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Book of the Year

Book of the Year (BOTY)

The Book of the Year for 2025-26 will be Augustine's Confessions. The cover of the book Homer's "The Odyssey."

Augustine’s Confessions is a profoundly important book. It’s the first spiritual autobiography ever written and more than 1600 years after it was written, it remains probably the second most important Christian book ever written after the Bible. Augustine is relentlessly honest about himself, about his loves and desires, and about God. For all these reasons, Augustine’s Confessions is a most suitable book of the year.

  Questions on Confessions, Book 1

  • Augustine’s Confessions often takes the form of a prayer to God. What types of prayers does Augustine use?
  • Augustine’s opening invocation concerns how one can seek God without yet knowing who or what He is. What are your thoughts on this? Can a non-believer seek after God even without knowing who or what God is?
  • As Augustine looks back on his schooling, what does he find most beneficial? What does he criticize? Why?
  • What is the school competition in which Augustine won the highest praise? What does it mean for the young Augustine to identify so successfully with Virgil’s Juno?
  • How does Augustine use the image of the Prodigal Son?

 Questions on Confessions, Book 2

  • What does Augustine say here about love? What is his idea of the two loves?
  • What does Augustine desire? How does he fulfill this desire? What do you think about his choice of fulfillment?
  • What does Augustine say here about the nature of sin?
  • How does Augustine characterize his mother, Monica?
  • The episode of the theft of the pears is well-known. What is its point or purpose?
  • Have you had any comparable incidents to Augustine’s pear-stealing in your life? Were you plagued by them afterwards? Why or why not?

 Questions on Confessions, Book 3

  • Why does Augustine love/hate theatrical shows? Does he watch theater for the same reasons you might watch TV shows or movies?
  • What are types of wickedness plague Augustine in book 3? If Augustine wants God so much, why is he delaying?
  • What happens when Augustine reads Cicero? when he reads the Bible? Beyond the Bible, have you had a life-changing experience in reading a book?
  • Who are the Manichees, and why did Augustine fall in with them?
  • What was Monica’s dream and what did it mean?
  • Does Augustine’s view of God’s omnipresence (that God is present everywhere) resemble your understanding of God? Do you believe God is in everything? If so, is he in evil things, as well?

 Questions on Confessions, Book 4

  • Why does Augustine have to tell us about all the times that he did something wrong or was incorrectly influenced?
  • How does Augustine think about God? How do you respond? Is Augustine’s depiction of God familiar or surprising to you?
  • What does Augustine say in this book about the use of language and its abilities?
  • What does Augustine tell us about friendship?
  • What do you think is the most important element in a true and deep friendship?
  • Is there a relationship between friendship and the theme of desiring?
  • Why does Augustine dedicate himself to Hierius? Why was he wrong?
  • Why are Aristotle’s categories not useful to Augustine?

 

Student requirements for the BOTY in 2025-26:

  • By August 26, 2025, read introductory materials (pages ix-xxxv).
  • By September 29, 2025, read through Book 4 (page 72).
  • Week of September 29-October 3, 2025 - attend a discussion seminar on Books 1-4.
  • By October 13, 2025, read through Book 7 (page 137).
  • October 30, 2025, 7 PM – Attend lecture by Dr. Chad Pecknold, “Setting Our Hearts on Fire: Reading Augustine’s Confessions Liturgically”
  • By February 2, 2026, read through Book 10 (page 229) for seminar on Books 8-10.
  • Week of February 2-6, 2026 - attend a discussion seminar on Books 8-10.
  • In February 2026 (date TBA) – attend lecture by Dr. Chris Perrin on The Confessions.
  • By March 2, 2026, read through end (page 321) to write paper in IDEG 300H: “Pursuing the Good Life.”