“No one can tell me the truth of it except my God, who enlightens my mind and dispels its shadows.” (p. 52) And, he says, “In those days my mind was corrupt. I did not know that if it was to share in the truth, it must be illumined by another light, because the mind itself is not the essence of truth.” (p. 86) And then Augustine continues in quoting John 1:9, “For you are the true Light which enlightens every soul born into the world.” 

Confessions by St. Augustine, originally written in Latin in thirteen books from AD 397 – 400, translated by R. S. Pine-Coffin, Penguin Books, 1961, 347 pp.

Surely many reviews of Augustine’s Confessions have been written which well summarize and explain the text. The purpose of this review will be merely to note some important things I found in the volume.

In reading Augustine’s works I’m primarily looking for insight into his theory of knowledge. Evidently, Confessions was written after Augustine’s important epistemological treatise De Magistro, for in the former he notes the latter. Though the present book is not one of his major works on epistemology there are some relevant passages. For one, he writes, “No one can tell me the truth of it except my God, who enlightens my mind and dispels its shadows.” (p. 52) And, he says, “In those days my mind was corrupt. I did not know that if it was to share in the truth, it must be illumined by another light, because the mind itself is not the essence of truth.” (p. 86) And then Augustine continues in quoting John 1:9, “For you are the true Light which enlightens every soul born into the world.”

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