Augustine's Confessions: How a Roman Bishop Invented the Modern Self

Around 397 CE, a North African bishop sat down and wrote what is widely regarded as the 1st autobiography of the interior life in Western history. In it he described desires, failures, and arguments with himself in a way nobody had done before. This episode covers the Confessions, the City of God, the problem of evil, and why the modern habit of journaling and self-reflection traces to a single book. Watch the next video in this series on how Islamic scholars preserved Aristotle and built the foundations of European medieval philosophy. ▶ Watch next: The Forgotten Centuries: How Islamic Scholars Saved Aristotle and Reinvented Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZibefgPMew Chapters: 0:00 Who Was Augustine: From North Africa to the Center of Western Thought 4:46 Confessions: The First Time Anyone Wrote Down Their Interior 9:59 The Divided Will and the Language of Original Sin 13:48 City of God: Two Cities Running Through All of History 18:46 The Problem of Evil: If God Is Good, Why Is There Suffering? 23:19 The Reformation's Secret Debt: How Augustine Reshaped Protestant Christianity 27:48 The Augustinian You Already Are: Therapy, Journaling, and the Interior Life 34:37 Quiz Time 36:37 Key Takeaways #explained #learn #2026 --- Disclosure The avatars and voices in this video are AI-generated. All content -- research, scripts, lesson design, and the custom video engine -- is created by a CISSP, CISM, and PMP certified professional with a Master's in Project Management, a B.S. in Information Technology, and a Doctorate in Business Administration in progress. This channel exists to make learning accessible and straightforward. Educational history-of-ideas series. This channel does not represent any university, religious tradition, or political viewpoint. The series presents what philosophers argued and how those arguments shaped both modern science and modern religion. Faith is personal, doubt is personal — this series presents the historical record of the arguments, not theology or atheism.