Saint Augustine's Conversion
After the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus, the most famous Christian conversion is, Wills says, Augustine's in a fourth-century Milanese garden. Moreover, Wills contends, Augustine's conversion as recounted in the eighth book ofConfessiones--which Wills calls, to expunge any suggestion of criminality and better indicate its tone,The Testimony--derives from Luke's account of Saul's experience in Acts (like Saul, Augustine heard a directive voice) and incidents and emblems in Genesis and the Gospels (the garden of Augustine echoes Eden and Gethsemane; the fig tree at which Augustine casts himself down echoes the blasted fig tree cursed by Jesus in Matthew 21). In his introduction and commentary, Wills clarifies context and cons the famous text more thoroughly than any literary critic would nowadays, and his translation of it--the fourth, and final, of the extracts from ^Confessioneshe has published yearly since 2001--successfully communicates the immense literary skill Augustine commanded. If only more of Wills' Augustine were forthcoming!Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved