The Confessions of Saint Augustine

This timeless work describing the conversion of St. Augustine is applicable to everyone who has experienced the struggle between good and evil in his own soul. St. Augustine, born at Tagaste in Numidia (Constantine) in 354, was raised by a devout Christian mother. He abandoned the Christianity in which he had been brought up and had an illegitimate son. After hearing the sermons of Ambrose, he began a great internal struggle which led to his conversion in 387. The Confessions describes his conversion, shedding light on the questions that troubled him on his way to the Cross. The earliest of autobiographies, The Confessions remains unsurpassed as a sincere and intimate record of a great and pious person laying bare his soul before God. Other than Scripture, it is the most famous -- and perhaps the most important -- of all spiritual books. "The book is almost literally the man and the man is an individual, and that is what has kept the work fresh and powerful these many centuries. Augustine the individual transcends systems, philosophies, theologies. He meets the reader as he met God, as an individual." -- National Review