Painting of St Augustine
and his mother, St Monica
(1846) by Ary Scheffer.
Photo: Public Domain. The nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson famously wrote, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant — / success in circuit lies.” She meant that the truth should be delivered indirectly and kindly to avoid overwhelming or shocking the recipient. This does not seem to be St Augustine’s style in Book II of Confessions. We…
