The Confessions of Saint Augustine: An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Criticism, 1888-1995 (review)

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most widely read and researched classics in the modern world. Severson correctly points out in his preface that “[t]he breadth of interest in this ancient text over the past century is remarkable: theologians, classicists, historians, philosophers, psychologists, and literary critics have all laid claim to the Confessions” (xiii). It is not surprising that there have been a great number of articles and books devoted to the Confessions. Severson, therefore, has certainly undertaken an important task in providing an annotated bibliography, and whose stated aim is to “guide English speaking scholars and students through the maze of modern Confessions interpretation” (xiii).

“The scope [of this volume],” Severson indicates, “is limited to scholarly studies of the Confessions written in English between the years 1888 and 1995” (xiii). The volume includes 468 entries, sequentially numbered, most in English, and five in French which, according to Severson, are “of undoubted significance” (xiii). The volume is divided into nine chapters. The first chapter is a concise, but helpful, introduction to the modern interpretation of the Confessions. In the introduction, Severson has done a great favor to his readers by incorporating the entry number of different articles and books into his explanation of the modern scholarship and various controversies within Augustinian scholars—it offers a convenient quick reference to different entries in their context. The other eight chapters are entitled “autobiographical studies,” “classical and literary scholarship,” “conversion experience,” “time and other philosophical issues,” “psychological criticism,” “spirituality and reader guidance,” “structural unity of the text,” and “theological interpretation.” In these eight chapters, following the title of each article or each book, Severson gives a short summary of its content, which in most cases is helpful.

Two other user-friendly features are worth mentioning. First, Severson wisely uses two types of cross referencing throughout the bibliography: (1) “some of the annotations make cross references to other relevant items in the bibliography”; (2) “lists of cross references are included under most of the headings within each chapter” (xiii). Second, there are three sets of indexes for the reader’s easy access to the works included in the volume: an index of authors and editors, an index of titles, and an index of subjects. Both features are of great assistance to the reader.

I found, however, several places where Severson does not apply his principle of selection consistently (the principle that the scope of this volume is limited to scholarly studies of the Confessions written in English between the years of 1888–1995). Severson’s principle seems to imply that all of the works written in English will be included. This is, however, not the case. Let me just point out a few problems. First, in an annotated bibliography of the scholarly studies of the Confessions written in English, it is odd that none of the modern English translations of the Confessions is included in this volume. Second, none of the Latin editions with English commentary on the Confessions is included in the bibliography. There are two such recent works in English which should have been included: namely, James O’Donnell’s 1992 three-volume edition and commentary on the Confessions, and Gillian Clark’s 1995 edition and commentary on the Confessions Book I–IV. Third, Severson includes some books which do not specifically deal with the Confessions but they, he claims, contain important remarks or commentaries on the Confessions. By this rule, he hence includes, for example, Peter Brown’s Augustine (1967), Eugene TeSelle’s Augustine the Theologian (1970), Henry Chadwick’s Augustine (1986), and Christopher Kirwan’s Augustine (1989), and this is fine. Nonetheless, at least three other prominent Augustinian scholars’ works are surprisingly not included: Gerald Bonner’s St. Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies (1963 and 1986), Mary Clark’s Augustine (1994), and John Rist’s Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized (1994). Since Severson does not provide any explanation about why...