The Confessions of Saint Augustine
A Christian Classic — Thirteen Books of Confession and Praise
About this book
The Confessions of Saint Augustine — one of the most influential works of Western Christian literature
Read The Confessions of Saint Augustine online at UECF.NET. Explore Augustine's classic Christian autobiography — the public-domain Pusey translation — in a convenient, searchable Web Book format.
Author: St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) · Written c. AD 397–400
- 13 Books
- 111,775 words
- ≈ 827 min read
- English · Public domain
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Table of Contents
His infancy and boyhood at Thagaste; his early sins and his schooling in grammar and rhetoric.
7,054 words · ≈52 minBook II
His sixteenth year of idleness; the theft of the pears; the storm of adolescent passion.
3,781 words · ≈28 minBook III
Student life at Carthage; his love of the theatre; espousal of the Manichean heresy.
5,465 words · ≈40 minBook IV
Nine years as a teacher of rhetoric; astrology; the death of a dear friend; his early writings.
6,973 words · ≈52 minBook V
Disillusionment with the Manichees; his move to Rome and then Milan; hearing Bishop Ambrose preach.
6,695 words · ≈50 minBook VI
Monica joins him in Milan; his ambitions and inward struggles; the example of Alypius and the beggar's joy.
7,838 words · ≈58 minBook VII
His wrestling with the problem of evil; Neo-Platonist books lead him toward the vision of an immaterial God.
8,409 words · ≈62 minBook VIII
The inward battle of the will; the voice in the garden, "Take up and read"; his conversion.
8,123 words · ≈60 minBook IX
His baptism at Milan; the vision at Ostia; the death of his mother, Monica.
8,819 words · ≈65 minBook X
An extended meditation on memory, temptation, and self-examination in the present hour of his confession.
16,315 words · ≈121 minBook XI
A philosophical meditation on time, eternity, and the opening words of Genesis.
9,501 words · ≈70 minBook XII
Exploring the creation of heaven and earth in Genesis: matter, form, and the many possible readings of Scripture.
10,205 words · ≈76 minBook XIII
An allegorical reading of the six days of creation as a figure of the Church and the life of grace.
12,597 words · ≈93 min
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About the author
Aurelius Augustinus — Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) — was Bishop of Hippo Regius in Roman North Africa and one of the most important theologians in the history of the Western Church. Born in Thagaste to a pagan father and his Christian mother, Monica, Augustine spent years pursuing worldly ambition and the Manichean sect before his conversion to Christianity in Milan in AD 386, prompted in part by the preaching of Bishop Ambrose. He was baptized at Easter 387 and later returned to North Africa, where he was ordained a priest and then bishop. His writings, including Confessions and The City of God, shaped Christian theology for centuries and remain foundational texts of Western thought.
About this edition
The Confessions is Augustine's autobiographical account of his early life, his years of restless searching, and his conversion — cast throughout as a long prayer of praise and confession addressed directly to God. It is divided into thirteen Books, each preserved here in full and in its original order.
This web edition presents the classic English translation by Edward Bouverie Pusey (first published 1838), which has passed into the public domain and is the standard freely-distributable English text of the Confessions. The text was sourced from Project Gutenberg (ebook #3296).
UECF.NET was also supplied with a modern edition of the Confessions (translated by Rex Warner, with an introduction and afterword by Martin E. Marty, published by Signet Classic / Penguin Putnam, copyright © Rex Warner 1963 and © Martin E. Marty 2001). Because that translation and its supplementary essays remain under active copyright, its text is not reproduced on this page. Readers who would like that specific edition can find it through their local library or bookseller.
Latest updates
- 2026 — Published as a UECF.NET Web Book from the public-domain Pusey translation: all 13 Books, full-text search, dark mode and mobile reading.
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