Augustine finishes Book 1 by confessing that he was actively vain, licentious, quarrelsome, stubborn, and that he wasted the many gifts God had given him. He was greatly admired by his peers as a talented orator and a lover of poetry and theatre. He explains that evil was celebrated in these crafts according to the role that you took on and how well you played it. The adoration of his peers and superiors was paramount to him and so he put forth all his skill and passion to outdo them in acts of evil according to the parts played. He stole, he sought dishonest victories, he bested everyone he could in the arena of barbarism, and his peers and teachers loved him for it.
He concludes by confessing that his real problem was that while he was softened by friendship, shunned sorrow, meanness, and ignorance, he put his delight and his striving not towards God but towards creatures, himself, his peers, his teachers and thus fell into all manner of evils. He praises God for sustaining him and confesses that God is now his joy, pride, and confidence.
And so completes book one.
This took longer than I thought it would. Life got busy. My mind lost focus. I think I will continue with a summary of book 1 and then just move on to a summary of book 2 and skip writing about individual chapters unless something pops out that really strikes me.
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