Summary
Infancy gives way to boyhood with the arrival of speech. Now Augustine is capable of expressing his needs to others through language [1.8] During the years 365-369 Augustine's begins his education in the neighboring town of Madura. If we take him seriously in the Confessions his childhood education was anything but idyllic. He was often beaten for not learning his lessons to the satisfaction of his instructors [1.9].
Looking back on his own behavior during
childhood, however, Augustine acknowledges that he too was at fault
("And yet I sinned, my Lord God") for trying to evade his
studies. His "sin" lies in choosing pleasure over studies that
could have helped improve his intellect [1.10, 1.12] Later he also 
sins in
preferring secular literature [Virgil's Aeneid] to the more important
study of reading, writing and arithmetic. Although he seems to go a bit
overboard when he writes that his weeping over the death of Queen Dido in the Aeneid
was an act of "fornication against [God]," he believes that he was
wrong in choosing to spend his time on frivolous literature instead of that
which could have improved his soul and aided his salvation (e.g., Scripture)
[1.13].
Although Augustine sinned in preferring Virgil to Moses, the fault lay not solely with him, but also with those who are responsible for educating him properly—namely, his teachers. After all, it was his teachers who had determined that he would best be served by studying illicit passages from pagan classics. Had his instructors been truly concerned about his moral development they would have had him spend less time declaiming speeches based upon pagan works and more time studying Scripture. In the end, such a disordered educational system leads one to worry more about violating the rules of pronunciation than about violating the moral law [1.16-18].
In 1.18 he goes on to describe other sins of his childhood (e.g., stealing, cheating, etc.), ultimately expressing amazement that anyone could talk at all about "the innocence of boyhood." There is no such thing as an original state of innocence, despite what some idealists (e.g., The Pelagians) might believe.
What is the point of all this dwelling on the "sins" of his childhood? When Augustine writes that he was "so small a boy and so great a sinner," [1.12] we should certainly take him literally. He really does believe that, while the transgressions of childhood are less serious than those of adolescence and adulthood, because they take place prior to the age of reason, they are sins nonetheless. The infant sins in "crying for more;" the child sins in trying to evade his studies. Although the object of sin has changed, the disordered desire that gives rise to sin in the first place remains constant.
In 1.11 we have what seems to be a digressionary story about a serious illness that Augustine experienced as a child that left him close to death. His mother, we are told prepares to have him baptized for the "remission of [his] sins." He recovers and his baptism is put off in recognition that he was bound to sin in adulthood and therefore would have incurred even greater guilt than if he had not been baptized. Augustine believes that his mother made a mistake, since baptism would have put "reins on [his] sinning" by placing him in a community of believers who would have corrected his bad moral behavior. Without being part of such a supportive and nurturing community there is nothing to prevent him from slipping further and further into sin. The story is significant because it indicates a possible means of stemming the tide of original sin. It is the Church and particularly submission to authority within the Church that--while not completely eliminating the tendency towards sin--at least places some limitations upon human sinfulness. It takes Augustine many years before he realizes just how important being inscribed in the "walls of the Church" actually is to his moral and spiritual well-being [8.2, 8.6].
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Read Confession 1.8 - 1.20 |
Suggestions
for Further Reading |
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Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.
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Ferrari, Leo C. "The Pear-Theft in Augustine’s Confessions." Revue des études augustiniennes 15 (1970): 75-112.
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Mallard, William. Language and Love: Introducing Augustine’s Religious Thought Through the Confessions Story. University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
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Miles, Margaret. "Infancy, Parenting, and Nourishment in Augustine’s Confessions." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 50 (1982): 349-363.
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—. Desire and Delight: A New Reading of Augustine’s Confessions. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1991.
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O’Meara, John J. The Young Augustine. London: Longman Publishing, 1954.
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Rigby, Paul. Original Sin in Augustine’s Confessions. Ottowa: Univ. of Ottowa Press, 1987.
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Sage, Athanase. "Le peche originel dans la pensée de Saint Augustin de 412 à 430." Revue des études augustiniennes 15 (1969): 75-112.
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Starnes, Colin. St. Augustine on Infancy and Childhood: Commentary on the First Book of Augustine’s Confessions. Augustinian Studies 6(1975): 15-43.
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—. Augustine’s Conversion: A Guide to the Argument of Confessions I-IX. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1990.
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Stock, Brian. Augustine the Reader. Cambridge Mass: Belknap Press, 1996.
