Notes on Confessions Book VIII

Confessions
St. Augustine

Ch. 1

In order to fully embrace Christ Augustine's heart, "had to be purged of the old leaven".

Something held Augustine back. That something was temporal (the idea of marriage) and it left him at unease.

Ch. 2

Augustine visits Simplicianus, the mentor of Ambrose.

Simplicianus thanks God that Augustine had received philosophical instruction from the Platonists and not other philosophers. The Platonists' teachings lead to the path that leads to God.

Simplicianus relates the conversion of the Roman philosopher, Victorinus. This conversion had a powerful impact on Augustine.

Ch. 3

The Lord rejoices more in the repentance of the one than in the just of the ninety-nine who do not need repentance.

"The greater the peril of the battle, the more joy of the triumph".

Ch. 4

"For when many rejoice together the joy of each one is fuller, in that they warm one another, catch fire from each other; moreover, those who are well-known influence many toward salvation and take the lead with many to follow them".

Ch. 5

Victorinus gave up teaching when Emperor Julian made it illegal for Christians to teach literature or rhetoric. Augustine claimed that Victorinus was not so much brave in this act as he now had a reason for giving his full time to God.

"For out of the perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, not resisted became necessity"

Habit became Augustine's enemy: "because I had willingly come to be what I unwillingly found myself to be"

"The law of sins is the tyranny of habit, by which the mind is drawn and held, even against its will"

Ch. 6

Augustine meets Ponticianus, who relates to him the life of St. Anthony and introduces Augustine to Monastic Christianity.

Ch. 7

The search for God and truth is worth more than all the kingdoms of this world.

Augustine still struggled to convert wholly for both love of earthly pleasures (though he knew by now that they eternal ones were far superior) and because he was fighting against habit.

Ch. 8

Augustine became frustrated that even through 10 years of striving he had not achieved the peace that less educated men and women had attained by following Christ.

The distance to God is not great. It is at hand. One only needs the will to go and be unwavering in that will.

Ch. 9

Augustine had two will fighting in him and could not fully commit because of it.

Ch. 10

Two wills does not mean a good will and an evil will. That is a false, Manichean doctrine.

When the goods of heaven attract man from above and the earthly goods pull from below then the man without a single will, will find himself in torment of the soul. His will is partial and incomplete and moved only by custom or habit.

Ch. 11

"I hesitated to die to death and live to life. And the worse way, to which I was habituated, was stronger in me than the better, which I had not tried.

Ch. 12

In his deepest sorrow Augustine read Romans 13:13. Alypius was with him and read further on through Romans 14:1. Both were converted fully in that moment and went and told Monica. She rejoiced in God's answering her prayers for Augustine's salvation