And any reader — Christian or not, philosopher or not — will find much in Augustine that is captivating, inspiring, and challenging. For the story of Augustine’s life as he presents it in the Confessions is at once startlingly intimate and dizzyingly cosmic. 

“ ‘How can I make sense of this action?’ turns effortlessly into ‘How can anyone make sense of any action?’ ‘Why did I keep stepping on my own feet?’ leads to ‘Why do we all make such a mess of things?’— and, inevitably, to reflection on what exactly it means for a life, any life, to be a mess, and what it might look like for the mess to get cleaned up, for what is broken and fragmented and dispersed to get put back together.” 

The class will meet at 9:00 am on Sundays through May 12 in Harvard Hall, and yes, there will be coffee. Short excerpts from the Confessions will be available for participants to read before each session. Visit spcathedral.org/augustine for more information, a link to the book, and the reading schedule.