Augustine: Confessions, chapter 1 and miscellaneous

Since "p dempsey" is kind enough to be interested, here's what I'm thinking about Augustine so far:

I am certainly not an expert on Augustine; however, I suspect that for a variety of reasons, I probably know more than the average "area man." I spent much of this morning so far reading the first chapter of Confessions, in which A. discusses his childhood. And there are several things that occurred to me. I should say first that so far, I'm finding A. appealing on many different levels, and it seems odd that I've never read this work before because it does, in fact, speak to a variety of seemingly divergent interests that I have.

First, A's style very much reminds me of the late medieval English devotional writers. I'm thinking specifically of Julian of Norwich. Like Julian, Augustine uses a discursive, meditative style. He tends to mull over questions and possibly answers rather than expositing a particular argument. But more than that, it seems to me, at least right now, that A, like Julian, tends to say the same thing or ask the same question over and over using different rhetorical approaches, different wording. I suppose some readers find this tedious; I know that in my experience undergrads don't seem to respond to Julian enthusiastically for this reason. But I find this devotional, meditative style effective and even comforting somehow. I realize that A. is trained in rhetoric and spent much of his pre-converion adulthood as a master rhetorician. I realize that he's drawing on this Classical tradition, an academic tradition. Yet something about it strikes me as very natural.

Second, I find it interesting that in this early section, A. presents a particular construction of childhood, one that sees childhood, even infancy, as sinful. I suppose that "construction" is maybe the wrong word, as Augustine would tell us that he's presenting something objective, not constructed. Academically, I'm fascinated by the variety of ways childhood has been constructed and represented in the literary tradition. And I'm finding that A's discussion seems to be deepening my understanding. For many years, critics have argued that childhood was invented after the medieval period (I could give a big academic explanation, but it seem unnecessary here), yet Augustine seems to challenge this assertion in that he does write childhood as unique from adulthood, although it is clearly not an Enlightenment idea of childhood that he's writing.

Third, A. challenges the once commonplace observation by literary historians that the "self" and "interiority" were "discovered" in the 12th century. In grad school I always found this (now mostly outdated) argument silly. Augustine clearly allows for and even embraces the concept of an interior existence that is somewhat separate from one's external physical life. Isn't this really the essence of the Confessions? the idea that one's interior life is meaningful?

Fourth and probably most important, Augustine writes in a way that I'm finding convicting and encouraging in terms of my own spiritual life. (Doesn't spirituality necessarily imply interiority???) It's as though he's aware of my own sin--my pride, my tendency to be overly enamored with literature, my distraction from spiritual things--but also aware of the solution to my spiritual shortcomings. In this early section, A seems to imply that sin is at the root of our unhappiness. I know this is not some big, earthshattering observation that I'm making. And yet, to read A writing about his own experiences is edifying.

I guess that so far, this is just the sort of text I love: one that is intellectually challenging yet spiritually and emotionally nurturing at the same time.