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Light symbolizes God’s perfect goodness, particularly as it opens people’s minds to the truth and turns their wills toward God with the desire to worship and serve him. Augustine uses light throughout Confessions to contrast with his sin- and error-darkened mind in his years of resisting God. Without the light, he was incapable of discerning and embracing the truth of the Bible and the teachings of the Catholic Church. At the moment of his conversion, “light […] flooded into [Augustine’s] heart” and eradicated his doubts. He later describes the converted soul’s new life as being clothed with God’s light. Although light is frequently associated with God in the Bible (light is the first thing God creates in Genesis 1), Augustine probably also uses the symbol to pointedly counter the Manichean belief that light had been stolen by the evil principle and trapped within the material world. In contrast, God’s light is eternal, unchanging, and not subject to anything.
Light Quotes in Confessions
The Confessions quotes below all refer to the symbol of Light. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 7
Quotes
I entered, and with the eye of my soul, such as it was, I saw the Light that never changes casting its rays over the same eye of my soul, over my mind. It was not the common light of day that is seen by the eye of every living thing of flesh and blood [...]. What I saw was something quite, quite different from any light we know on earth. […] It was above me because it was itself the Light that made me, and I was below because I was made by it. All who know the truth know this Light, and all who know this Light know eternity.
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Book 9
Quotes
O my Lord, my God […] inspire those of [my brothers] who read this book to remember Monica, your servant, at your altar and with her Patricius, her husband, who died before her […]. With pious hearts let them remember those who were not only my parents in this light that fails, but were also my brother and sister, subject to you, our Father, in our Catholic mother the Church, and will be my fellow citizens in the eternal Jerusalem for which your people sigh throughout their pilgrimage, from the time when they set out until the time when they return to you. So it shall be that the last request that my mother made to me shall be granted in the prayers of the many who read my confessions more fully than in mine alone.
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Book 10
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I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new! I have learnt to love you late! You were within me, and I was in the world outside myself. I searched for you outside myself and, disfigured as I was, I fell upon the lovely things of your creation. You were with me, but I was not with you. The beautiful things of this world kept me far from you and yet, if they had not been in you, they would have had no being at all. You called me; you cried aloud to me; you broke my barrier of deafness. You shone upon me; your radiance enveloped me; you put my blindness to flight. You shed your fragrance about me; I drew breath and now I gasp for your sweet odour. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am inflamed with love of your peace.
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Get the entire Confessions LitChart as a printable PDF.
Light Symbol Timeline in Confessions
The timeline below shows where the symbol Light appears in Confessions. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 4
...that the human mind isn’t the essence of truth, but “must be illumined by another light.” Though Augustine was struggling towards God, God resisted him because of Augustine’s pride in asserting...
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Book 5
...he chose to remain a catechumen in the Church, “until I could clearly see a light to guide my steps.”
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Book 7
...These books reminded Augustine to look into his own soul, and there, he saw the Light of God and no longer had any cause to doubt; he “might more easily have...
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Book 8
...more thought on nature and nature’s appetites.” He didn’t need to read any further. Immediately, “light […] flooded into my heart” and doubt disappeared.
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Book 9
...the Psalms, applying them to his spiritual journey thus far and longing to share the light he had found with others. [6] After the country vacation, Augustine returned to Milan along...
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Book 10
...even those created things only had their existence in God. It was God’s call, his light, his “fragrance,” taste, and touch that finally drew Augustine to God.
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...also come through the sense of sight, as people are too easily beguiled by the light of this world rather than the true Light. And people create lavish goods that are...
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Book 11
...but to his Word “who is God with you.” [9] It is only by the light of Wisdom that this mystery can be understood. [11] The concept of eternity, “in which...
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Book 12
...continues to meditate on the days of creation as described in Genesis—how God first made light (the first day), the sky (the second day), and the earth and sea (the third...
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...it never turns away from God, clinging to God by love and “[drawing] warmth and light from [God] like a noon that never wanes.” He knows his opponents will grant that...
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Book 13
...formless darkness of sin can only be rescued from that state by God, the soul’s Light. [3] The formless creation only “became light” by the gift of God’s grace, which changed...
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...Nothing less than God can give a restless soul happiness by clothing it with his light. [9] Augustine further describes the gift of the Holy Spirit as setting the soul aflame...
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...Trinity must be understood and worshiped by faith. [13] Those who have turned to God’s light continue to long for “how bright a light of beauty will shine” in their eyes...
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