"The Confessions" of Saint Augustine is the first and also the most famous autobiography ever written. In it, Augustine, widely considered to be the greatest of the Church Fathers, traces the evolution of his mind and thought from his infancy to his conversion to Christianity and beyond, including memorable events and persons in his life, such as his mother, St Monica, whose prayers and tears over 30 years helped bring about Augustine's conversion, and St Ambrose, whose sermons greatly influenced him as well.

This new translation, primarily based on E. B. Pusey's translation of 1907 as well as the original Latin and occasionally other translations, combines the best of the older translations along with a significant number of changes, as well as modernization of language when that has been judged to be helpful for the contemporary reader, all the while seeking to maintain the sublime quality of Augustine's discourse. Here is a sample:

You have made us for Yourself [O Lord] and our hearts are restless till they rest in You.

But I in my great worthlessness … had begged You for chastity, saying: "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."

Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved You! For behold You were within me, and I outside…. You did call and cry to me and break open my deafness: You did send forth Your beams and shine upon me and chase away my blindness: You did breathe Your fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for You: I tasted You, and now hunger and thirst for You: You did touch me, and I have burned for Your peace.

The scripture passages in the book are in italics and in most cases the Catholic Douay-Reims version of the bible has been used, again with some modernization when that has been deemed helpful. The result is a combination of that which is best, noble, lofty, and sublime in the old with what in modern English makes the words of Augustine more intelligible. As Jesus said in the gospel, it is "the wise householder [who] brings out of his store house what is both old and what is new." (Mt. 13:52)

Books 11-13 of "The Confessions," Augustine's non-autobiographical commentary on Creation in Genesis chapter 1, have been omitted in this book.