6. What does Augustine tell us in book X that helps us understand the structure of the Confessions as a whole, including the non--narrative books?
Books I-IX serve as the narrative of his life describing the events leading to his conversion. In book X however, Augustine justifies the validity of this narrative through the power of narrative as he compels the audience to reexperience the events of his past with him in order to further understand the relationship between man and God. Memory, Augustine claims in book X, is the mode of recalling events and reexpereicing the feeling and senses that came with it. Doing this in Augustine's life allows him to analise the difference between his human-centered motives prior to his conversion compared with his God-filled attitude after it. The change Augustine observes, which he clearly points out to his audience, was extremely provocative in explaining the relationship between man and God, using his Memory to employ himself as a humble example. Reading Augustine May cause some Christians some spiritually nostalgic feelings in recalling their personal experiences after reading Augustine's.
As we mentioned in class, and as the lecture we listened to suggests, the discussion of memory sin Book X seems a logical step in a narrative that has been explicitly transmitted to the audience through the vehicle of memory. The validity of the first 9 books, therefore, to a certain extent depend upon the validity and extraordinary qualities of the memory. Now we have reached the point of the present in Book X, this book prepares us for to consider, along with Augustine, how he is to proceed as a Christian in terms of his relationship with God, the world around him, and his interpretation of the scriptures.
ReplyDeleteshould read... "discussion of memory in" (not sin!)
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