Confessions Book IX
Study Questions

1. How does God’s grace set St. Augustine free from the enslavement to temporal goods?
2. Was St. Augustine right to withdraw from his profession as teacher of rhetoric?
3. Why was it important for St. Augustine, Alypius, and Adeodatus to be baptized?
4. How does St. Augustine react to the death of his son?
5. Does St. Augustine portray his mother as the ideal Christian? Why or why not? How does she compare with the philosophers who taught St. Augustine early on?
6. Discuss the joint mystical experience that St. Augustine and his mother had. Why does it happen? Why is it significant?
7. How does St. Augustine react to the death of his mother? Compare this reaction with the one he had at the death of his friend in Book 4. Why is his reaction so different this time around?