ABSTRACT
In academic theology, as well as within the churches, the sociological diagnosis of individualisation is considered to be endangering the maintenance of cultural and religious institutions. The Confessions are therefore a self-reflective act of biographical experience. With their self-reflectiveness they create an understanding of individuality that is characterised by two aspects, individual self-reflectiveness, and, the fact that being a person who is able to reflect on her life course is based on a transcendent ground, on God. The concept of individualization refers to a long concept-history in Christianity and Christian theology. Individualization in this context may be understood and explained as a process partially carried out by religion rather than having been inserted into religion from the outside or through social processes of modernization. The ontological aspect of Augustine's conceptualization of individuality, in the sense of singularity, is based in Aristotelian philosophy. According to Augustine, the fact that individuality possessing self-awareness is religiously constituted becomes discernible through Christian experience.
