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# Augustine's Confessions, Books 7-8: Toward Baptism and a New Will (Mythic Mind, ep. 102)
- URL: https://mythicmindfellowship.com/augustines-confessions-books-7-8-toward-baptism-and-a-new-will-mythic-mind-ep-102/
- Published: 2025-07-28T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:45:52.000Z
- Author: Andrew Snyder

Mythic MindEpisode 102

# Augustine’s Confessions, Books 7-8: Toward Baptism and a New Will (Mythic Mind, ep. 102)

Dr. Andrew Snyder in conversation with Chase Arrington and Kyle Metz

28 July 2025

[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCK8UYp665A&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)

## In this episode

Books 7 and 8 bring Augustine to the edge of conversion: Neoplatonic light that still cannot save, the bondage of a divided will, and the garden where “take and read” finally breaks the deadlock. Evil as privation, humility in the Word made flesh, and a will that learns to want the good.

This Mythic Mind episode is the fellowship book-club conversation on those climactic books, with Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) joined by Chase Arrington and Kyle Metz. Recorded as an X Space for the free Confessions study, it tracks Augustine’s sifted Platonism, the anti-nature of evil, and the drama of conversion before baptism.

Topics include what Plato can and cannot give, the divided self that wants and does not want, and why the garden scene still names how grace meets a stalled will.

### People

**Dr. Andrew Snyder**Host

**Chase Arrington and Kyle Metz**Guests

### Key themes

- What Plato can and cannot give
- The divided self that wants and does not want
- How grace meets a stalled will

## Related

- [**Augustine’s Confessions, Books 1 and 2: Restless Hearts and Stolen Pears (Mythic Mind, ep. 86)**Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh0NK2O61LA&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)
- [**Augustine’s Confessions, Books 3 and 4: Friendship, Grief, and False Lights (Mythic Mind, ep. 92)**Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IQY5S9JiTM&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)
- [**Augustine’s Confessions, Books 5-6: From Carthage Toward Conversion (Mythic Mind, ep. 98)**Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAWQCqZGh4I&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)
- [**The Great Divorce: Heaven, Hell, and the Choice That Divides (Mythic Mind, ep. 117)**Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHfA0S1KzxM&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)

## Books mentioned

- [**Confessions**St. Augustine, trans. Henry Chadwick](https://bookshop.org/a/129785/9780199537822?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)

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[Previous in Mythic MindIntroduction to Perelandra: Venus, Temptation, and Unfallen Eve](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/introduction-to-perelandra-venus-temptation-and-unfallen-eve-mythic-mind-ep-101/)[Next in Mythic MindPerelandra: Paradise, the Un-man, and the Great Dance](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/perelandra-paradise-the-un-man-and-the-great-dance-mythic-mind-ep-103/)

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