By reading Romans 13:13–14—‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts’—Augustine experiences an immediate, interior liberation: a light of relief floods his heart, all anxiety and doubt are dispelled, and he needs no further reading to resolve his will.

By Augustin d'Hippone, from Les Confessions

Key Arguments

  • He returns to Alypius, seizes the book of the apostle, and reads in silence the first passage his eyes fall on: a direct prohibition of sensual vices and an exhortation to ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’.
  • He states that he neither wished nor needed to read further, indicating that the single verse was sufficient to address his particular struggle with lust and indecision.
  • He describes the effect as instantaneous and total: ‘it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled’, showing that the text functioned not just cognitively but as a channel of grace that healed his divided will.

Source Quotes

There I had put down the book of the apostle when I got up. I seized it, opened it and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit: ‘Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts’ (Rom. 13: 13–14). I neither wished nor needed to read further.
13: 13–14). I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart.
I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled. (30) Then I inserted my finger or some other mark in the book and closed it.

Key Concepts

  • I seized it, opened it and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit: ‘Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts’ (Rom. 13: 13–14).
  • I neither wished nor needed to read further.
  • At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled.

Context

Book VIII, xii (29): Obeying the ‘tolle lege’ voice, Augustine reads from Romans and experiences the decisive interior change that ends his long struggle with the divided will and sexual bondage.