Saint Augustine's Childhood, Vol. 1

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Translated by Garry Wills

Viking Press

Due/Published October 2001, 208 pages, cloth

ISBN 0670030015

In Garry Wills's biography of Saint Augustine for the Penguin Lives series, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author brilliantly documented the life of the great Christian thinker. His translations of passages of Saint Augustine's influential Confessiones were hailed as "sizzling" (Peter Brown, New York Review of Books). James Wood, writing for the London Review of Books declared, "Augustine flourishes in Wills's hand." Now, Wills has taken on a translation of the first of four books of the Confessiones, "Childhood."

Wills's broad-ranging and incisive discussion of the style, structure, and themes of "Childhood" brings a fresh perspective to this classic work, including the juxtaposition of Augustine's concept of childhood and the learning of language with the ideas of Noam Chomsky and current research. Beautifully designed and translated by "America's greatest living intellectual" (The American Prospect), "Childhood" will be sought after by academics, Christians, and the general reader.

Translated by Garry Wills, author of the bestselling Penguin Lives biography of Saint Augustine.

Review

Many consider Augustine's Confessiones to be one of the first examples of autobiography, yet, as Wills points out in his lucid commentary, much of the theologian's life does not find its way into the book. What we get instead is a meditation on childhood, the grace of God, and the nature of language, and childhood. The Confessiones is also an extended and intimate prayer in which Augustine "[lets] others eavesdrop on his inner colloquy with God." Wills's remarkable translation and commentary on the first book of the Confessiones (more are on the way) emphasize Augustine's unique rhetorical, literary, and intellectual style. His commentary offers intelligent and helpful insights into Augustine's thought and use of imagery and structure in the Confessiones. Wills also explores Augustine's theory of language, a crucial element of the first book, and one frequently misunderstood by critics. Wills reveals how Augustine's understanding of the action of God within the mind anticipates aspects of Noam Chomsky's "generative grammar." Also included in this volume is Wills's new translation of "The Teacher," a dialogue between Augustine and his son that deepens our understanding of Augustine's theory of language.

Peter Brown writes, "His [Wills's] translations …are sizzling. They are meant to bring Augustine straight into our own minds; and they succeed."

Also just out from Garry Wills is Venice, The Lion City: The Religion of Empire

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