ABSTRACT
It may have been St. Augustine who first used a theological form to create a new psychological relation. Prompted by his spiritual crisis, he reflected in the Confessions on his internal world in a unique way, as both subject determining the enquiry and the object of his investigation. His introspection was, of course, licensed by the Christian model of conflict, between the forces of Christ and anti-Christ, but the literary form derived from his practice was, as Abrams maintains, the ‘first sustained history of an inner life’ (1971: 83).
