Wills, Garry

Princeton. 2011. Princeton University Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780691143576. LIVES OF GREAT RELIGIOUS BOOKS. 168 pages. hardcover. . keywords: Religion Saint Augustine. FROM THE PUBLISHER - FROM PULITZER PRIZE–WINNER GARRY WILLS, THE STORY OF AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSIONS. In this brief and incisive book, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Garry Wills tells the story of the Confessions - what motivated Augustine to dictate it, how it asks to be read, and the many ways it has been misread in the one and a half millennia since it was composed. Following upon Wills's biography of Augustine and his translation of the Confessions, this is an unparalleled introduction to one of the most important books in the Christian and Western traditions. Understandably fascinated by the story of Augustine's life, modern readers have largely succumbed to the temptation to read the Confessions as autobiography. But, Wills argues, this is a mistake. The book is not autobiography but rather a long prayer, suffused with the language of Scripture, and addressed to God, not man. Augustine tells the story of his life not for its own significance but in order to discern how, as a drama of sin and salvation leading to God, it fits into sacred history. ‘We have to read Augustine as we do Dante,' Wills writes, ‘alert to rich layer upon layer of Scriptural and theological symbolism.' Wills also addresses the long afterlife of the book, from controversy in its own time and relative neglect during the Middle Ages to a renewed prominence beginning in the fourteenth century and persisting to today, when the Confessions has become an object of perennial interest not just for Christians but also historians, philosophers, psychiatrists, and literary critics. With unmatched clarity and skill, Wills strips away the centuries of misunderstanding that have accumulated around Augustine's spiritual classic. ‘Garry Wills rescues Augustine's Confessions from its posterity, peeling away layer after layer of anachronistic reactions to the text and providing an invaluable aid to readers. A master restorer, Wills gives us a picture carefully cleaned of a millennium and a half of varnish. . This is vintage Wills - punchy, clear, well-argued, and beautifully translated, both linguistically and culturally.' - Peter Brown, Princeton University, author of Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. inventory #37840 ISBN: 9780691143576.