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Tuesday Night Book Group: St. Augustine’s Confessions
September 21, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - December 21, 2021 @ 8:15 pm
Spanning the moral and the mystical, and described “the single most compelling and attractive and fascinating book ever written by a saint” and as “an extended poetic, passionate, and intimate prayer,” St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS* will be the Tuesday Night Book Group’s final book of 2021.
The importance of this classic cannot be overstated. As Bishop Robert Barron has observed, “Prior to Augustine, no author had ever turned his speculative gaze so intently upon his own life and interiority. Hence, without the CONFESSIONS, there would have been no Shakespearean soliloquies (in fact, Augustine coined the term soliloquia); Joyce could never have written Ulysses or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Freud and Jung could never have developed psychoanalysis.”
You have never met a man like Augustine. For there has never been another man like Augustine — who combined fire and light, a passionately fiery heart and a dazzlingly brilliant head, as no mere man in history has ever done. His notorious life before his baptism reflects his honest struggle with the faith which has given THE CONFESSIONS such timeless appeal over the past 16 centuries, and in a way that is quintessentially modern: introspective, emotional, self-doubting, complex. All are invited to join us on this journey to unearth this treasure chest of wisdom and insights of the heart.
Required Reading:
*Participants are welcome to read and bring to our discussions any translation of THE CONFESSIONS (e.g., from Frank Sheed’s to any inexpensive public domain copy), but we are recommending the Study Edition of THE CONFESSIONS: The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, translated by Sister Maria Boulding.
Optional Additional Reading:
I BURNED FOR YOUR PEACE: Augustine’s CONFESSIONS Unpacked by Peter Kreeft, PhD
THE ONE CHRIST: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification by David Vincent Meconi, SJ.
RSVP
To RSVP for a session, email [email protected] or [email protected] to receive the Zoom link. All are welcome.
Schedule
Tuesday, September 21st, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book I: Augustine’s Infancy and Boyhood.
Tuesday, September 28th, 7-8:15 PM: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book II: Augustine’s Adolescence.
Tuesday, October 5th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book III: Student Years at Carthage.
Tuesday, October 12th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book IV: Approaching Maturity.
Tuesday, October 19th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book V: Professional Changes, and Continuing Religious Quest: Augustine to Rome and Milan.
Tuesday, October 26th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book VI: Milan, 385: Progress, Friends, Perplexities.
Tuesday, November 2nd, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book VII: Theological Progress: Neo-Platonism Frees Augustine’s Mind.
Tuesday, November 9th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book VIII: Augustine’s Moral Conversion.
Tuesday, November 16th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book IX: Augustine’s Mystical Experience.
Tuesday, November 23rd, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book X: Recapitulation of the First Nine Books: Memory.
Tuesday, November 30th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book XI: Reflections on Time and Eternity.
Tuesday, December 7th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book XII: Meditations on Early Genesis: Heaven and Earth.
Tuesday, December 14th, 7-8:15 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight we’ll discuss key takeaways from Book XIII: Finding Symbols in Genesis: The Days of Creation, Prophecy of the Church.
Tuesday, December 21st, 7 pm: The Tuesday Night Book Group will be discussing St. Augustine’s CONFESSIONS through December. Tonight’s final discussion of key takeaways from the entire book will double as our Holiday Gathering.
