Annemaré Kotzé: Protreptic Confessions? Augustine's Confessions and some exhortative predecessors

The paper explores the convention of referring to Augustine's Confessions as ‘a protreptic' and how this may enhance or impair understanding of this work. It examines the problematic nature of definitions of protreptic as well as the intersection of what is normally identified as protreptic with what is usually defined as paraenetic and apologetic aims. Some parallels with extended first-person narration in Plato's Apology of Socrates and Seventh Letter and Isocrates' Antidosis are pointed out before the focus moves back to the intersection of protreptic, paraenetic and apologetic communicative purposes and autobiographical narration in the Confessions.