Comparing the Confessions: The True Guide to Freedom

St. Augustine wrote his Confessions to guide his readers to the same freedom that he found by putting his life into God’s hands, rather than struggling on his own. He explains how he is directed to the Bible and told to “take and read, take and read.” (Norton Anthology) When reading Rousseau’s Confessions, there is a striking similarity between the structure of his work and the structure of Augustine’s. Therefore, I hypothesize that Rousseau wrote his Confessions in answer to St. Augustine’s Confessions.