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Font of Life: Ambrose, Augustine, and the Mystery of Baptism
No two men were more influential in the early Church than Ambrose, the powerful Bishop of Milan, and Augustine, the philosopher from provincial Africa who would write The Confessions and The City of God . Different in background, they were also extraordinarily different in personality. In Font of Life , Garry Wills explores the remarkable moment when their lives intersected at one of the most important, yet rarely visited, sites in the Christian world. Hidden under the piazza of the Duomo in Milan lies part of the foundations of a fourth-century cathedral where, at dawn on Easter of 387, Augustine and a group of people seeking baptism gathered after an all-night vigil. Ambrose himself performed the sacrament and the catechumens were greeted by their fellows in the faith, which included Augustine's mother Monnica. Though the occasion had deep significance for the participants, this little cluster of devotees was unaware that they were creating the future of the Western church.
Ambrose would go on to forge new liturgies, new forms of church music, and new chains of churches; Augustine would return to Africa to become Bishop of Hippo and one of the most influential writers of Christianity. Garry Wills uses the ancient baptistry to chronicle a pivotal chapter in the history of the Church, highlighting the often uncomfortable relationship between the two church fathers and exploring the mystery and meanings of the sacrament of baptism. In addition, he brings long overdue attention to an unjustly neglected landmark of early Christianity.
Ambrose would go on to forge new liturgies, new forms of church music, and new chains of churches; Augustine would return to Africa to become Bishop of Hippo and one of the most influential writers of Christianity. Garry Wills uses the ancient baptistry to chronicle a pivotal chapter in the history of the Church, highlighting the often uncomfortable relationship between the two church fathers and exploring the mystery and meanings of the sacrament of baptism. In addition, he brings long overdue attention to an unjustly neglected landmark of early Christianity.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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63 people want to read
About the author
Garry Wills
154 books253 followersGarry Wills is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1993.
Wills has written over fifty books and, since 1973, has been a frequent reviewer for The New York Review of Books. He became a faculty member of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is an Emeritus Professor of History.
Wills has written over fifty books and, since 1973, has been a frequent reviewer for The New York Review of Books. He became a faculty member of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is an Emeritus Professor of History.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 8, 2022
St. Ambrose and St. Augustine have long been linked, in large part because it was St. Ambrose who instructed Augustine for his baptism. Wills situates both men in the cultural influences of Milan, explores the evidence for the tension between them, looks at their somewhat conflicting approaches to baptism and discusses where they found mutual support. We are given two men of very different temperaments responding to very different theological crisis, Ambrose to the Arians and Augustine to the Donatists and Pelagians.
March 29, 2013
A very detailed enlargement on part of what Wills has already said in his biography of St. Augustine, written in his typically clear and compelling way. Includes a vivid (and maybe controversial, for all I know) description of what baptism was like in Milan (then more of an imperial city than Rome) in 387 when Ambrose baptized Augustine. I had no idea that it was done only once a year on Easter, that it took months of preparation, and that such things as the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed were kept secret from those seeking baptism until after they had passed through the water of life. The contrast drawn between Ambrose and Augustine was striking--Ambrose the prominent politician (and very much a political demagogue) who became the bishop of Milan, who consolidated and flaunted his considerable power, and who successfully challenged the emperor on numerous occasions; and Augustine, who wanted only to lead a quiet, contemplative life, but who was dragged into becoming bishop of Hippo. In Dante, Augustine is in heaven, but Ambrose is never mentioned, in spite of the fact that he is the patron saint of Milan, not all that far from Dante's Florence. A fascinating book, but only for those who are interested.
December 11, 2014
The author discusses the history and implications of baptism in the early Church. Several shrines are also described as are the lives and teachings of Ambrose and Augustine.
August 27, 2021
This was a very interesting book from a church history and archaeological viewpoint. It explained baptism in the early church and gave me another place to try to see if I ever get to Milan.
April 27, 2012
This book was an absorbing read for me. I received it in Lent as a gift from a colleague to be discussed at a clergy retreat after Easter Sunday. I had dealt with Ambrose and Augustine in a Patristics class while in seminary which means it wasn't in depth. But reading this book, focused on these two Church Fathers/Doctors, was simply engrossing.
The book first takes you to fourth century Milan, which by then was the government center of the Roman empire. Ambrose was its Bishop and his influence over the city's ecclesiastical affairs is felt even to this day. Ambrose was an impressive character. He knew how and when to play power politics against imperial threats (he had a few in his lifetime) and was a dedicated, uncompromising pastor to his flock and churches in Milan.
We get from the outset a detailed description of his double cathedral in Milan - two cathedrals at opposing ends connected by an octagonal baptistry. We also get the description of his other churches in Milan and the reasons why they were strategically built.
As the title suggests, a great deal of the book has to do with Ambrose's approach to the Sacrament of Baptism and cathechetical instruction of his baptismal candidates (competentes) before Easter. At Easter, the Easter Vigil specifically, the candidates would go on procession from one cathedral to the next stopping first at the baptistry connecting them both to receive the sacrament from the bishop's hands in the baptismal waters. After this they would process on to the other cathedral where they would join the congregation as participants of the new birth and receivers of forgiveness of sins through Baptism. The Milanese bishop would give the baptismal instruction himself meeting his candidates twice almost daily during Lent. The instruction period was thorough and intense. The actual Ambrosian Easter baptismal liturgy was breathtaking in its detail, beauty and symbolism. As a Catholic bishop, Ambrose saw baptism as the sign of the candidates redemption in Jesus Christ, but it was the whole baptismal liturgy, with its every purposeful detail including immersion in the name of the Trinity, that accounted in Ambrose's view as one's full legitimate baptism.
Ambrose's connection to Augustine lies in that Augustine was one the Milanese bishop's competentes (applicant for baptism) in 387 AD. Augustine received direct influence and teaching from Ambrose previous to his own baptism. Being under the baptismal tutelage of one of the early centuries greatest and most influential bishops was no small thing. Ambrose had being embroiled in political fueds that threatened his own life, but he was also embroiled in the fight for orthodoxy against a formidable foe, the Arians. By God's will, he had come out victorious in all accounts. In 387, with such struggles behind him, Ambrose could focus on his competentes' instruction, Augustine included.
Augustine would have preferred and actually desired a closer relational connection to his teacher. That never materialized, but this time of intense cathechises under the Bishop of Milan has been one of the key factors in our understanding of Augustine of Hippo as we know him today.
The two men where undoubtedly very different both in character and theological approach to the sacrament of baptims as well as other ecclesiastical things in general. While we could say that both were catholic in faith and practice, Ambrose would be in more precise terms the 'C'atholic and Augustine the evangelical. Ambrose the maximalist in his view of baptism and church affairs and Augustine the minimalist on the same counts. Even their approach to conflicts was essentially different. A difference easily attributed to the extroverted, in your face nature of Ambrose's temperament, while Augustine was the more inwardly oriented, reflexive and less political of the two.
However, Augustine had his share of polemic too. His defense against the Manicheans, the Donatists and ultimately the Pelagians catapulted him to the fire front of doctrinal controversies during his lifetime. Augustine possessed theological and rethorical skills that were second to none. These served him well during these controversies against the heretics. He is particularly described in the controversy against the Donatists as "the verbal technician of his age, impassioned, wary, discriminating, and deadly." (p. 165)
Even when history did not allow us too witness a dynamic duo relationship between Ambrose and Augustine, the two lives, by Providence's own decree, served the Catholic Church on the same united front in ways to which we orthodox Christians around the world, especially in the West, are undoubtedly indebted even today.
A quote at the end of the book states, "By luck or providence [Ambrose and Augustine] helped one another transcend their individual shortcomings and became stronger together than any of them could have been standing alone." (p. 171)
Those looking for a historical, liturgical, political and personal account of the relationship between these two Church greats are hereby wholeheartedly encouraged to take up this book and read!
The book first takes you to fourth century Milan, which by then was the government center of the Roman empire. Ambrose was its Bishop and his influence over the city's ecclesiastical affairs is felt even to this day. Ambrose was an impressive character. He knew how and when to play power politics against imperial threats (he had a few in his lifetime) and was a dedicated, uncompromising pastor to his flock and churches in Milan.
We get from the outset a detailed description of his double cathedral in Milan - two cathedrals at opposing ends connected by an octagonal baptistry. We also get the description of his other churches in Milan and the reasons why they were strategically built.
As the title suggests, a great deal of the book has to do with Ambrose's approach to the Sacrament of Baptism and cathechetical instruction of his baptismal candidates (competentes) before Easter. At Easter, the Easter Vigil specifically, the candidates would go on procession from one cathedral to the next stopping first at the baptistry connecting them both to receive the sacrament from the bishop's hands in the baptismal waters. After this they would process on to the other cathedral where they would join the congregation as participants of the new birth and receivers of forgiveness of sins through Baptism. The Milanese bishop would give the baptismal instruction himself meeting his candidates twice almost daily during Lent. The instruction period was thorough and intense. The actual Ambrosian Easter baptismal liturgy was breathtaking in its detail, beauty and symbolism. As a Catholic bishop, Ambrose saw baptism as the sign of the candidates redemption in Jesus Christ, but it was the whole baptismal liturgy, with its every purposeful detail including immersion in the name of the Trinity, that accounted in Ambrose's view as one's full legitimate baptism.
Ambrose's connection to Augustine lies in that Augustine was one the Milanese bishop's competentes (applicant for baptism) in 387 AD. Augustine received direct influence and teaching from Ambrose previous to his own baptism. Being under the baptismal tutelage of one of the early centuries greatest and most influential bishops was no small thing. Ambrose had being embroiled in political fueds that threatened his own life, but he was also embroiled in the fight for orthodoxy against a formidable foe, the Arians. By God's will, he had come out victorious in all accounts. In 387, with such struggles behind him, Ambrose could focus on his competentes' instruction, Augustine included.
Augustine would have preferred and actually desired a closer relational connection to his teacher. That never materialized, but this time of intense cathechises under the Bishop of Milan has been one of the key factors in our understanding of Augustine of Hippo as we know him today.
The two men where undoubtedly very different both in character and theological approach to the sacrament of baptims as well as other ecclesiastical things in general. While we could say that both were catholic in faith and practice, Ambrose would be in more precise terms the 'C'atholic and Augustine the evangelical. Ambrose the maximalist in his view of baptism and church affairs and Augustine the minimalist on the same counts. Even their approach to conflicts was essentially different. A difference easily attributed to the extroverted, in your face nature of Ambrose's temperament, while Augustine was the more inwardly oriented, reflexive and less political of the two.
However, Augustine had his share of polemic too. His defense against the Manicheans, the Donatists and ultimately the Pelagians catapulted him to the fire front of doctrinal controversies during his lifetime. Augustine possessed theological and rethorical skills that were second to none. These served him well during these controversies against the heretics. He is particularly described in the controversy against the Donatists as "the verbal technician of his age, impassioned, wary, discriminating, and deadly." (p. 165)
Even when history did not allow us too witness a dynamic duo relationship between Ambrose and Augustine, the two lives, by Providence's own decree, served the Catholic Church on the same united front in ways to which we orthodox Christians around the world, especially in the West, are undoubtedly indebted even today.
A quote at the end of the book states, "By luck or providence [Ambrose and Augustine] helped one another transcend their individual shortcomings and became stronger together than any of them could have been standing alone." (p. 171)
Those looking for a historical, liturgical, political and personal account of the relationship between these two Church greats are hereby wholeheartedly encouraged to take up this book and read!
September 18, 2014
Gary Wills is probably my favorite religious writer and historian. In his 2012 book Font of Life: Ambrose, Augustine and the Mystery of Baptism, he doesn’t fail his readers in either field. This is a very delightful book from an author that knows how to do his research.
Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo were two important father of the early church in Rome. The former baptized the latter on Easter week in 387. Shortly afterwards, Augustine left for Hippo in Africa to what he had hoped to be a spiritual retirement, but like Ambrose had been years before in Milan, Augustine was proclaimed bishop of the city. Because Augustine had received Lenten instruction twice a day from Ambrose, it has been generally assumed that the bishop of Milan had been a major, if not primary source, of Augustine’s development as a Christian. Wills argues that this might necessarily not be the case.
Wills looks at the extant documents of Ambrose, Augustine, and their contemporaries as well as some of the modern interpretations of those lives and events. He argues that the two great bishops had very different styles; Ambrose employed a mystical approach, and Augustine was a pragmatist. They lived in very different cities with different types of congregations, different enemies and different crisis to resolve. This can be seen with how they approached the rite of baptism and the instruction of catechumens-particularly with the revelation of the mysteries of the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle Creed.
Both of these saints fought to make the Roman church catholic-each his own way. For readers interested the early church history and the Latin Fathers will enjoy this brief volume. I heartily recommend it.
Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo were two important father of the early church in Rome. The former baptized the latter on Easter week in 387. Shortly afterwards, Augustine left for Hippo in Africa to what he had hoped to be a spiritual retirement, but like Ambrose had been years before in Milan, Augustine was proclaimed bishop of the city. Because Augustine had received Lenten instruction twice a day from Ambrose, it has been generally assumed that the bishop of Milan had been a major, if not primary source, of Augustine’s development as a Christian. Wills argues that this might necessarily not be the case.
Wills looks at the extant documents of Ambrose, Augustine, and their contemporaries as well as some of the modern interpretations of those lives and events. He argues that the two great bishops had very different styles; Ambrose employed a mystical approach, and Augustine was a pragmatist. They lived in very different cities with different types of congregations, different enemies and different crisis to resolve. This can be seen with how they approached the rite of baptism and the instruction of catechumens-particularly with the revelation of the mysteries of the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle Creed.
Both of these saints fought to make the Roman church catholic-each his own way. For readers interested the early church history and the Latin Fathers will enjoy this brief volume. I heartily recommend it.
September 28, 2012
This book is really only half about the mystery of baptism. The other half is biographical and contextual information, particularly about the relationship between Ambrose and Augustine. I learned some things here that I did not know - for instance, that the theory that Augustine learned Neoplatonism from Ambrose's sermons is probably false, and that he more likely absorbed that from 'his frequent conversations with Mallius Theodore, Simplician, and their circle' (76). What Augustine did pick up from Ambrose was the anti-Marcionite, typological reading of the Old Testament which preserved its integrity as Scripture - 'The Jewish scripture was presented as continuingly valid and inspired, not as superseded by the New Tesetament. Ambrose always read the two bodies of scripture in tandem, as complementary. The patriarchs are saints, guided by the Holy Spirit' (103). Wills's description of the practice of baptism in Milan and Hippo on 112f and 149f, respectively, is evocative, and his schematic of the (at least) 12 types of baptism at 124ff that Ambrose found in the Old Testament provides helpful guidance for contemporary theological exegesis. Wills's digs at Augustine's theology of baptism and contrasts with Ambrose (Augustine is a 'sacramental minimalist', Ambrose a 'sacramental maximalist', Augustine's theology of baptism was 'legalistic, almost mechanical) seem overdone, but on the whole Wills's constructive claim that 'Augustine needs Ambrose' is well taken.
March 28, 2015
Regular readers of these pages will know that one of my pet peeves is the non-fiction book that the author and/or publisher needlessly pad to a greater length by repeating the major arguments and supporting evidence over and over again. This book, in comparison is a jewel of strait forward, succinct, argument and presentation. What a pleasure.
On the other hand it is not for those of you who are not interested in the early (4th Century) Church. It is concerned with the Baptismal doctrines of Ambrose (of Milan) and Augustine (of Hippo) and how they differed. You didn't know that Ambrose and Augustine differed on many aspects of baptismal doctrine? Well, neither did I but this well-written book does an excellent job of explaining it. (Hint: they had different types of opponents and needed to adjust their doctrines to address these different circumstances.) It also reminded me that it's time to get back to developing that board game of controversies and heresies in the early church.
On the other hand it is not for those of you who are not interested in the early (4th Century) Church. It is concerned with the Baptismal doctrines of Ambrose (of Milan) and Augustine (of Hippo) and how they differed. You didn't know that Ambrose and Augustine differed on many aspects of baptismal doctrine? Well, neither did I but this well-written book does an excellent job of explaining it. (Hint: they had different types of opponents and needed to adjust their doctrines to address these different circumstances.) It also reminded me that it's time to get back to developing that board game of controversies and heresies in the early church.
February 6, 2013
Focused and well-researched--a comparative historical discussion of two views and practices of baptism in the early Christian church. The last book I read of his matched up Verdi and Shakespeare, with a good bit of Rossini in the mix as well. Wills is terse and specific in his spate of recent expositions on Catholic religion and the arts, after a career spent writing long political biographies. He now seems to churn out new slim volumes the way most mortals write blog posts. Prolific as Wills is, Peter Ackroyd still beats him in that department, turning out thick, stylishly crafted tomes at a similarly awe-inspiring rate!
July 30, 2012
I picked this up to prime the pump for the baptism of our 3-month old son. I'm not sure how much it helped with that, but it is an authoritative look at a time when doctrine really mattered, where saying the wrong thing about the Trinity could get you killed. Wills does a good job conveying the mystical aspect of Christian ritual.
August 11, 2014
I learned a great deal of the early rough and tumble world of Christianity in Milan during the pre and post Constantine period and the post Goth period. Many of the traditions of the Catholic Church come from St. Ambrose (the sogn of the Cross during Mass to show one does is not a member of the Arian belief). A short book. A great deal of info.
February 21, 2016
Wills succinctly explores the relationship between Augustine and Ambrose, their views on baptism, Ambrose's influence on Augustine's thinking, and Augustine's use of Ambrose's thought in countering the Donatists and Pelagians.
May 15, 2012
Engagingly written. This book can serve as a good appetizer to study more deeply the lives and theology of these two important bishops.
December 5, 2012
Augustine and Ambrose. One establishes the orthodoxy, the other the orthopraxis. This is a good intro to two giants of the faith.
February 21, 2013
Engagingly written absorbing read. Recommended to everybody who is interested in the history of the period. The author clearly loves the object of study of his book.
March 18, 2013
Pretty interesting read but seeing as how I've been researching Augustine for several months now I'm ready for a break!
Read
November 8, 2013Difficult to get into but rewarding once I got used to the writer's style and the very heavy emphasis on the smallest details. Quick read once it got going.
June 6, 2014
Interesting. Harvested it rather than reading it all carefully.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews