The first book (really a chapter) of the Confessions begins on a note of praise which introduces the major theme of Confessions as a whole: "You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." The veracity of this thesis statement will be demonstrated through Augustine's own testimony, which he has patterned after the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son.
There are several notable themes in this first book:
1) Faith as God's Gift
Always the champion of monergism and divine initiative in salvation, Augustine clearly teaches that faith is a gift from God, not a work that originates in the heart of man (later known as the heresy of "Pelagianism" or "semi-Pelagianism"): "My faith, Lord, calls upon you. It is your gift to me. You breathed it into me by the humanity of your Son, by the ministry of your preacher." The "preacher" mentioned here might refer to Jesus himself, but more likely it refers to Ambrose, the bishop of Milan whose ministry God used to open the blind eyes of the wandering, pagan Augustine. Augustine's teaching here corresponds closely with Paul in Romans 10:17 - "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God"
2) The Incomprehensibility of God
Augustine develops this theme between ii(2) and v(5), first by posing some difficult philosophical questions about God. First he asks how the infinite God who cannot be contained in heaven and earth could possibly take up residence in the heart of a finite human being. Second, he asks the very broad question "Who then are you, my God?" which he answers with a series of paradoxical couplets relating to God's attributes: "deeply hidden yet most intimately present," "immutable and yet changing all things," "never new, never old," "always active, always in repose," "gathering to yourself but not in need," "you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety," "you 'repent' without the pain of regret," "you are wrathful and remain tranquil," "you pay off debts, though owing nothing to anyone," "you cancel debts and incur no loss." The point of this section is not to raise intellectual doubts about God, but to help the reader to join him in grateful praise and confession to the God who transcends human reason and understanding.
It is significant to note that Augustine speaks of God's attributes 'positively' instead of just 'negatively'. For example he describes God as "powerful", "merciful" and "just" (positive attributes) as well as "incomprehensible" and "immutable" (negative attributes). This way of speaking positively about God flies in the face of Neo-Platonism. Plotinus taught (contra Augustine) that God was so utterly transcendent that any effort at description was bound to fail. For Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists, "the One" could only be described through negation.
3) The Difficulty of Speech
Speech is a theme which is raised in the first chapter and pervades the entire work. The problem of speech is closely linked to the incomprehensibility of God. Augustine writes: "What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because though loquacious with verbosity, they have nothing to say." In other words, Augustine is faced with the dilemma that he cannot adequately speak about a transcendent being who is wholly other, but at the same time, he cannot keep silent when confronted with the glory of God.
In reflecting on these passages, I could not help but see a definite connection here with the theology of Karl Barth. As a young pastor, Barth dreaded the task of preaching above all other aspects of his ministry. Preaching for him was an "impossible possibility", because the preacher, a man with unclean lips, a stammering tongue and imperfect knowledge, is put in the situation of declaring God's Word week after week. Probably every pastor entrusted with the ministry of the Word can identify with the burden felt by both Augustine and Barth when it comes to speaking about the infallible God as a fallible and sinful human being.
4) Original Sin
This chapter must be a fascinating read for many secular psychologists and Liberal theologians who believe that children enter into this world tabula rasa. According to Augustine nothing could be farther from the truth. Reconstructing his own infancy from the testimony of others and his own observation of infants, Augustine underscores the fact that human beings are sinful from birth: "So the feebleness of infant limbs is innocent, not the infant's mind. I have personally watched and studied a jealous baby. He could not yet speak and, pale with jealousy and bitterness, glared at his brother sharing his mother's milk. Who is unaware of this fact of experience?...It can hardly be innocence, when the source of milk is flowing richly and abundantly, not to endure a share going to one's blood-brother, who is in profound need."
It is interesting to note, however, that in spite of Augustine's insistence that he was guilty from birth, he also states: "I feel no sense of responsibility now for a time of which I recall not a single trace." Although its difficult to know how much theology to read into a statement like this, it seems to me that Augustine might affirm what was later called "mediate imputation" (as opposed to "immediate imputation"). 'Mediate imputation' is the theory that God holds a person responsible only for conscious sins that that have been committed by the individual. This debate has importance with regard to infant salvation - ie. advocates of 'mediate imputation' hold that God will not condemn an infant to hell because of Adam's original sin, even though the infant has been polluted by the effects of the Fall and enters this world in a state of total depravity.
5) The Folly of Rhetoric and Mythology
Augustine reflects on his early childhood education with a certain amount of disdain. If he was around today, I suspect that his children would be enrolled in the Montessori system. Although he identifies numerous problems with the educational system of his day (including corporal punishment!), his main critique is reserved for mythology and rhetoric. With regard to Greek and Roman mythology, Augustine saw it as a means of excusing (if not encouraging) vice. After all if the gods commit adultery, why shouldn't we?? With regard to the discipline of rhetoric, Augustine saw it as an exercise of "smoke and wind" and a way of "offering sacrifice to the fallen angels". The problem with rhetoric, is not the words themselves, "but the wine of error...poured into them for us by drunken teachers." He observed that "if someone who is educated in or is a teacher of the old conventional sounds, pronounces the word 'human' contrary to the school teaching, without pronouncing the initial aspirate, he is socially censured more than if, contrary to your precepts he were to hate a human being, his fellow man." Trained up in this educational setting, Augustine testifies that "I was more afraid of committing a barbarism [referring to an error in public speech] than, if I did commit one, on my my guard against feeling envy towards those who did not."
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