The ‘Confessions of St. Augustine’ is an auto biographical book that was originally written by St. Augustine of Hippo between 397 and 398 AD. Augustine majorly focuses on the sinful lifestyle that he had and the subsequent conversion to Christianity. Augustine uses the autobiography to show remorse for the sinful and immoral life that he held. He uses the subject ‘I’ because he is referring to himself and this way he is able to give us a vivid picture of his life as he goes through various phases such as the belief in astrology and in the Manichaean religion. Augustine vividly takes us through his life from infancy to adult hood as he admits that he cannot recall the sins he committed from when he was an infant to the time he turns 14 years; “…I remember nothing; for thou hast…”.
Augustine uses the subject voice I as he takes us through the challenges he faces for example when his friends influence him into stealing pears yet he had plenty at his home. He goes on to explain the guilty feeling that he had when he ate the stolen pears and this led him to throwing the pears to the pigs. Augustine then takes us through his life, his conversion to Manichaeism at the age of 16, the death of his friend, and the gradual shift to Christianity. We see Augustine join Manichaeism due to his ability to use logic and philosophy so as to lead himself to God.
We see Augustine face the crisis of understanding Christianity and in his quest to understand Christianity he comes up with his own concept and views on God. These views help him to have a better understanding of God.Through powerful intercessions of his mother and the sermons of St Ambrose on Christianity deeply touched Augustine and at age 32 he finally accept to be fully converted to Christianity, and he is baptized at 33.To totally commit to Christianity Augustine waited for a sign and we see that one day he heard a voice tell him “pick and read” and he picks the bible and he opens the book of Romans 13:13 which reads “
Not in rioting and drunkardness …put on the Lord Jesus Christ…” Augustine goes on to tell us about the value of confession, the reflections of the book of Genesis in the bible and the search of the meaning of time. The whole of chapter nine in the autobiography is about Augustine’s praise and glory to the Lord this because he had finally found himself, his true belief and he is able to wholeheartedly believe in it. Augustine’s book is mainly on theological insight on issues such as sin that he faced and struggled with.Montaigne autobiographical essays refer to a collection of 107 essays that were written and published by Michel De Montaigne in 1580.
Montaigne wrote in a way to intrigue and involve the reader the reader. While writing this essays Montaigne’s goal was to describe man and more specifically himself with honesty. He is intrigued by the great variety and volatility of human nature as a whole “I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself. Montaigne goes on to describe himself, his poor memory, his ability to solve problems and conflicts. Montaigne goes ahead to explain his pessism, skeptism and disgust for the ongoing conflict between protestants and the Catholics at that time. Going through his essay we can see that Montaigne was a strong supporter of humanism.
Just like Augustine he also converts to Christianity and becomes a Catholic but unlike Augustine he declines to speculate the historical circumstances that make him turn to God.Essays on Montaigne have the capacity to renew any philosophers understanding og the self. This is possible through his use of styles such ass skepticism, relativism and his focus on common conditions and situations that ordinarily occur to any individual. Montaigne’s analysis of such situations enables him to have a clearer understanding of the Miracle self.The main difference between Augustine’s confessions and Montaigne’s essay is seen in the way that they express their life.
Montaigne’s language use is familiar in our times just like it was in Montaigne’s time. Montaigne does not focus on the theological right or wrong of his views. He writes about life as he finds it in a non-doctrinal spirit. Augustine’s confessions on the other hand involved him speaking of his life before salvations and the sins that he engaged in and how they affected him.
Montaigne comments about his habits such as the way he greedily eats such that he almost bites his tongue and fingers, he shows us this habits not as a way of confession of sins like Augustine but as a way to let the readers set aside pretense and attitudinizing of other peoples acts. He does this so as to provide an unvarnished picture of his life experiences and attitudes of the mind (Mijolla, 1994).
Reference
Mijolla, E. (1994). Autobiographical quests: Augustine, Montaigne, Rousseau, and Wordsworth. University of Virginia Press
Montaigne, M. & Screech, M. (1993). The complete Essays. Penguin Books
Augustine, S. (2006) The Confessions of Saint. 1st World Publishing
