Unity of Confessions
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Unity of Confessions
The word confession, is defined, as "the act or process of confessing; acknowledgment; avowal, especially in a matter pertaining to one's self; the admission of a debt, obligation, or crime; the acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith." St. Augustine's Confessions is a philosophical and theological autobiography in which he narrates his ascent from impiety to Christianity. To confess during St. Augustine's time, simply meant to give an account of one's faults to God and to address one's love for Him. He entitles this novel Confessions to link these two forms. He believes narrative to be an epilogue of God's excellence and the fundamental love that all beings have for Him. Thus, Augustine's redemption is a direct address to God, since it is God to which he owes his conversion. This foreknowledge will help shed light onto his unusual organization of his work.
Confessions is composed of thirteen descriptitive books in which the first nine are devoted to his life up until the death of his mother...