Please have, at minimum, the following sources in your bibliography. (More are welcome.) The 3000 word count is inclusive of footnotes (which are required.)
Ancient Sources
(*) Augustine Confessions [Use the translation by Henry Chadwick, which is recommended
for this unit, as it contains an excellent concordance to passages from
Plotinus and other authors]
Plotinus Enneads
Modern Scholarship
Blumenthal,
H.J. and Markus, R. (eds) Neoplatonism
and Early Christian Thought: Essays
in Honour of A.H. Armstrong (London 1981). [See Chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14]
Brown, P. Augustine of Hippo: a biography (London
1967).
(*) Catapano, G.
‘Augustine’, in Gerson, L.P. (ed.) The
Cambridge History of Philosophy in
Late Antiquity, Volume 1 (Cambridge 2010), 552-581.
Cooper, S.A. ‘Marius Victorinus’,
in Gerson, L.P. (ed.) The Cambridge
History of Philosophy
in Late Antiquity, Volume 1 (Cambridge 2010), 538-551.
(*) Lane-Fox, R. Augustine: Conversions and Confessions
(London 2015). [Chapter 17 Plato Reborn]
Meconi, D.V. (ed) The
Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge 2014).
Nock, A.D. Conversion (Oxford 1933). [Chapter 14]
Toom, T. (ed) The Cambridge
Companion to Augustine’s Confessions (Cambridge 2020).
Wallace, R.T. Neoplatonism (London 1972).
Please see the following as an example for purposes of the work. (As for themes, I presume it’s about Augustine’s entwining of Neoplatonism ideals and Christian theology, e.g. his reading of Plotinus.) I have also attached a style guide.
Augustine
was a prolific writer with the Confessions considered one of his most important
texts, serving as an influential model for Christian writers throughout the
Middle Ages. It can certainly be read not only as a personal reflection and
address to God but can also be viewed as a way to encourage conversion, with
guidelines on how to convert for even those who had lived sinful lives as he
had. Another interpretation of the purpose of the work was provided by Henry
Chadwick, describing the poignant work as an apologetical – a way to convince
the ecclesiastical culture of Africa that Augustine’s conversion to the faith
was sincere. Before Augustine had converted, he had, after all, spent a decade
as a Manichaean, and Augustine’s works were often rebuttals to upend the
Manichaean cult. Additionally, Augustine was working to end the Donatist schism
[6] within Christianity, so the idea does hold merit. Finally, the third
practical purpose suggested is that Augustine’s Confessions were written as an
address to a colleague – St. Paulinus of Nola, whom Augustine had met through
St. Alypius – and their interest in a written account of his conversion.