TEHRAN – Iranian publisher Chatrang has recently published a Persian translation of Gillian Clark’s “Augustine: The Confessions”.

Reza Alizadeh is the translator of the book, which was originally published in 2005.

Augustine’s “Confessions”, written at the close of the fourth century CE, is a highly significant text in the history of European culture. 

Augustine explains just how and why he came to abandon a successful career and the personal enjoyments of a largely secular existence to follow a life of prayer and study, leading to a true comprehension of God and the Bible. 

The avowed approach of this introductory book is to “historicise” - to set Augustine’s own experiences of religion, philosophy and Christian faith against the long-standing political, cultural and religious traditions of the classical world. 

Late antiquity saw the transformation of the classical heritage and its transmission by Christian authors. 

Augustine’s ideas about how texts may be presented and read, as well as how people respond to written and spoken language, find resonance in recent critical theory.

The world in which Augustine lived, the structure, style and purpose of the Confessions, and the problems of rhetoric and truth posed by its author’s personal search for himself are all scrutinized in this lucid introductory account.

Clark is an Emeritus Professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Bristol. She retired from the University of Bristol in 2010. Clark has made a significant contribution to the history, literature, and religion of late antiquity.

Clark studied Greek and Latin language and literature, ancient history, and philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford. She received her Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Oxford. She has taught at the universities of Glasgow, St Andrews, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol.

She is currently working on a commentary of Augustine of Hippo’s “City of God”, under contract with Oxford University Press. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and an editor for the “Translated Texts for Historians 300–800” series, published by Liverpool University Press.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Gillian Clark’s “Augustine: The Confessions”.

MMS/YAW