Written around 398 AD, this work by Saint Augustine serves as a spiritual autobiography, outlining the author's life and his eventual conversion to the Christian faith. The Confessions, therefore, are truly a cross-section of the author's self-awareness, which is best expressed in the statement that opens the work: «You stimulate man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”, which means that man originated from God, and human action must be ordered to God (1,1). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayTherefore, in the two books detailing his early years and adolescence, Augustine is highly critical of himself, lamenting the sins of his youth, pointing out that «in my misery I seethed and followed the driving force of my you rush, abandoning yourself" (2,4). The source of his complaint now comes, according to Augustine, from God who "touches with bitter taste all my illicit pleasures" (2.4). After recounting the sins of passion in childhood and youth, Augustine now highlights the sins of the intellect that manifest themselves in late adolescence and adulthood. Augustine introduces this section with a book that introduces the period in which Augustine studied in Carthage, a period in which because of the philosophies that the author loved, he put "[his] soul in rotten health" (3.1). There, Augustine fell into believing Manichaeism, a Bitheism that believes matter was evil and spirit was good (and thus a bad God created the material world and a good God created the spiritual world), and also fathered a son out of marriage, ignoring the materiality of marriage. Augustine eventually became a professor of rhetoric at the universities of Rome and Milan. Before leaving for Rome, the saint became disillusioned with Manichaeism due to the visit of the Manichaean bishop of Carthage. Augustine then teaches rhetoric in Rome until he is called to Milan, where Saint Ambrose is the local bishop. Ambrose's teaching pushes Augustine to become a catechumen in the Catholic Church. Augustine then encounters Neoplatonic Christianity and the works of St. Paul, further motivating the saint to convert to Christianity. After two friends talk about conversion stories of past saints, Augustine, while reflecting in a garden, hears a child singing, "Take and read!" (see 8.29) Augustine then takes the closest Bible, reads a passage which says that Jesus comes to redeem humanity from carnal passions, which confirms Augustine's decision to convert to Christianity. Augustine then stops teaching rhetoric, gets baptized and then Monica, his mother, who for many years prayed for his conversion, dies. The final four books now move towards a personal introspection on the new beliefs of the author, who perhaps helped Augustine minister to his congregations as a priest and bishop. In the end, Augustine's Confessions, especially in the last four books, which present a philosophy of Christian life religion, unites Neoplatonism and Christianity, personalizing the ideas of St. Gregory of Nyssa in the Life of Moses and of Pseudo-Dionysius in The Names Divine. This means that Augustine, in the Confessions, revealed his personal spiritual path towards God, intended to be "a sign for the nations" as Gregory intends the example of virtue shown in Moses to be, thus leading other men to contemplate the mystery of God. revealed in Christ, which Pseudo-Dionysius marvels at, as well as the early Church Fathers who defended the Incarnation (Isaiah 11:10). Ultimately, Augustine's Confessions make the message of Christianity relevant to all” (6).