In Fire on the Altar, renowned Augustinian theologian C. C. Pecknold provides readers with a genuinely Catholic understanding of Augustine’s Confessions. Setting out to free readers from liberal and individualistic distortions of Augustine’s anthropology, Pecknold argues that a religious and liturgical understanding of Augustine’s famous work unlocks a more Catholic approach. Strikingly, Fire on the Altar demonstrates that Augustine’s anthropology is essentially built around the concept of an “altar” at the centre of the soul and culminates in the Eucharist setting fire to our hearts and minds. Examining Augustine’s orientation to the altar, Pecknold explores:

• Our duty to worship God
• The “religious” nature of our sins
• What we offer to God through our hearts
• The kind of worship that the mind can make
• The vicarious sacrifices that we can make for the love of neighbour
• The intercession of saints
• The importance of friends and a social understanding of the person
• The place of bishops
• The sacraments
• The Blessed Virgin Mary
• The nature of conversion
• And the mission of the Catholic Church

Dr. Pecknold’s unique companion to a classic of western civilization shows that the entire Confessions coheres around the Sacrifice of the Mass, revealing that it is only by union with the fire of divine charity on the Church’s high altar that we can make a sacrifice acceptable to God.