Book contents
- Augustine’s ‘Confessions’
- Augustine’s ‘Confessions’
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Theological Predecessors to the Confessions of Augustine
- Chapter 2 Trinitarian Metaphysics in the Confessions
- Chapter 3 Augustine’s Therapy of Emotions
- Chapter 4 Augustine’s Confessions and Earlier Exegesis
- Chapter 5 Reading Augustine Reading Scripture in the Confessions
- Chapter 6 Augustine on the Tasks of Reading Scripture
- Chapter 7 The Sacramental Structure and Imagination of Augustine’s Confessions
- Chapter 8 How Great a Debtor
- Chapter 9 Augustine’s Second-Personal Account of the Virtues
- Chapter 10 The Nobility of Sight in the Confessions
- Chapter 11 First Words
- Chapter 12 Augustine on Time, Eternity, and Temporal Experience
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 8 - How Great a Debtor
Grace and Providence in Augustine’s Confessions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2025
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Book contents
- Augustine’s ‘Confessions’
- Augustine’s ‘Confessions’
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Theological Predecessors to the Confessions of Augustine
- Chapter 2 Trinitarian Metaphysics in the Confessions
- Chapter 3 Augustine’s Therapy of Emotions
- Chapter 4 Augustine’s Confessions and Earlier Exegesis
- Chapter 5 Reading Augustine Reading Scripture in the Confessions
- Chapter 6 Augustine on the Tasks of Reading Scripture
- Chapter 7 The Sacramental Structure and Imagination of Augustine’s Confessions
- Chapter 8 How Great a Debtor
- Chapter 9 Augustine’s Second-Personal Account of the Virtues
- Chapter 10 The Nobility of Sight in the Confessions
- Chapter 11 First Words
- Chapter 12 Augustine on Time, Eternity, and Temporal Experience
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Grace and providence, much like the sacraments (which are instruments of grace), are pervasive in the Confessions. Yet we learn about them, not from any explicit theorizing or argumentation on Augustine’s part, but by examining their role in the dual narrative: the personal narrative of Augustine’s life and the cosmic narrative of creation and redemption. This chapter considers how grace (God’s unmerited favor) and providence (God’s directing of the course of events in the service of his own ends) shape, but do not determine, Augustine’s life. Although there is no explicit consideration in the Confessions of the relationship between grace and free choice, the overwhelming message of the work seems to be that grace is indispensable but not irresistible: God makes Augustine into the kind of person who can accept grace, but not someone who cannot help but accept it.
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- Augustine's ‘Confessions'A Critical Guide, pp. 145 - 157Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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