MetaConfession
I blame Augustine . If it wasn't for his writing his Confessions way back when, none of us (including me and Elizabeth Gilbert ) would ever have had the idea that it was a worthwhile, perhaps even healing thing to confess our sins publicly before our fellow human beings and God. I can just hear Augustine's original readers: "Who does he think he is, this professor of rhetoric, complaining about how he feels guilty for stealing a couple of pears? It's embarrassing, doesn't he realize how privileged he is, what with his education and prestigious career? And all those details about doubting himself and his inability to stay chaste! You'd think he'd have better things to do than to whine about why it took him so long to find God. And blaming the Manichees for misleading him, that was just uncalled for." It couldn't have been easy reading then, just as for many it still isn't now, and I'm not talking about having to read through all te...