Augustine

by Augustine of Hippo, Mortimer J. Adler (Editor), Clifton Fadiman (Associate Editor)

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Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Religion, Classics, Christianity, History, Catholic

784 pages, Hardcover

First published December 17, 2008

About the author

Early church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical Confessions in 397 and the voluminous City of God from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.

An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.

People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."

The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."

Santo Agostinho

Reviews

[Deb]

I'm not going to rate this one because I didn't read the entirety of the volume. I only read through Book 8 of "The Confessions" as part of the Great Books Challenge I'm doing with my husband.

Augustine is frequently quoted by Christian scholars, so it was interesting to read this work. It is autobiographical and covers from the time he was born, to his conversion, and then some of his thoughts about the Bible. I don't love the Great Books formatting, but as usual, I got through the assignment with lots of breaks in between books.

One thing that helped me keep reading was focusing on the language. I really like some of the wording. I learned a few words too. I could have figured out most of them from context, but here are a few I looked up: "flagitiousness" means villainous; "mutable" means subject to change; "nill" I would have thought meant "nothing," but it is "unwilling" or "to refuse"; "chambering" means lewdness; "conventicle" is a religious meeting.

I also wrote down a few quotes that interested me. I'm going to write them out here just for myself. I looked up the scriptural footnotes in the King James version of the Bible for my own information.

From Book 2

"It was foul, and I loved it." He was referring to when he was stealing pears for the sake of stealing. Yes, he was confessing and condemning himself, but I thought it was funny.

"Thou hast melted away my sins as it were ice."

"Who can disentangle that twisted and intricate knottiness?"

From Book 3

"It was not possible that the son of these tears should perish." His mother worried for his soul.

"Which answer she took (as she often mentioned in her conversations with me) as if it had sounded from heaven." His mother didn't worry about him in silence, but expressed her concerns and hopes to him.

From Book 4

"I hated all places, for they had not him, nor could they now tell me, 'He is coming,' as when he was alive and absent."

"I became a great riddle to myself."

"Wretched is every soul bound by the friendship of perishable things."

"All things looked ghastly."

"Nor did the bones exult which were not yet humbled." This has a footnote referring to Psalms 51:8 which says in the King James, "Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice."

"Thou wilt carry us both when little, and even to hoar hairs wilt Thou carry us." This has a footnote to Isaiah 46:4 which says in the King James, "And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." "Hoar hairs" are gray hairs like those you'd see on an old man's beard, which makes me think of the spiky white hoarfrost which clings to the trees this time of year.

"A longing for what I had, as it were, perceived the odour of, but was not yet able to feed on." This refers to his perception of spiritual things.

From Book 7

"Eating and drinking have no pleasure, unless there precede the pinching of hunger and thirst."

"Everywhere the greater joy is ushered in by the greater pain."

"Therefore was I at strife with myself, and rent asunder by myself."

From Book 8

As he struggled and wept he thought he heard the words, "Take up and read. Take up and read." This led him to take the words of Paul where he "seized, opened, and in silence read that section, on which my eyes first fell." This ended up being Romans 13:13-14. The King James says, "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkeness, not in chambering and wontonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." He says, after reading, "All the darkness of doubt vanished away." This was the point where he decided to fully commit to the Lord and to stop being torn between his spirituality and his lusts. He was fully converted.

[Sjervey]

This is a review of only Augustine's Confessions, not the entire collected works.
The Confessions were written about 15 years before The City of God. It is a far more interesting book. It still suffers from predestinarianism, misogyny,and class prejudices, but is a more humble volume, acknowledging more clearly his own sinfulness in his misuse of the women whom he bedded. Both works are in part a reaction to the Manichean heresy which tempted him for many years. Manichean were outright dualists who assumed the good things of our world were created by a good God and that an equal, evil entity created the bad. By the time of the Confessions, Augustine has repudiated this , but is now left with a dilemma. God has created everything and seen that it was good. Where does the evil come from. From those who rebelled against God, be they angels or men. But there capacity to commit evil is a gift from a good God. Moreover, an all-knowing God must know from creation which angels or men will rebel. I fear I am not fully competent to explain Augustine's resolution of these dilemmas. It involves hierarchical beliefs about angels and men, anout men and women, about reasonable men and "carnal" people. It is unsatisfactory. At one time he likens the trinity to men who can be, can know and can will, but he believes knowledge will lead to wisdom and, with God's helping grace, will, in the next life, lead us to see all clearly. It is a philosophy of man which exalts his own strengths and denigrates other human capacities. To Augustine, being made in the image of God means being able to reason and it is the reason which God must perfect in each of us. Yet Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is made of the childlike. For Augustine, there is no longer need of hope in the next life, yet Paul tells us that hope (as wel as faith) endures and will never pass away. I write this review with trepidation because I know I can not do justice to Augustine, but I akso am convinced he is wrong on many, many things. Still I want to credit him with remarkable insights into time and eternity, into the primacy of grace, even into the mystery of the Trinity. Unlike The City of God, I do recommend this to anyone willing to wrestle with a profound thinker who has much to offer but who also can easily mislead because of the power of his persuaviseness . If I live long enough, I shall probably tackle this again, but it is a challenge.

[William Crosby]

Although much of this was theology and his personal reflections, sometimes there was a surprise for me. For example, I was interested in when he related particular incidences in the Bible to what was happening elsewhere (i.e. Assyria, Rome) and he would digress into history. Also, he discussed assorted Greek and Egyptian "gods" and gave their name as people before they were renamed to the gods' names we know now. So, Isis, according to Augustine, had a different name as a person (I forget the name he gave) and then was admired and then revered and was declared to be a goddess. After that time, anybody who claimed that that goddess had been a person was put to death so that, over the centuries, that one was then considered to be a goddess automatically. Same with the Greeks; for example, Minerva was a person who had a different name and then was designated to be a goddess and renamed. I did not see any source named (sometimes, Augustine would mention a source such as Varro when discussing other matters); still it was very fascinating to see this addition to the Greek mythology. I had only thought that the panoply was just a bunch of legends and had not considered the possibility that they were originally people around whom stories developed.

[Andrew]

Confessions Review

I enjoyed St. Augustine's Confessions. Like when I read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, it seems odd to review a book that is well over a millennia old, but here I go.

I enjoyed the biographical progression, as St. Augustine analyzes each portion of his life. The philosophical digressions, constant turning of phrases can be enlightening at times, and frustrating at others. That's the style though, and I confess (pun intended) any frustration comes from my impatience and inability to engage in philosophical mental exercises. Sparsed throughout are moving, beautiful passages where St. Augustine contemplates God's mercy, love, and justice. One connects with St. Augustine's struggles, and who hasn't found themselves at some time praying "Grant me chastity and continence Lord, but not yet"? And yet, we share in the joy of Augustine's final conversion and baptism, and strive to increase our holiness as he does.

This is definitely a book to return to. Undoubtedly, repeated readings (and a more patient, studious mindset) will reveal more of Augustine's wisdom.

[Michael Farley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ancient literatre can be hard at times. I have read both Confessions and City of God, and though insightful with some good points (and, frankly, some bad ones too), Augustine has a hard time getting to his points in a concise way, if i didnt know better, i would say he loved the sound of his own pen writing. I would recomment a good summary of these two books, if such a summary exists.

[Youmna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both enchanting and enlightening, the wisdom and argumentative approach of Saint Augustine are astounding. The knowledge he both holds and tries to convey are at times beyond my grasp and I cannot but marvel at his witty chain of reasoning.

[Jason Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a few years since I actually read City of God, but this is an excellent book on theology, man's expectations for the world and the Kingdom of God, and how to deal with the sinful world in which we live. If one wants to read this version, I would recommend one of the many literature guides to accompany it.

[Sean Hadley · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Doctrina Christiana [2.25.2025]

[Darwin Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Augustine of Hippo drew a good comparison/contrast between God's order of things on earth, something that he called "the City of God," and the secular and/or pagan disorder of things, that both he and the Bible would term "Babylon." His demonstration of the arrangement of gods, under-gods, and intermediary daemons of false religion on one hand and a similar disarray among the various godless philosophies on the other, held up in stark contrast against the organized, integrated, consistent, and singular City of God (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church - Augustine did not distinguish between a church invisible and the institutional church) was a superb achievement.

It has remained so for centuries. Unfortunately, Christianity was already beginning to exhibit division and dissension in his own time, providing him with an impetus to defend orthodoxy (especially on the doctrine of the trinity), exhibited throughout his "Confessions," "The City of God," and "On Christian Doctrine." That nascent yet growing disunity led to the innumerable Christian denominations and independent congregations that we see today. Thus, the fact that Christianity has devolved into the same complex and somewhat chaotic arrangement that Augustine criticized elsewhere now detracts from his case supporting God's order of things. The disunity unknown to Augustine, then, would require him to use a different approach, were he writing today.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the sake of church history and history of the development of Christian theology and philosophy, this is a must-read. You can easily see how both Reformers and the Roman church lay claim to Augustine as His teachings are quite varied. God is so good to have placed Augustine at a point in history where he could be used to confront errors from the Donatists and from Peligius. Even though written hundreds of years ago, much of these writings are still relevant today. However, one must be careful to read with discernment so as to not get taken in by erroneous views on baptism and early forms of what would later become Roman Catholic dogma.

[Danny Miracle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's Saint Augustine, nothing more needs said. One of my favorite Saint's and a beautiful soul. Amazing words that are truly inspired by an energy out of this world.