Reading Notes:

Augustine, Autobiography, and the 'Authentic Self' in the West
Augustine of Hippo, Augustinus, St. Augustine 354-430.



Mark Freeman, Rewriting the Self: History, Memory, Narrative, 25-49, 222-232.

Augustine changed the meaning of selfhood in the West, to a sense of an accurate self-reflection in light of ascetic self-examination.
It is a distinctly historical [as opposed to mythological] view of the self, and depends on inner dialogue to trace this narrative self-in-history. That means that accurate memory plays a key role, indeed, is constitutive of the self.
This self is strongly identified with the finite mind and body of the individual as constituting its own universe of meaning and experience. We can see this indicated in technology: iPod, iPhone, iPad.
In this notion of autobiography and selfhood, a certain narrative of confession, penitence, and redemption is inscribed.

25: "In addition to rewriting the self on the plane of personal experience [autobiography], it has been suggested that Augustine is partly responsible for rewriting the very meaning of selfhood."
'At the edge of modern times . . . the physical and material appeal of the reflection in the mirror bolsters and strengthens the tradition of self-examination of Christian asceticism' (Gusdorf).

[Think, for example, of the cases of Tiger Woods, Michael Vick.]

26: "Confessions marks the beginning of autobiographical reflection as we have come to know it.
    ... is very much concerned with historicizing human reality [in contrast to having the primary point of reference be mythological].
    ... [nevertheless,] it remains a far cry from our own present-day conception, with is profound emphasis on self-determination, 'individuality,' and so on."

"What sort of being is it who pauses long enough to engage in inner dialogue, who wishes to make sense of the personal past, and who traces its trajectory as a means of discovering the origins of the self?"
27: "The Western conception of a person as a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe ... [is] a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world's cultures" (229)(Geertz).
28: "The idea of self, as we have come to know it, and the idea of history are in fact mutually constitutive."
29: "What we also see in Augustine ... is the primacy of memory."

33: ORIGINS - His emphasis on personal memory emphasizes tracing the origin of the self not to Adam and Eve, but to earliest memories. Nevertheless, he considers Original Sin to be key to Christian self-understanding.
34: This includes a trajectory through adolescence and early adulthood: 'inflamed with desire for a surfeit of hell's pleasures.'
36: TO CAST OUT ONE'S DEMONS - Augustine was becoming aware of the direction his life shouldn't take.
38: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD -
41: 'For the firmer our eneny the devil holds a man in his power, ... the greater the victory when he is won back.'
41: KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION - 'But the new will which had come to life in me and made me wish to serve you freely and enjoy you, my God, ... was not yet strong enough.... So these two wills within me, one old, one new, one the servant of the flesh, the other of the spirit, were in conflict and between them they tore my soul apart.
43-45: RETROSPECTS AND PROSPECTS - "What must now occur is ... articulation: of both the difference between one's old self and the one presently being projeted."
47: Reference to Foucault

EPILOGUE, 222-232
224: "In line with Augustine told us, however, we learned that ... development, rather than adhering strictly to the forward-looking arrow of linear time, was itself bound up with narrative and was thus thoroughly contingent on the backward gaze of recollection."
231: Reference to Freud.


Gillian Clark, Augustine: Confessions, vii-viii, 54-69.

Clark recounts key points in Augustine's biographical development, noting in particular his struggle with sexuality, his conversion to Christianity, including his taking up celibacy.

59: Augustine sent away his concubine, by whom he had a son, so that his mother could negotiate a marriage to someone still a child.
61: "The Confessions is not a soliloquy addressed to himself, but extended prayer addressed to God."
62-63: "Augustine ... believes that there is a control on mulitple readings; there is truth authenticated b the world of God."
63-64: Reflections on Confessions in relation to postermodernism and Freud.
69: What is theologically vital to Augustine ... is his liberation from the chains of sin, and specifically from sexual compulsion, by the reading of a biblical text and his God-given response to it. It may be too good a story to be true, but how can we say ... that it did not happen? Stories are made by the telling, and what needs telling will change over time.


Augustine, The Confessions, ix-xxvi; Book II, 23-31; Book VI, 98-103; Book VII, 105-125; Book VIII, 129-133.
Excerpts from a translation of the Confessions.