Confessions of st. augustine

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Are the books out there titled, Confessions of St. Augustine, the origional text or are they interpretations?

I prefer the origional text unless the language would be so difficult that the message would get lost trying to understand it. Which would you recommend for a High school student?
 
Asimis said:
They are the original texts, like this one for example:

amazon.com/Confessions-Saint-Augustine-Image-Book/dp/0385029551/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231899468&sr=8-12

The language is easy to understand. St. Augustine is a very accessible writer yet also very deep and insightful.
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Yup, that’s the copy I have on my bookshelf right now. I bought it not long ago.

Of course, St. Augustine originally wrote in Latin and as with any document that’s been translated from another language, you’re going to have variations in translation.

The different copies of the Confessions that you’ll find are just different translations of that work. Sometimes the translation differences are simply the matter of one or two words, but sometimes they’re bigger.

Unless you’re planning a scholarly study of the Confessions, I think pretty much any copy of the book you pick up should be fine. It’s not exactly “light” reading though, so you may want to pick up a commentary, if you come across one, for reading alongside the actual text.

Good luck! 🙂
 
passus said:
Unless you’re planning a scholarly study of the Confessions, I think pretty much any copy of the book you pick up should be fine. It’s not exactly “light” reading though, so you may want to pick up a commentary, if you come across one, for reading alongside the actual text.

Good luck! 🙂
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Exactly - I’m a voracious reader, and I found this a tough read (though the content and story is powerful). There are some “abridged” versions in today’s English making it a little easy.

Same with City of God - monumental work - buy the abridged version unless you are doing scholarly research.

The Aquinas Summa is another (the original is something like 4,000 pages), but you can purchase the “shorter summa” (his words, but condensed to 400 pages or Peter Kreft has a "shorter shorter summa) about half that length 🙂
 
Robbinson said:
Exactly - I’m a voracious reader, and I found this a tough read (though the content and story is powerful). There are some “abridged” versions in today’s English making it a little easy.

Same with City of God - monumental work - buy the abridged version unless you are doing scholarly research.

The Aquinas Summa is another (the original is something like 4,000 pages), but you can purchase the “shorter summa” (his words, but condensed to 400 pages or Peter Kreft has a "shorter shorter summa) about half that length 🙂
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I’m not doing scholarly research but I like Augustine’s style and thinking, so I’m plowing through City of God (all 22 books of it :eek: ) regardless. I’m up to about the middle of book 13 👍
 
LilyM said:
I’m not doing scholarly research but I like Augustine’s style and thinking, so I’m plowing through City of God (all 22 books of it :eek: ) regardless. I’m up to about the middle of book 13 👍
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Wow - that’s impressive (really). If you get tired, the Abridged Edition (forward by Vernon Bourke and Introduction by Etienne Gilson) was a good read at a mere 550 pages.

Happy reading.

Blessings,

Brian
 
LilyM said:
I’m not doing scholarly research but I like Augustine’s style and thinking, so I’m plowing through City of God (all 22 books of it :eek: ) regardless. I’m up to about the middle of book 13 👍
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You’re just half way to canon lawyer, aren’t you! :rolleyes:
 
passus said:
You’re just half way to canon lawyer, aren’t you! :rolleyes:
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Why the :rolleyes: - what I read should be no skin off your nose, and I’m just sharing with those who are similarly interested in City of God.
 
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