Notes on Confessions Book XIII

Confessions
St. Augustine

Book XIII

Ch. 1

"I call thee into my soul, which thou didst prepare for thy reception by the desire which thou inspirest in it"

Ch. 2

From the fullness of Goodness in God comes creation.

"An unformed spiritual entity is more excellent than a formed corporeal entity; and the corporeal, even when unformed, is more excellent than if it were simply nothing at all"

"The true good of every created thing is always to cleave fast to thee"

Ch. 3

God is the only being that does not have a distinction in his being between living and living in blessedness, "thou art thyself thy own blessedness".

Ch. 4

God created out of his goodness and fullness, not because He lacked anything.

Ch. 5

Augustine argues the language of Genesis affirms the Trinity.

Ch. 6

Augustine wonders why the Spirit was introduced after the waters he was moving over.

Ch. 7

The Holy Spirit lifts us up to the inner heavens where our souls can find rest.

Ch. 8

Augustine confesses that his existence is woe apart from God.

Ch. 9

The Holy Spirit is how we enjoy God.

Ch. 10

"Let him who is able to understand this; and let him who is not ask of thee". Lord, I ask of thee. I don't understand this passage at all.

Ch. 11

What man can fully understand the Trinity? By analogy we can understand how a trinity exists in an unity, but the complete understanding of the Trinity is too much for man.

Ch. 12

When we became displeased with our darkness we turned to thee and there was light.

Ch. 13

We live by faith not by sight because we live by hope in the promise that one day we'll see face-to-face.

Ch. 14

The relapse into the darkness can occur in us but hope and pray and praise God in even the darkness of the night.

Ch. 15

The whole of Scriptures is like the skins God stretched for Adam and Eve after the fall. It is His words stretched over us to protect us and clothe us.

Ch. 16

I cannot satisfy myself; only God can satisfy me.

Everything God is He immutably is.

Ch. 17

When we help our neighbors physically we perform both a physical and spiritual task with both physical and spiritual results.

Ch. 18

By feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and sheltering the homeless we operate on a low level of fruitful action and can come to the joy of contemplation.

By God's eternal design He spreads the Heavenly blessing on earth in the proper seasons.

Ch. 19

Augustine encourages Christians into missionary work: be the light of the world you are!

Ch. 20

"O God, who dost refresh our easily wearied mortal senses that is our mental cognition a single thing may be figured and signified in many different ways by different bodily motions"

Augustine argues he sees the text of Genesis allegorically because it leads to the higher things of God. He notes that those who can't move past the text in its physical meaning still have a soul that has a higher life that profits from the spiritual text.

Ch. 21

Don't be overcome by pride, lust or morbid curiosity. These things are signs of a dead soul because the soul has sought things away from the wellspring of life.

Only wen man has become renewed in his mind by God can he walk in the image of God he was created in without any human guidance.

Ch. 22

Be not conformed to this world.

Ch. 23

Now as a Spiritual man it does not behoove him to judge the Scriptures, even if there are parts hard to understand. "Instead, we submit our understanding to it and believe with certainty that which is hidden from our sight is still rightly and truly spoken"

"Nor does a man, even though he is spiritual, judge the disordered state of society in this world. For what business of his is it to judge those who are without, since he cannot know which of them may later on come into the sweetness of thy grace, and which of them may continue in the perpetual bitterness of their impiety?" That's an interesting point...

 Ch. 24

Augustine takes, "be fruitful and multiply" on an allegorical level to mean to increase our fruitfulness of mind because even the beasts are fruitful and multiply physically.

Ch. 25

All men are liars. The truth they speak is only through God's truth.

Ch. 26

Paul was fed with joy and that is why he can be content in all situations.

Ch. 27

The uninstructed and the infidel require mysteries of initiation and great works of miracles. The instructed already accept God.

Ch. 28

The whole of creation, an amalgam of things called good by God, is called very good by God. The sum is greater than the parts.

Ch. 29

The things we see through God's spirit he sees the same way. But the temporal things we see in a way different than God because God does not see things in time.

Ch. 30

Augustine argues against the dualistic notion of a benevolent creator of all things spiritual and a malevolent creator of all things physical.

Ch. 31

What we see as good in creation we see as good because God has called it good.

Ch. 32

The imago dei is having the power of reason and understanding.

Ch. 33

Creation was made by God but made of God.

Ch. 34

In order to perfect the faithful God ordained that the faithful, "should themselves bring forth good things" for both this life and the next.

Ch. 35

Augustine prays for peace and rest.

Ch. 37

God exists outside of time but created everything that exists in time.

God takes the Sabbath and rests in us when He completes the work in us. 

Ch. 38

"We can see all those things which thou hast made because they are - but they are because thou seest them."

God has never ceased to do good.

Only by seeking truth in God will we find any truth.