This year we have been studying the Confessions of Saint Augustine as the basis of our Lent Course. We decided it would be interesting to look at a text which has been one of the most influential and translated books in the Christian Church. But I was also concerned. Would Augustine’s Confessions – written in the context of a man grappling with his faith in the fourth century, trying to come to terms with the issues and heresies of his time and his scandalous past – have anything to say to the twenty-first century? On top of this, Augustine has the reputation of being the author of the doctrine of original sin and an often seemingly dualistic approach to body and spirit, where the desires of the flesh are seen as sinful. How would that go down on the edge of Trafalgar Square?
Well, the answer is that it’s been remarkably exciting. Not only has Augustine seemed to bring more numbers in than ever before, ranging between 120-150 each Wednesday night, but also Confession has inspired and challenged us to share deeply on a whole range of such vital issues of life and faith. In the new translation we are reading by Benignus O’Rourke, Augustine’s narrative, prayer and poetry are so remarkably alive and fresh. It’s as though he is talking to God and us now: which people and events influence our lives; why do we go astray; how do we respond to our desires, our passions, our greed, our pride? How do we face grief and death? What does conversion mean? What is free will and how do we exercise it? What is the meaning of grace? Augustine, far from repressing us, has opened us up to share with similar honesty and integrity. Nor can we fail to be moved by the genuineness of his love for God and his longing that we too may find our own way ‘home’. ‘Within me I was hungry for the food which was you, my God. But I was not aware of the hunger.’ Augustine awakens that hunger in us. ‘God did not make things and then abandon them. They come from him and are in him. Whenever we taste the truth God is there. He is in our innermost heart but our hearts have strayed from him’. What a powerful and passionate example Augustine is providing for us of the ways of God in a time of such national division and uncertainty.
Revd Richard Carter
