Taking Confessions By St. Augustine

Under the enlightenment of conversion Saint Augustine opens up his famous autobiography, Confessions, with an exclamation to God, “you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (I. i. 1). The sentiment, while spoken to the Lord, is really directed at the readers on whom he hopes to impart his wisdom. Starting from his physical birth on Earth and ending with his spiritual birth into Christianity, St. Augustine weaves together a narrative in nine books using select pieces from his life—all the while explaining the implications of those actions of his ignorant younger self. In the retrospective recalling of his delinquent act stealing pears from a neighbor’s tree, St. Augustine draws meaning from the shift in …show more content…
Through the close observation of infant behavior, St. Augustine comes to the realization that regardless of condition, all children exhibit similar sinful behavior such as expressing jealousy when a sibling receives milk instead of them. The conclusion is that no one is born having already been redeemed, and that like he himself, every individual needs to embark on their own road to God. That being the case, in addition to St. Augustine’s belief that the only way to reach God is to move away from Him first, the pear tree incident becomes an allegory for the momentous step that everyone must experience and internalize. What the “pear tree” manifests as and when it does can differ between people, but there is always a turning point that offsets the start of one’s conversion. St. Augustine shows this belief through the brief analysis of two other major influences in his life, his friend Alypius and his mother Monica, both of whom are very pious but also stumbled along their way to the final