ABSTRACT
Augustine’s main concern in Confessions is to tell the reader how he came to know God. Augustine’s Confessions begins with a question: if we call on God before we come to know God, how can we be sure that we are truly calling on God and not something that only seems like Him? To answer this question, Augustine drew on Platonist philosophy, which equated finding wisdom with finding happiness. Christians influenced by Platonism were able to adapt this understanding of wisdom to their own spiritual purpose—namely, the pressing question of how one comes to call on and know God. While Augustine is widely known as a Platonist Christian, it is important to recognize that he was also critical of some Platonist assumptions. Certainly he was less committed to Platonism than was, for example, Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. Ambrose tried to incorporate into Christian thought many ideas that he saw as truthful from the pagan (non-Christian) philosophy.
