If you want a well-digested Augustine, and to ride along in Garry Wills' brain as he understands the Confessions, then this will be fine (yes, Wills is smart and read this book with more care than we will, so you can do worse), and you can dismiss the following reservations as obsessive pedantry. But if you want a reliable guide to Augustine's phrases, read on for better suggestions.

If you read Wills, you will get the impression that Augustine is harping on certain striking expressions. I'll cite two examples. There are a lot of "anfractuous paths," "anfractuosities," etc. Is this a necessary resort to reflect some strange and special word (say Latin anfractuosus) to which Augustine is drawn? No, Wills is translating plain statements about the rough and hard way vs. the smooth and easy way; I guess he just really loves the word anfractuous. More seriously, anyone will read these Confessions and believe that Augustine is always harping about "transgressive knowledge." Look at the Latin, and you'll find all kinds of expressions under this single English translation -- spectandi (which could be Greek theorein), curiosa peritia, curiositates suas (add sicut pisces mari and you get "their fishlike transgressive knowledge"), to name a few. Of course I'm not disputing that an Augustinian idea of vain science ignorant of God or failing to honor the creator above creation is relevant here. But um...let the reader figure that out for herself, as Augustine does, instead of walloping us over the head with "transgressive knowledge" every time you catch a whiff of it.

I've said it reads smoothly enough, but Wills craves his own original expression (tsk, tsk, not a very good Augustinian there, Garry) to the point that he will break up parallel expressions into "vivid" new phrases, etc. Unfortunately sometimes this obscures Augustine's logic. Sometimes Wills condenses willfully. For example, I don't think my students are very helped by his turning "the Paraclete, our consoler, the Holy Spirit" (paracleti consolatoris nostri spiritus sancti) into simply "the Supporter." The latter tends to work only if you know that (a) Supporter = paraclete, (b) paraclete = holy spirit.

I take it as a sign of our unlearned age that Augustine's own words are so strange to us that such estimable critics as James Wood can rave about how "Augustine flourishes in Wills's hands."

Without a doubt for a modern polished translation you're better off in the hands of Maria Boulding (available in two editions: The Confessions, Revised (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Vol. 1), The Confessions). Chadwick unaccountably aims for simplicity so zealously that he doesn't hesitate to strike whole clauses that make a point, so I can't recommend him; for example, with the aforementioned fishlike curiosities, Chadwick simply discards "quibus perambulant secretas semitas abyssi." For a still nearer approach, pick up the Loeb (Confessions, Vol. 1: Books 1-8 (Loeb Classical Library, No. 26 v. 1)). The translation shows its age a bit, but it's admirably straightforward, and you can look across the page to Augustine's actual words.