Confessions
Augustine's autobiographical work recounting his conversion to Christianity, containing celebrated passages on the power of Scripture reading to transform the soul.
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture
— Confessions VIII, 11 and VII, 21 cited on Augustine's conversion from lust to continence through reading Paul
"The reading of Paul was able not only to join the heretic Augustine to the orthodox, but, having dragged him from the most foul abyss of daily lust, to drive and advance him to continence and chastity — not merely marital, I say, but religious, entirely celibate and untouched. See Confessions VIII, 11; VII, 21."
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Chapter IV: The Judgments and Examples of the Fathers
— Confessions IX, 5 cited: Augustine at Ambrose's urging took up Isaiah but retreated from its depth
"St. Augustine, who had that sharpness of genius by which he had mastered Aristotle's Categories by himself... at the urging of St. Ambrose, book IX of the Confessions, chapter 5, taking in hand Isaiah the prophet, immediately frightened by the depth of his utterances"
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The Fathers' Defense of the Old Testament
— Confessions XII, 14 quoted on the depth of God's words
"Wondrous," says the same, book XII of the Confessions, chapter 14, "is the depth of Your words, Lord, whose surface, behold, is before us, charming to little ones, but wondrous is the depth, my God, wondrous depth; it is dreadful to gaze into it: a dread of honor, and a trembling of love."
Commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses
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Canons Bearing a Torch Before the Pentateuch
— Cited (chapters 18, 25, 26, 31, 32) for the teaching that there can be multiple literal senses of Scripture
"St. Augustine, Confessions book 12, chapters 18, 25, 26, 31 and 32"
Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)
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He Created
— Quoted (Book I): "You have made us, O Lord, for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You"
"the same Augustine beautifully says, Confessions I: "You have made us, O Lord, for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You;""
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Verse 14: Let There Be Lights in the Firmament
— Cited (Book IX, ch. 10) on Augustine's conversation with Monica about eternal things
"See St. Augustine's conversation on this matter with his mother Monica, book IX Confessions, ch. 10."