- 01Praise of God and the restless heart
- 02God's presence beyond heaven and earth
- 03Divine attributes and the limits of speech
- 04Confession of infancy and early dependence
- 01Learning to speak and the first lessons
- 02Boyhood discipline, play, and deferred baptism
- 03Greek, Latin, and the vanity of grammar-school learning
- 01Boyhood studies and the value of learning
- 02The torrent of human custom
- 01Pagan eloquence and theatrical fictions
- 02Boyhood declamation and wasted talent
- 01Darkened affections and distance from God
- 02Grammar, eloquence, and moral blindness
- 03Boyhood sins and confessions
Confessions
by Augustine of Hippo · 397 · 13 chapters · 24/7 tutor
Selfhood, memory, conversion, and time.
13Chapters
95Lessons
257Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Analyze Augustine's reflections on selfhood, memory, and identity
- Explain the role of conversion and divided will in the narrative
- Interpret Augustine's critique of sin, evil, and worldly ambition
- Summarize the influence of Ambrose, Monica, and the Platonists on Augustine's thought
- Trace Augustine's intellectual and spiritual development across the early books
- Discuss how time, creation, and the Word are presented in the text
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 13
- Lessons
- 95
- Topics
- 257
- 01Boyhood as God’s gifts and the danger of seeking creatures
- 02Carnal desires, lust, and the loss of true love
- 03Sixteenth-year studies, family hopes, and parental warnings
- 01The pear tree theft and love of sin
- 02Lower goods as motives for crime
- 01The stolen pears and the delight of sin
- 02False imitations of divine qualities
- 03Corrupt freedom and rebellion against the law
- 01Confession of forgiven sins and divine mercy
- 02The theft of the pears and the love of wrongdoing
- 03Friendship, shame, and the mystery of sin
- 01Carthage and the sickness of disordered love
- 02Stage-plays and the pleasure of sorrow
- 01Love of grief in the theatre
- 02Mercy without delight in sorrow
- 03Pursuit of litigation and rhetoric
- 01Cicero's Hortensius and the love of wisdom
- 02Turning to the holy Scriptures
- 01False teachers and empty truth
- 02Sensory error and the nature of God
- 03Evil as privation and true righteousness
- 01Righteousness as a unified law
- 02Offences against nature and custom
- 03Violence, envy, and the lusts of the flesh
- 01Moral judgment, divine commands, and Manichaean error
- 01Monica’s vision of Augustine’s return
- 02The bishop’s refusal and prophecy
- 01Nine years of wandering and rhetorical teaching
- 02The theatrical prize, astrologers, and the physician's warning
- 01Friendship and the death of the baptized friend
- 02Grief, tears, and the misery of attachment
- 03Earthly friendships versus love in God
- 04Created things pass away and succeed one another
- 05The soul’s true rest in God
- 06Love bodies and souls in their Maker
- 01Return to the heart and the true life
- 02The beauty of bodies and the fair and fit
- 03Hierius, praise, and the instability of human approval
- 04Misunderstanding spiritual truth through bodily examples
- 01False notions of evil and changeable substance
- 02Aristotle's ten Predicaments
- 01The limits of the predicaments
- 02The liberal arts and misused learning
- 03Pride, piety, and divine protection
- 01Confession as praise and mercy
- 02The restless flee from God
- 01Faustus's reputation and Augustine's first judgments
- 02Astronomical knowledge versus Manichean teaching
- 03Faustus's eloquence and limited learning
- 04Faustus's ignorance and Augustine's disappointment
- 05Turning from Manichaean writings to rhetoric teaching
- 06Providence in Augustine's move to Rome
- 01Departure from Carthage and Monica's grief
- 02Arrival in Rome and recovery from sickness
- 03Continuing error among the Manichees
- 01Turning from Manichaean certainty
- 02The Academics and doubt
- 03Material images of God and evil
- 04Misconceptions about Christ's incarnation
- 01Manichean objections and Scripture
- 02Rome's corrupt students and moral disgust
- 03Arrival in Milan and first hearing Ambrose
- 01Why the Catholic faith seemed defensible
- 02Abandoning the Manichees while remaining a catechumen
- 01Monica’s journey and prayers for Augustine
- 02Monica’s obedience to Ambrose’s liturgical reform
- 03Augustine’s view of Ambrose and his preaching
- 01Renouncing false certainties about God
- 02Scripture, Ambrose, and the authority of faith
- 01Authority of Scripture and the limits of reason
- 02Ambition, false praise, and the beggar's joy
- 03Alypius and the Circus
- 01Alypius turns from the Circensian races
- 02Theatre and gladiatorial spectacle
- 03The false theft accusation and vindication
- 01Alypius's integrity in office
- 02Nebridius joins the search for truth
- 03Augustine's delay in choosing wisdom
- 01Marriage, continence, and the divided will
- 02Alypius and the plan for a shared philosophical household
- 01Abandoned plan for a shared household
- 02Concubine separated for marriage plans
- 03Continued bondage to carnal pleasure
- 04Friendship, Epicurean debate, and divine deliverance
- 01Early misconceptions about God’s nature
- 02Nebridius’s refutation of the Manichean opposing mass
- 03Free will, punishment, and the search for evil’s origin
- 04Why corruption cannot belong to God
- 05The problem of evil and the goodness of creation
- 06Rejection of astrology through Firminus's birth story
- 07Twins, hidden judgment, and the failure of astrological prediction
- 01Augustine's search for the origin of evil
- 02Platonist books and the missing doctrine of Christ's humility
- 03What the Platonists taught and omitted
- 01The Unchangeable Light and the Voice of Truth
- 02Created Things, Goodness, and the Nonexistence of Evil Substance
- 01Creation's harmony and ordered goodness
- 02From dualism to God's infinity
- 03Temporal order and the perversion of the will
- 01Ascent from mutable things to unchangeable truth
- 02Christ the Mediator and the Word made flesh
- 03Mistaken view of Christ's humility
- 01Christ's true humanity in the Incarnation
- 02Platonist insight and the limits of pride
- 01Paul's grace-filled teaching
- 01Augustine’s struggle and visit to Simplicianus
- 02Victorinus’s conversion and public profession
- 03Joy over the recovered sinner
- 04Augustine’s longing to imitate Victorinus
- 01The struggle of the two wills
- 02Deliverance from desire and worldly bondage
- 01Pontitianus recounts Antony and the monks
- 02Augustine’s inward rebuke and shame
- 01The divided will in the garden
- 02Why the mind resists itself
- 03Refuting the Manichean two-natures theory
- 04Good and bad wills within one soul
- 05The final struggle with habit and continency
- 01Continence's persuasive rebuke
- 02Augustine's tears under the fig tree
- 03The voice and the opened Apostle
- 01Alypius joins the conversion
- 02Augustine's thanksgiving for deliverance
- 01Withdrawal from rhetoric teaching
- 02Verecundus and Nebridius
- 03Release from the professorship
- 01Confession of inward transformation
- 02Reading the Psalms of David
- 03Conviction by Psalm 4 and the Spirit of truth
- 01Inner awakening through Scripture
- 02Healing of the toothache
- 03Leaving the professorship and returning to Milan
- 04Baptism, hymns, and Ambrose's church
- 01Monica’s childhood discipline and sobriety
- 02Monica’s marriage and patient conduct
- 01Monica as peacemaker and faithful wife
- 02Ostia conversation on eternal life
- 03Monica's readiness for death
- 01Monica's final instructions and death
- 02Augustine's grief and the burial rites
- 01Prayer for Monica's sins and forgiveness
- 01Prayer for Monnica and Patricius
- 02Confession before God
- 01Why Augustine confesses to others
- 02The fruit of public confession
- 01Confession before God and the brethren
- 02What is loved in loving God
- 01Creation's witness: earth, sea, heavens, and the body
- 02The inner self and the search for God
- 01The fields and palaces of memory
- 02Images stored by the senses
- 03Memory as a vast inner court
- 01Memory as a vast inner chamber
- 02Learning truths without bodily images
- 03Recollection, cogitation, and remembered understanding
- 01Memory of emotions and mental states
- 02Images, notions, and remembered things
- 01Memory and forgetfulness
- 02The vastness of memory
- 03Seeking and recovering lost things
- 01The happy life remembered in the soul
- 02Joy in the truth as true happiness
- 01Truth loved and hated by the deceitful mind
- 02God found in memory and the indwelling Truth
- 03Too late loved I Thee
- 01Human life as trial and the gift of continence
- 02Continence from lust and concupiscence in sleep
- 03Fasting, eating, and the temptation of gratification
- 01The threefold concupiscence
- 01Seductions of the eyes and outward beauty
- 02The lust of the eyes as curiosity
- 01The daily temptation of human praise
- 02Inner vanity and self-pleasing
- 03Memory, truth, and the burden of bad custom
- 01The false mediator of pride and deception
- 02Christ the true Mediator between God and man
- 03Christ's saving love, sacrifice, and intercession
- 01Confession of sin and plea for healing
- 02Why the author recounts his prayers
- 03Exhortations, terrors, comforts, and ministry
- 01Prayer for understanding Scripture
- 02Creation of heaven and earth through the Word
- 03The eternal Beginning and divine Wisdom
- 01God as Creator before creation
- 01God as creator of time
- 02The nature of time and the present
- 03Measuring passing time
- 01Memory of past things and foretelling future things
- 02Threefold present in the soul
- 01Measuring time as it passes
- 02The soul's prayer for understanding
- 03Time beyond the motions of the heavens
- 01Why the sun’s motion does not define time
- 02Time as the measure of bodily motion
- 01Time is not bodily motion
- 02Measuring time through speech and sound
- 03Time as the mind's protraction
- 01Measuring time through memory
- 02Expectation, attention, and memory in the mind
- 01Memory, expectation, and present consideration
- 02Recollection in God and the eternal Creator
- 01God's incomprehensible knowledge and creation
- 02The heaven of heavens and invisible earth
- 03Formless matter and creation out of nothing
- 01The heaven of heavens and the invisible earth
- 02The eternity of God and the mutable will
- 03The house of God and the citizens of heaven
- 01Created wisdom and the eternal house of God
- 02Interpretations of heaven and earth in Genesis
- 01Interpretations of heaven and earth
- 02The earth invisible and without form
- 03Truth of the text versus Moses' intent
- 01Moses' meaning and the truth shared by all
- 02God's gift of expressive breadth in Genesis
- 03The nest and the fruit-bowers of interpretation
- 01Diversity of true interpretations of Genesis
- 02Truth, charity, and Moses's intended meaning
- 01Prayer for a true interpretation
- 02God's goodness in creation
- 03The Trinity in creation and the Spirit over the waters
- 04Love as the soul's weight
- 05Being, knowing, and willing
- 01Human self-knowledge and divine incomprehensibility
- 02Baptism, creation, and the light of repentance
- 03Faith, hope, and the groaning soul
- 01The soul’s longing and hope in God
- 02The firmament of authority in Scripture
- 03Scripture’s testimony against pride
- 01Heavenly waters and the angels above the firmament
- 02The sea of human wills and the dry land that thirsts for God
- 03Mercy, works of charity, and fruitfulness from the earth
- 04Lights in the firmament and the gifts of the Spirit
- 01Moral cleansing and the fruitful earth
- 02Lights in the firmament and apostolic witness
- 03Waters, sacraments, and the sea's creatures
- 04The earth separated from the waters
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
01How many chapters are in the Confessions course?
The Confessions course has 13 chapters, each with its own lessons and topics.
02How many lessons are in the Confessions course?
There are 95 lessons across the course, and you can ask your 24/7 tutor about any of them.
03Can I see what the Confessions course covers before I start?
Yes. The full curriculum is listed on this page, beginning with "BOOK I".
04Do I get a certificate for the Confessions course?
Yes. Finishing the course earns a personal Cavua certificate of completion.
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