How Confessions drew on 1 Corinthians
A documented line of influence: Augustine of Hippo demonstrably engaged Paul’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
1 Corinthians
Paul · c. 54
BibleThe influenced
Confessions
Augustine of Hippo · c. 398
Ancient RomeRelevance
7/10
On Confessions’s page
- Augustine reads with Paul open beside him — 1 Corinthians is a named, constant presence in the Confessions
- "Through a glass darkly" (13:12) surfaces verbatim at the hinge of his conversion in Book VIII, and citations run through Book XIII
- Paul's contrast — knowledge that puffs up versus charity that builds — is the very tension Augustine spends the book confessing his way out of; the epistle behind it sharpens every page
On 1 Corinthians’s page
- The Pauline line that anatomizes Augustine's whole project — "knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth"
- Augustine quotes 1 Corinthians 13:12 verbatim in Book VIII ("I had seen it through a glass darkly") and threads Paul through Book XIII
- The Confessions' war between pride and love is Paul's Corinthian warning made into autobiography