Why Confessions?
(by Josh Vajda, Northview Men’s Ministry Lead)
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This summer, Men at Magnify is meeting twice a month to discuss a few books. The book we’ll be discussing this June in our PM Connects at Northview is Augustine’s Confessions. This book is over 1000 years old, and it’s not the Bible. So what could it have to say to us today?
Growing up in a Baptist church, I don’t know that I ever heard the name “Augustine.” I heard about Martin Luther and Charles Spurgeon and Dwight Moody and C. S. Lewis, but history between the time of the Apostles to the time of the Reformers was a mystery to me. I thought it was all darkness.
But history is never all one thing. While the Reformers saw much that needed to be corrected in the church in their day, Augustine was one of the early church figures that inspired them. In fact, he stands as one of the most influential Christians in history for both Protestants and Catholics, so it’s important that we know something about him.
Confessions is Augustine’s autobiography. In fact, many think of it as the first one ever written. But instead of telling it in a modern, journalistic way, Augustine tells his life story in the form of a prayer. He is interpreting his life in biblical terms and theological categories. In this, he presents a model for how we should think about our own lives.
But Confessions also had a double-meaning. Augustine was a gifted speaker and writer, and so he writes not just to confess his sins—which is one major theme of the book—but also to “confess” his faith. It is a confession in the sense that the Reformers used it, like the Westminster Confession or the Second London Baptist Confession. He is confessing or professing his belief in God and about God.
So not only is this book a model for us, but it’s a teaching tool about the faith. It inspires us to examine our own pasts and presents through the lens of Scripture. And as we look at the life of a man who lived in another millennium on another continent—closer to the world Paul lived in than our own—we see important connections between our life and his, and important contrasts. Sometimes a voice from another time and culture can speak more powerfully to blind spots we all share.
While Confessions is old, it is also deeply devotional. It may stretch you in some ways, but it draws you along through its worshipful spirit. Even the secular world recognizes it as one of the great books of Western literature. It’s a book I firmly believe should be part of a mature Christian’s library and vocabulary.
So I hope you will join us as we discuss this book together on June 5th at our Northview campus at 6:30pm, and again on June 19th at our Rockford campus at 6:30pm.
