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Augustine's Confessions

A Biography
by Garry Wills
Augustine's Confessions: A Biography. Princeton Univ. (Lives of Great Religious Books). Mar. 2011. c.176p. index. ISBN 9780691143576. $19.95. REL
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Wills (history, emeritus, Northwestern Univ.; Lincoln at Gettysburg) does for Augustine's Confessions what he did for the Gettysburg Address, which is to take a well-known iconic work and examine it with fresh eyes. He views the Confessions as a book haunted by Genesis, and this perspective allows him to notice things that are overlooked by commentators whose views are preformed by the interpretive tradition. Having translated the Confessions and written a biography of Augustine, Wills is not afraid to go out on a limb, and so even readers who would not agree with his often cheeky interpretations are forced to look at the work afresh. After considering the text itself, Wills considers its influence over the years and the various interpretations (e.g., psychological, postmodern) of the work.
VERDICT James J. O'Donnell's Augustine: A New Biography is a similarly cheeky book that rebels against much of the received wisdom about Augustine's life. Wills offers an iconoclastic interpretation of a classic work, one that deserves a fresh treatment every few years.
Reviewed by Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ , Feb 15, 2011
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