Publications [#241765] of John J. Martin

Journal Articles

1. Martin, JJ, The Confessions of Montaigne, RELIGIONS, vol. 3 no. 4 (2012), pp. 950-963, MDPI AG, ISSN 2077-1444 [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/04/18)

   Abstract:
   Montaigne rarely repented and he viewed confession—both juridical and ecclesiastical—with skepticism. Confession, Montaigne believed, forced a mode of self-representation onto the speaker that was inevitably distorting. Repentance, moreover, made claims about self-transformation that Montaigne found improbable. This article traces these themes in the context of Montaigne’s Essays, with particular attention to “On Some Verses of Virgil” and argues that, for Montaigne, a primary concern was finding a means of describing a self that he refused to reduce, as had Augustine and many other writers before and after him, to the homo interior.