What do you think?
Rate this book
Advent Homilies
“Though one never really tires of advent devotionals, it is rare to find one that ventures beyond the expected passages from Matthew and Luke and the key Messianic prophesies from the Old Testament. Advent Homilies invites and challenges its readers to accompany Augustine as he journeys through the Scriptures in search of the eternal Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, teaching us as he goes to love and adore him.”
– Louis Markos, Professor in English and scholar in Residence at Houston Christian University
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the titans of church history. Works such as his Confessions and On the Trinity have earned him a place as one of “the Doctors of the Church,” responsible for shaping and defending Christian doctrine throughout the centuries.
Yet Augustine was also pastor. Week by week, year by year, he shepherded his flock by preaching to them the Good News. In this short collection, readers will find seventeen Advent homilies in which Augustine expounded from his pulpit the wonders of Christ’s incarnation for the everyday Christians in his congregation. Combining profound theological wisdom, sharp scriptural insight, and challenging practical application, these homilies are brief but rich meditations on the person of Christ—the Eternal Day who stepped into our darkness, the Bridegroom who came forth from his chamber, the Truth who sprung out of the earth.
If you are longing for Christ this Advent season, these homilies will present him to you afresh from an array of surprising passages.
– Louis Markos, Professor in English and scholar in Residence at Houston Christian University
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the titans of church history. Works such as his Confessions and On the Trinity have earned him a place as one of “the Doctors of the Church,” responsible for shaping and defending Christian doctrine throughout the centuries.
Yet Augustine was also pastor. Week by week, year by year, he shepherded his flock by preaching to them the Good News. In this short collection, readers will find seventeen Advent homilies in which Augustine expounded from his pulpit the wonders of Christ’s incarnation for the everyday Christians in his congregation. Combining profound theological wisdom, sharp scriptural insight, and challenging practical application, these homilies are brief but rich meditations on the person of Christ—the Eternal Day who stepped into our darkness, the Bridegroom who came forth from his chamber, the Truth who sprung out of the earth.
If you are longing for Christ this Advent season, these homilies will present him to you afresh from an array of surprising passages.
127 pages, Paperback
Published November 19, 2024
9 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Augustine of Hippo
3,338 books2,015 followersEarly 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 30, 2025
Wonderful!
December 24, 2025
I'm so grateful for the work of Davenant and others who are recovering Patristics and making them accessible to the modern reader. This collection of Augustine's Christmas sermons is a great option for an Advent devotional: brief (3-5 pages per day), accessible (explanatory footnotes), and rich! It's interesting how much Augustine emphasizes Christ's deity. It's also very interesting how much he values the church as the prize created and earned by Christ's work. Overall, it's just helpful to hear a Christian voice from a different era on the topic of Christmastime. Fresh air!
Two notes to set expectations:
1) Because these sermons were preached once a year they are quite repetitive. Augustine returns to the same themes and passages in each sermon, typically. This makes sense since they weren't designed for sequential devotional material. Still very worth the time!
2) Augustine was prone to the errors of his generation so the perpetual virginity of Mary is a prominent theme in his sermons. There is also a marked influence of gnostic thinking in how much he considers the renunciation of marriage and other created goods as a sign of spirituality.
Two notes to set expectations:
1) Because these sermons were preached once a year they are quite repetitive. Augustine returns to the same themes and passages in each sermon, typically. This makes sense since they weren't designed for sequential devotional material. Still very worth the time!
2) Augustine was prone to the errors of his generation so the perpetual virginity of Mary is a prominent theme in his sermons. There is also a marked influence of gnostic thinking in how much he considers the renunciation of marriage and other created goods as a sign of spirituality.
December 25, 2024
Beautiful and captivating. Augustine draws our hearts and minds to the glory of eternal generation and the virgin birth of Christ. While there is some whacky theology on virginity and Mary, it doesn’t overshadow the beauty of the prose nor the majority of sound Christian content. I would recommend it for advent reading. Each homily is only two pages and can be read in 6-10 minutes. Read slowly and meditate on the imagery and poetry. Christ be praised!
“Consider, O man, what God became for your sake; understand this lesson of surpassing humility presented by a teacher who, as yet, says no word. Once, in paradise Genesis 2: 19-21; 3), you were so eloquent that you named every living thing; for your sake, however, your Creator lay speechless and did not even call His Mother by her name. By disregarding obedience, you have lost yourself in the tractless reaches of fruitful groves; He, in obedience, came into the very narrow confines of mortality so that by dying He might seek you who were dead. Though you were man, you wished to be God, to your own destruction; though He was God, He wished to be man that He might find what He had lost. Human pride brought you to such a depth that only divine humility could raise you up again.”
“Consider, O man, what God became for your sake; understand this lesson of surpassing humility presented by a teacher who, as yet, says no word. Once, in paradise Genesis 2: 19-21; 3), you were so eloquent that you named every living thing; for your sake, however, your Creator lay speechless and did not even call His Mother by her name. By disregarding obedience, you have lost yourself in the tractless reaches of fruitful groves; He, in obedience, came into the very narrow confines of mortality so that by dying He might seek you who were dead. Though you were man, you wished to be God, to your own destruction; though He was God, He wished to be man that He might find what He had lost. Human pride brought you to such a depth that only divine humility could raise you up again.”
December 27, 2025
This book includes several beautiful sermons by Saint Augustine of Hippo for Advent and (especially) Christmas. I found his emphasis on what is happening at Christmas, with God becoming man, to be beautifully expressed. Truly a classic. I've been reading more early church theology recently, and found it very moving and affecting.
December 30, 2024
Beautiful and Delightful. Read this.
January 6, 2025
Great collection. The homilies are pretty short and easy to get through. Fascinating to see the way he approached preaching about the incarnation.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews