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Augustine
O'Donnell, provost at Georgetown University and editor of the definitive edition of Augustine's Confessions, is admirably qualified to chronicle the life of the man who wrote history's most famous autobiography. But in this book, suffused with the methods (though thankfully not the tortured vocabulary) of postmodern critical suspicion, the Confessions is more hindrance than help at seeing the "many Augustines" who have been lost behind Augustine's own self-presentation. The Augustines that O'Donnell sketches include the aspiring social climber who transferred his ambitions from society to church; the bitter and dogged polemicist; and "Don Quixote of Hippo," whose "fantasy world of earliest Christianity has come eerily to be real." O'Donnell's pace is quick, his writing is sharp and there are lively and provocative interpretations on nearly every page. But his jaundiced portrait does not quite seem to do justice to the African bishop's perennial appeal, which O'Donnell acknowledges in characteristically backhanded fashion: "Call it codependency or Stockholm syndrome at its mildest; call it religious partisanship at its most extreme, but even Augustine's severest modern critics find something attractive or fascinating about the man and his work." Readers of this book will certainly wonder why. For O'Donnell, it seems, familiarity has bred contempt.
432 pages, ebook
First published July 1, 1985
About the author
James J. O'Donnell
27 books39 followersJames Joseph O'Donnell is a classical scholar and University Librarian at Arizona State University. He formerly served as University Professor at Georgetown University (2012-2015) and as Provost of Georgetown University (2002-2012). O'Donnell was previously Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania (1996–2002). He is a former President of the American Philological Association (the national learned society for academics who work on the ancient world) and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. From 2012 to 2018, he chaired the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies.
O'Donnell writes and lectures on topics of the late Roman Empire, Augustine of Hippo, and also on the impact of information technology in the modern academic and cultural world. He was an early adopter of the World Wide Web for academic collaboration within the humanities. He co-founded and has been involved with Bryn Mawr Classical Review since it was founded in 1990. In 1994, he offered the first Internet MOOC when 500 students around the world participated (through gopher and email) in his University of Pennsylvania seminar on the life and work of St. Augustine.
O'Donnell writes and lectures on topics of the late Roman Empire, Augustine of Hippo, and also on the impact of information technology in the modern academic and cultural world. He was an early adopter of the World Wide Web for academic collaboration within the humanities. He co-founded and has been involved with Bryn Mawr Classical Review since it was founded in 1990. In 1994, he offered the first Internet MOOC when 500 students around the world participated (through gopher and email) in his University of Pennsylvania seminar on the life and work of St. Augustine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
October 30, 2008
I can’t recommend Augustine: A New Biography to anyone who doesn’t have a good background in early Christian theology, late Roman history and at least a passing familiarity with Augustine’s more popular works – particularly The Confessions and The City of God. If, however, you can meet those criteria then O’Donnell’s book should be required reading. The author deconstructs the image of Augustine that has come down to us without denigrating the real, glimpsed through the prisms of his books, letters and sermons. This man can be vain, petty, and overly contentious, and he certainly had little sense of humor, but he was also a conscientious shepherd for his flock. Admittedly, he wasn’t a very good administrator and tended to ignore the more mundane functions of his see until corruption and scandal blew up in his face but that wasn’t because he didn’t care about the congregants.
And there can be no denying that he was and remains one of the “giants” of intellectual history. No one would have predicted it at Augustine’s death in AD 430, but his theology came to define Western Christianity and all of his successors either built upon his work or had to form their theologies in response to it. Augustine was in the fortunate position of being the only Latin writer and brain of any ability of his era. He also had the advantage of not being very familiar with Greek learning (in The Confessions, the bishop recounts how little Greek he retained from his days as a student) and no exposure at all to the OT scriptures in their original Hebrew. Thus, his brilliance was largely unencumbered and innovative (though he would have been loath to admit it).
For better or for worse (depending upon your philosophical leanings), Augustine’s brilliant mind was a terribly pessimistic one that often skirted the edges of Manichaean heresy (as opponents were all too eager to point out), and which often found itself backed into paradoxical corners by the logic of its positions. A case in point is the origin of the soul. Augustine considered four possibilities (p. 299):
None of these scenarios are without problems, and it’s a measure of Augustine’s intellectual dexterity that he managed to never adequately answer the dilemma and that support for the last two positions can be gleaned from selective readings of his work.
O’Donnell describes two principles that emerge from Augustine’s ruminations (pp. 301-302):
As the author pithily puts it, “ wrestles with Paul’s pessimism and is decisively beaten by it” (p. 301).
What, in the end, did Augustine do? O’Donnell suggests several things. First, Augustine was instrumental in making books the source of “wisdom.” This unique Western/Islamic conceit has only recently been challenged by changing technologies that have made books less central to intellectual development. (This is a thesis that is not fully developed in this book but it is intriguing.)
Second, the bishop’s idea of God – a mixture of biblical and Platonic traditions – is with us still in all of the great monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity & Islam): “He may have died a hundred or more years ago, but he is with us still, the undead deity for whom the zealots of many cultures compete” (p. 329).
Third, God keeps his distance from mundane politics. A view of God’s intervention in the world that will eventually give us the doctrine of church-state seperation, and no end of conflict between the secular and ecclesiastic powers of Western Europe.
Fourth, religion is a “serious” endeavor, concerned with matters spiritual and sublime. Not the often sordid concerns of the here and now. Augustine would have been shocked at the tendency (at least in American churches) toward song and dance as part of a service – “Religion is solemn and serious business, arising out of the deep inner experience of some, a deep inner experience….” (p. 329).
Fifth, set up the framework for Western Christianity’s struggle between its belief in freedom and the limits of that freedom (the illusion of self-control & predestination).
Sixth, and last, “sex.” Not the act, of course, but the somewhat neurotic relationship Western civilization (including Islam) has with it. This is another thread of Augustinian thought that O’Donnell doesn’t spend much time with and points up what readers might find a serious flaw (or, at least, drawback) to the book and that is it doesn’t spend much time with Augustine’s works as such but rather attempts to situate the man and his words in the context of 5th century Roman Africa.
At this, O’Donnell succeeds brilliantly, arguing, for example, that Augustine’s life can be seen as an attempt to enter the rarified heights of the imperial elite and failing. He even goes so far as to argue that much of the bishop’s animus toward Pelagius stemmed from the latter’s success in a similar endeavor. O’Donnell also shows how Donatism was by far the majority “flavor” of Christianity in Africa. It failed not on the merits of doctrine but because the Donatist church backed the wrong player in the internecine civil wars afflicting the empire, and the Western court came down like a ton of bricks on the (now) heretical clergy. (The author even goes so far as to suggest that the Roman church’s victory was pyrrhic in that the resentment and ill will it engendered made the later Muslim conquests all the easier.)
Not a “definitive” biography and not for the general reader, Augustine: A New Biography is still a good read for the properly prepared, even if you can’t always whole-heartedly agree with its arguments.
And there can be no denying that he was and remains one of the “giants” of intellectual history. No one would have predicted it at Augustine’s death in AD 430, but his theology came to define Western Christianity and all of his successors either built upon his work or had to form their theologies in response to it. Augustine was in the fortunate position of being the only Latin writer and brain of any ability of his era. He also had the advantage of not being very familiar with Greek learning (in The Confessions, the bishop recounts how little Greek he retained from his days as a student) and no exposure at all to the OT scriptures in their original Hebrew. Thus, his brilliance was largely unencumbered and innovative (though he would have been loath to admit it).
For better or for worse (depending upon your philosophical leanings), Augustine’s brilliant mind was a terribly pessimistic one that often skirted the edges of Manichaean heresy (as opponents were all too eager to point out), and which often found itself backed into paradoxical corners by the logic of its positions. A case in point is the origin of the soul. Augustine considered four possibilities (p. 299):
1. God creates souls as each human being is born (or conceived).
2. God has created each soul in eternity and dispatches it to a body as it is created.
3. God has created each soul in eternity but they choose to fall into mortal bodies (the initial act of rebellion).
4. God has created a single soul of which “slices”inhabit each mortal body.
None of these scenarios are without problems, and it’s a measure of Augustine’s intellectual dexterity that he managed to never adequately answer the dilemma and that support for the last two positions can be gleaned from selective readings of his work.
O’Donnell describes two principles that emerge from Augustine’s ruminations (pp. 301-302):
1. God is all powerful, man is weak. The temptation of sin can theoretically be resisted but, in practice, almost never is. Salvation is a divine dispensation, and not human in origin.
2. The apparent salvation of the blessed “is not decisive.” No human can be sure that they are truly saved.
As the author pithily puts it, “ wrestles with Paul’s pessimism and is decisively beaten by it” (p. 301).
What, in the end, did Augustine do? O’Donnell suggests several things. First, Augustine was instrumental in making books the source of “wisdom.” This unique Western/Islamic conceit has only recently been challenged by changing technologies that have made books less central to intellectual development. (This is a thesis that is not fully developed in this book but it is intriguing.)
Second, the bishop’s idea of God – a mixture of biblical and Platonic traditions – is with us still in all of the great monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity & Islam): “He may have died a hundred or more years ago, but he is with us still, the undead deity for whom the zealots of many cultures compete” (p. 329).
Third, God keeps his distance from mundane politics. A view of God’s intervention in the world that will eventually give us the doctrine of church-state seperation, and no end of conflict between the secular and ecclesiastic powers of Western Europe.
Fourth, religion is a “serious” endeavor, concerned with matters spiritual and sublime. Not the often sordid concerns of the here and now. Augustine would have been shocked at the tendency (at least in American churches) toward song and dance as part of a service – “Religion is solemn and serious business, arising out of the deep inner experience of some, a deep inner experience….” (p. 329).
Fifth, set up the framework for Western Christianity’s struggle between its belief in freedom and the limits of that freedom (the illusion of self-control & predestination).
Sixth, and last, “sex.” Not the act, of course, but the somewhat neurotic relationship Western civilization (including Islam) has with it. This is another thread of Augustinian thought that O’Donnell doesn’t spend much time with and points up what readers might find a serious flaw (or, at least, drawback) to the book and that is it doesn’t spend much time with Augustine’s works as such but rather attempts to situate the man and his words in the context of 5th century Roman Africa.
At this, O’Donnell succeeds brilliantly, arguing, for example, that Augustine’s life can be seen as an attempt to enter the rarified heights of the imperial elite and failing. He even goes so far as to argue that much of the bishop’s animus toward Pelagius stemmed from the latter’s success in a similar endeavor. O’Donnell also shows how Donatism was by far the majority “flavor” of Christianity in Africa. It failed not on the merits of doctrine but because the Donatist church backed the wrong player in the internecine civil wars afflicting the empire, and the Western court came down like a ton of bricks on the (now) heretical clergy. (The author even goes so far as to suggest that the Roman church’s victory was pyrrhic in that the resentment and ill will it engendered made the later Muslim conquests all the easier.)
Not a “definitive” biography and not for the general reader, Augustine: A New Biography is still a good read for the properly prepared, even if you can’t always whole-heartedly agree with its arguments.
March 10, 2010
I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of O'Donnell's facts, but his presentation was so off-putting that it undermined any pleasure or value this book might have had. Augustine reads like a Hollywood expose: filled with rhetorical questions, winks and nods. A lot of the Great Expert telling us what really happened, even after he admits we have no idea what really happened. You know, the inside "dirt." Maybe O'Donnell felt he had to "jazz up" his subject matter. I don't know.
One shortcoming O'Donnell couldn't overcome: his smirking disbelief of Augustine's beliefs. Such a disconnect immediately puts him at odds with Augustine's message. While a modern reader may not wish a hagiography, one would wish a bit more sympathy for the times and beliefs of those times. Oh, yes, O'Donnell carries on in great detail about who believed what, but it felt like a laboratory dissection rather than something more caring.
For one who has made a career of Augustine's career, you'd expect better.
Having said that, I encourage the potential reader to at least read the last chapters, especially "Augustine the Theologian." There one sees the feel and the value of O'Donnell's approach. It is hard today to have any clear picture of someone who lived 1600 years ago; doubly hard when that person has become a kind of gilded icon to one group of readers, and a demon to another. Augustine, of course, was neither.
One shortcoming O'Donnell couldn't overcome: his smirking disbelief of Augustine's beliefs. Such a disconnect immediately puts him at odds with Augustine's message. While a modern reader may not wish a hagiography, one would wish a bit more sympathy for the times and beliefs of those times. Oh, yes, O'Donnell carries on in great detail about who believed what, but it felt like a laboratory dissection rather than something more caring.
For one who has made a career of Augustine's career, you'd expect better.
Having said that, I encourage the potential reader to at least read the last chapters, especially "Augustine the Theologian." There one sees the feel and the value of O'Donnell's approach. It is hard today to have any clear picture of someone who lived 1600 years ago; doubly hard when that person has become a kind of gilded icon to one group of readers, and a demon to another. Augustine, of course, was neither.
January 18, 2020
This is an infuriating book. For most of its pages, it’s distasteful, surprisingly mean-spirited, peppered with snarky asides, and unconvincing conjectures, radical and revisionist to the point of absurdity (Chapter VII the most egregious example). I was left to wonder whether I had ever read a biographer who had such palpable disdain for his subject. But then, in the final chapters, the tone shifted, offering keen insights into Augustine’s life, his theological views, and his long-term influence on Western thought. It is as if there are two authors, one with an ax to grind against Augustine and Christianity in general, and the other with a finely nuanced understanding of human nature, faith and history. Unfortunately the latter shows up late in the book.
February 13, 2009
I read this book for the first time in galleys--the publisher shared it with me. And what I thought then I still think: this is the most remarkable book on Augustine I have ever read. And that's saying something; I teach him in a university. O'Donnell takes a man who is less a human than a literary monument, and turns him back into the brilliant, vain, anxious priest he was. The Augustine this book depicts will not win any prizes for charm, but he is much more full-blooded and real than in any other biography to date.
August 27, 2018
I do not believe that I had previously read a biography in which the author showed such disdain and contempt for his subject as O'Donnell shows for Augustine. I was not looking for a hagiography, but O'Donnell's portrait reads more like a hack job. O'Donnell pictures him as a Don Quixote fighting windmills (an image he uses at length in the book) because he does not believe in Augustine's God and does not see anything of importance in the theological issues at stake. O'Donnell clearly has an axe to grind with the Christian faith and this makes large portions of this book almost unreadable. His approach to the Confessions is to try and get to what Augustine did not confess; looking for the worst of ulterior motives that he can conjure up. I do not doubt the scholarship of this work and there were some sections that were helpful in understanding Augustine's life and his thought. I would also credit the author with writing well with an engaging style. Overall, however, the author's unveiled contempt for Augustine and his God made this read a less than enjoyable one and made it difficult to see the author as a fair commentator on his life and works. I gave it two stars because it has some value, but it deserves less.
October 9, 2025
A very tough book to read and now to review. Not because of any unusual abstruseness, although one does need to adjust to O’Donnell’s imbrication in an unfamiliar late-antique Africa. It is tough to read because I have a certain affection for Augustine that O’Donnell, who clearly has come to know him like an exasperated and estranged younger brother, seems to lack. Augustine receives an unrelentingly incisive—to the point of denigration—treatment that to its credit avoids bland prurient psychoanalysis (O’Donnell does not buy into an image of Augustine as doomed and twisted by sexual neurosis).
The book is tough to review because, as other reviewers have pointed out, the tone shifts markedly in the final chapters. Is this just inconsistency? O’Donnell makes a compelling case against dogmatic consistency as he recounts the many traps Augustine insisted on framing and then falling into. If we were to treat O’Donnell in the same way he treats Augustine, then perhaps he deserves to be called inconsistent and incomprehensibly antipathetic. But the final chapters make me suspect the constant deconstruction is an act of love, trying to save Augustine from the narratives into which he is so firmly embedded, in the hope that the man might be free to endure as/if those narratives crumble.
The book is tough to review because, as other reviewers have pointed out, the tone shifts markedly in the final chapters. Is this just inconsistency? O’Donnell makes a compelling case against dogmatic consistency as he recounts the many traps Augustine insisted on framing and then falling into. If we were to treat O’Donnell in the same way he treats Augustine, then perhaps he deserves to be called inconsistent and incomprehensibly antipathetic. But the final chapters make me suspect the constant deconstruction is an act of love, trying to save Augustine from the narratives into which he is so firmly embedded, in the hope that the man might be free to endure as/if those narratives crumble.
May 14, 2021
This irritated me beyond all reason. I can't stand the thematic organization, the endless stage of characters I couldn't keep trach of, and the confusion about whether or not this is a biography or a psycho-analysis or a philosophical reflection. There is a staggering amount of research and information present, and many diamonds to find...but you have to swim through an endless sea of peanut butter in order to find them.
January 21, 2022
Suffered through this one. Not very interesting or great.
March 20, 2018
This is a helpful book for those overwhelmed (all of us) by the volume of Augustine of Hippo's writing. Many bring the African Bishop onto their side for the purpose of polemical expeditions concerning creation, soteriology, predestination and other concerns including historical theory. O'Donnell examines the developing career of the man, and ventures into intentionalism. Some interesting points include the tendency of the existentialist to 'self invent', and a superimposition of this tendency is a surprise consideration applied to such a monument as Augustine.
Augustine's repurposing of rhetoric is another story illuminated here, and there is much to think about in this stream. Rhetoric used for the purpose of consolidating belief in a world like Augustine's, where localism produced peculiarities of understanding and practice seems like the norm today where creeds apply to everything. Not always so...
Finally, the bleary wondering if Augustine is relevant at all since modern science has thunk the 'soul' out of existence seems to be a queasy ad populum revelation of the author's own tendency to invent himself. I realized upon reading it that some people see Augustine as a 'self made man', and so he becomes understandable to the moderns who are largely empty fabricated people. One makes, the other are made.
I do agree with O'Donnell that a good translation is necessary, since the original Latin of the master is brilliant and multivalent, forcing many translators to be more specific where the author was comprehensive.
Augustine's repurposing of rhetoric is another story illuminated here, and there is much to think about in this stream. Rhetoric used for the purpose of consolidating belief in a world like Augustine's, where localism produced peculiarities of understanding and practice seems like the norm today where creeds apply to everything. Not always so...
Finally, the bleary wondering if Augustine is relevant at all since modern science has thunk the 'soul' out of existence seems to be a queasy ad populum revelation of the author's own tendency to invent himself. I realized upon reading it that some people see Augustine as a 'self made man', and so he becomes understandable to the moderns who are largely empty fabricated people. One makes, the other are made.
I do agree with O'Donnell that a good translation is necessary, since the original Latin of the master is brilliant and multivalent, forcing many translators to be more specific where the author was comprehensive.
February 19, 2011
Fascinating history and insight into the life of an amazing thinker and writer. This is definitely not a theological book. O'Donnell takes a very detached, academic, and historical approach, but makes Augustine come to life as if he is your (eccentric) next door neighbor. Read "Augustine: A New Biography" as background and perspective for reading Augustine's own writings or other more theologically-oriented accounts.
January 19, 2009
Whoa! What an amazing work of scholarship and what a joy to read. Once I started reading excerpts to my partner while he was driving, I didn't know where to stop. Not a hagiography, but still leaves one with a profound respect for what Augustine accomplished. There's a hysterical comparison between Augustine and Quixote. That alone makes it worth the effot to read.
June 27, 2007
Suffered through this one. Not very interesting or great.
December 29, 2021
Who is the Saint of Hippo? What does Augustine have to do with today? Why does St. Augustine have his own website? These are questions that are addressed in James J. O’Donnell’s Augustine: a New Biography.
For those who many not know, St. Augustine was a philosopher and theologian of the late Roman Empire in Northern Africa. His theology has helped shape a great deal of Christian theology for the last 2,000 years.
James O’Donnell attempts to reconstruct the ‘real’ Augustine. Many readers who do know of the Saint probably know him through his Confessions. In that work, St. Augustine leads the reader through his life until his conversion to Christianity. Ostensibly, the work should be fairly reliable to the Saint’s life. However, O’Donnell argues that the Saint fabricated and obfuscated the truth of who he is in order to paint a more pius picture of himself. By the time the Confessions are written, St. Augustine is about to become the Bishop of Hippo.
But more than this, O’Donnell attempts to try to show how politics and his ambition helped shape the Saint’s goals in life. He argues that St. Augustine represented only one Christianity existing at the end of the Roman Empire. Even though his eventually emerged as the dominant one, it did not need to be this way.
O’Donnell’s engaging picture of Augustine emerges as a saint who is well aware of his political position and is attempting to secure a name for himself. In doing so, the author paints a fresh picture of Augustines’s theological ingenuity (especially predestination and original sin) and puts it back in his context. The modern day reader may read Augustine because they have heard of his faith, but O’Donnell wants us to understand the political background to the saints’ struggles. Most important is the struggle against Pelagianism, which the author paints as a pointless contest.
O’Donnell’s writing is clear and non-technical. He does the best he can to explain complex theological positions.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Christian theology or church history.
Grade: B
For those who many not know, St. Augustine was a philosopher and theologian of the late Roman Empire in Northern Africa. His theology has helped shape a great deal of Christian theology for the last 2,000 years.
James O’Donnell attempts to reconstruct the ‘real’ Augustine. Many readers who do know of the Saint probably know him through his Confessions. In that work, St. Augustine leads the reader through his life until his conversion to Christianity. Ostensibly, the work should be fairly reliable to the Saint’s life. However, O’Donnell argues that the Saint fabricated and obfuscated the truth of who he is in order to paint a more pius picture of himself. By the time the Confessions are written, St. Augustine is about to become the Bishop of Hippo.
But more than this, O’Donnell attempts to try to show how politics and his ambition helped shape the Saint’s goals in life. He argues that St. Augustine represented only one Christianity existing at the end of the Roman Empire. Even though his eventually emerged as the dominant one, it did not need to be this way.
O’Donnell’s engaging picture of Augustine emerges as a saint who is well aware of his political position and is attempting to secure a name for himself. In doing so, the author paints a fresh picture of Augustines’s theological ingenuity (especially predestination and original sin) and puts it back in his context. The modern day reader may read Augustine because they have heard of his faith, but O’Donnell wants us to understand the political background to the saints’ struggles. Most important is the struggle against Pelagianism, which the author paints as a pointless contest.
O’Donnell’s writing is clear and non-technical. He does the best he can to explain complex theological positions.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Christian theology or church history.
Grade: B
Did Not Finish
October 20, 2026I had to return this from interlibrary loan after only getting to pg. 113 of what proved a challenging read. I'd recently studied the Confessions, listened to two Great Courses on Augustine, finished Garry Wills' survey of that work, and James Clark's overview. And a good chunk of another loan recalled too soon, Peter Brown's biography. So I figured I was pretty prepared for O'Donnell.
As reviews before mine indicate, the reception of this 2000's interpretation hasn't endeared expert O'Donnell--who completed the standard Oxford three-volume commentary on the Latin edition--to an audience expecting another Wills-type approach. I happen to like that author's Latinate translation of Augustinian rhetoric. O'Donnell as his in-depth peer provides a similarly quirky response to this formidable man. But he mistrusts him, questions his hidden motives, dismisses his style as overwrought, and favors the North African Donatist then-majority Christian movement as somehow superior to the Caecilian "papal approved" rival denomination. He might have swayed me if he'd taken time to explain his contrarian position in this and many more issues.
Instead, he doesn't express clearly why this variety (none dare call it heresy?) should have supplanted whatever "Rome" was importing. O'Donnell in his resolute refusal to capitalize God shows his stubborn resistance to top-down fealty, and while his insights into how we tend to exaggerate Augustine's sexual longings (O'Donnell in his timeline uses the term "married" [as in common law] for his long-term "mistress") and downplay his manipulation of his spin-doctored justification as bishop of Hippo to account for his youthful hometurf reputation prove more convincing, the dogged resistance to take Augustine at his five million words and this professor's barbed suspicion at trusting his eloquent but headstrong subject make this book an inherent irritant.
As reviews before mine indicate, the reception of this 2000's interpretation hasn't endeared expert O'Donnell--who completed the standard Oxford three-volume commentary on the Latin edition--to an audience expecting another Wills-type approach. I happen to like that author's Latinate translation of Augustinian rhetoric. O'Donnell as his in-depth peer provides a similarly quirky response to this formidable man. But he mistrusts him, questions his hidden motives, dismisses his style as overwrought, and favors the North African Donatist then-majority Christian movement as somehow superior to the Caecilian "papal approved" rival denomination. He might have swayed me if he'd taken time to explain his contrarian position in this and many more issues.
Instead, he doesn't express clearly why this variety (none dare call it heresy?) should have supplanted whatever "Rome" was importing. O'Donnell in his resolute refusal to capitalize God shows his stubborn resistance to top-down fealty, and while his insights into how we tend to exaggerate Augustine's sexual longings (O'Donnell in his timeline uses the term "married" [as in common law] for his long-term "mistress") and downplay his manipulation of his spin-doctored justification as bishop of Hippo to account for his youthful hometurf reputation prove more convincing, the dogged resistance to take Augustine at his five million words and this professor's barbed suspicion at trusting his eloquent but headstrong subject make this book an inherent irritant.
March 29, 2020
James J. O’Donnell provides unique insight into the cultural history of late antiquity and life of Saint Augustine in Augustine: A New Biography. O’Donnell expands on other biographies and contemporary perceptions to deconstruct how we view Augustine by focusing on his ambitions, image, and his relative importance both during his life and now. This biography offers a close analysis of Augustine’s writings, key arguments and disputes, and the cultural environment of his life. O’Donnell’s perspective proves useful to any historian or theologian who seeks to understand the context of Augustine’s life and writings with a dose of skepticism. Augustine: A New Biography lives up to its title of being a “New Biography” and should be included in the library of anyone who is interested in the life and influence of Saint Augustine. The book should be read, not as a sole source, but with the understanding that O’Donnell’s interpretation can provide a nuanced perspective to complement previous studies and other biographies. The frequent critical skepticism that pervades this book grew tiresome but was also useful for the author to emphasize his message. It would have been interesting to see the book expand more on the concept of Augustine’s influence on enfolding diverse religious traditions; however, the incorporation and analysis of the various cultures that both influenced and were influenced by Augustine were particularly interesting. This book is a noteworthy contribution to the study and understanding of Saint Augustine and will be satisfying to both the scholar and the casual reader.
July 24, 2026
An interesting but unusual biography of St Augustine. Does not take the normal sympathetic stance of a biographer to their subject and is at pains, at times, to criticise Augustine's achievements and motivations. Some of his insights, for instance in respect of Augustine's battle with the rival Donatist church in Africa and his last bitter dispute with Julian of Eclanum are interesting and well argued. Despite his stance towards his subject, the author clearly knows his sources and period.
November 11, 2025
An interesting book where I wish I had remembered a bit more about the subject matter before tackling. The thematic chapters also poorly suit my 'reading before bed' habit - I have a tendency to lose non-chronological threads! Still, a lot of really interesting texture about the 4th and 5th centuries and the intertwined imperial and ecclesiastical histories of Christianity.
December 17, 2017
Augustine...a must read
Not just a biography, more lesson in CHRISTIAN history. The authors thought provoking commentary, whether you agree or not, is the most valuable component of this book.
Not just a biography, more lesson in CHRISTIAN history. The authors thought provoking commentary, whether you agree or not, is the most valuable component of this book.
January 11, 2026
Suffered through this one. Not very interesting or great.
October 25, 2026
Augustine was an extraordinary writer an troubled through conscious life liver.
July 26, 2021
I adored this book because it’s so much more than a simple biography. It’s a thesis about the origins of Christianity and the nature of late antiquity. It’s also relentlessly clever and erudite and original. I love St. Augustine, and guess the author does too, but it’s wonderful to see the often self-fashioned mythology of the man get systematically dismantled.
January 23, 2014
We are, each one of us, multiple people. As we move through time and space, in different situations, and in different company we change. In each of us is a multitude of us's. And why should St. Augustine be any different?
We are, each one of us, an individual. There are changes over time and different aspects of us become more prominent in different situations, but what is essential about each of us never changes. An eternal I. And why should Aurelius Augistinus son of Patricius of Hippo Regius be any different?
Both contradictory views are true at once in all people in all times, but one further paradox about humans nature is always in play: Though we know this about people, we, all of us, have a tendency to take the first aspect of a person, and assume we have grasped their essential nature.
Augustine made his life work the understanding of himself and his world through his God. In his Confessions, in which he basically invents the idea of autobiography, he shares that work with everyone, hoping that, by his example, he can bring many people back to the one and only true God, where they belong.
His Autobiography was so widely read and translated and shared and talked about- passed down over the generations, and so very influential, that the Augustine Augustine wrote about is still the Augustine we know today. As is so often the case, by having had the first word, Augustine also has the last word.
For the first few chapters of O'Donnell's book, I wondered why he seemed to hate Augustine- why he wanted to tear him down so much. I mean, the first chapter calls him a "social climber" and paints a very unflattering picture of him.
But what is important to remember when reading this biography is, "that's true too." Think of how it is to speak to a friend about a mutual friend who annoyed you. You both have that history and context to know you are talking about someone you love and admire. But if you were to have an eavesdropper, they, too, would think you were speaking about an enemy.
That is what this biography is- it is one friend of Augustine telling another friend about some of the annoying, shocking, or terrible things Augustine did or said. If you refrain from judgement and continue to read- the author comes back to that essential eternal Augustine we know from his books, and we are richer for having gone that way. All of this, and yet, a great man.
This biography paints Augustine's time as alive and full of conflicts and important intellectual movements that would be meaningless to us now without the author's guidence. O'Donnell does a wonderful job making the times and place accessible to us, these 1,600 something years removed, and in knowing the times and place better, we can know the man.
After establishing the time and place, and the important ideas of the time- as Augustine was a man of ideas, and then tearing down Augustine's legend some, O'Donnell, builds him up again, this time as a real human being, with facets and layers, far more and less at once than his legend and his autobiography have made him out to be.
We are, each one of us, an individual. There are changes over time and different aspects of us become more prominent in different situations, but what is essential about each of us never changes. An eternal I. And why should Aurelius Augistinus son of Patricius of Hippo Regius be any different?
Both contradictory views are true at once in all people in all times, but one further paradox about humans nature is always in play: Though we know this about people, we, all of us, have a tendency to take the first aspect of a person, and assume we have grasped their essential nature.
Augustine made his life work the understanding of himself and his world through his God. In his Confessions, in which he basically invents the idea of autobiography, he shares that work with everyone, hoping that, by his example, he can bring many people back to the one and only true God, where they belong.
His Autobiography was so widely read and translated and shared and talked about- passed down over the generations, and so very influential, that the Augustine Augustine wrote about is still the Augustine we know today. As is so often the case, by having had the first word, Augustine also has the last word.
For the first few chapters of O'Donnell's book, I wondered why he seemed to hate Augustine- why he wanted to tear him down so much. I mean, the first chapter calls him a "social climber" and paints a very unflattering picture of him.
But what is important to remember when reading this biography is, "that's true too." Think of how it is to speak to a friend about a mutual friend who annoyed you. You both have that history and context to know you are talking about someone you love and admire. But if you were to have an eavesdropper, they, too, would think you were speaking about an enemy.
That is what this biography is- it is one friend of Augustine telling another friend about some of the annoying, shocking, or terrible things Augustine did or said. If you refrain from judgement and continue to read- the author comes back to that essential eternal Augustine we know from his books, and we are richer for having gone that way. All of this, and yet, a great man.
This biography paints Augustine's time as alive and full of conflicts and important intellectual movements that would be meaningless to us now without the author's guidence. O'Donnell does a wonderful job making the times and place accessible to us, these 1,600 something years removed, and in knowing the times and place better, we can know the man.
After establishing the time and place, and the important ideas of the time- as Augustine was a man of ideas, and then tearing down Augustine's legend some, O'Donnell, builds him up again, this time as a real human being, with facets and layers, far more and less at once than his legend and his autobiography have made him out to be.
July 17, 2012
Writing a biography about Augustine, whose massive literary output essentially provides the backbone behind Christian (regardless of denomination) dogma, is a daunting task. Augustine has become mythologized himself, making the writing of a biography sure to be offensive to some people. That said, O'Donnell clearly is a scholar of Augustine the material and Augustine the man. The understanding of Augustine's influence is NOT the purpose of this biography. For that, readers would be much better served will Pelikan's magisterial history of the development of Christian doctrine. O'Donnell's purpose is Augustine the man, his motivations and actions, in the context of the world in which he lived. In this goal, O'Donnell has very successfully succeeded in his goal.
O'Donnell paints Augustine as a would-be philosopher in the classic Greek model. Living the life of a provincial noble, his actions were less than admirable. He fell in with a fairly kindred spirit in Ambrose during his travels, and becomes attached as the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa due to a deathbed bestowal of that office. These are events that Augustine is clearly not in control of, but is clearly influenced by. Augustine loved to write, and this gives us his greatest gifts. He went picking fights and public discourses, first with the majority Donatists (ultimately winning the day for the Caecilianists), then with Pelagius, and then Julien. He harassed Jerome into a correspondence, aimed at getting his name more publicity in the finest political sense. All of these actions allow O'Donnell to easily paint Augustine as an ambitious social climber. Theologically, O'Donnell paints Augustine as an extremist, who never really threw off the shackles of his Manichean past. In this, O'Donnell lands a few fair punches, but his opinion, I don't think, would be shared by the mainstream of today precisely because Augustine's thought has been so ingrained in Christian thought that it is largely still mainstream.
Despite the sometimes hostile attitude that O'Donnell takes towards Augustine, the biography is a very worthy read to anyone wishing to get a different perspective on Augustine the man. I learned much from this biography despite having read much about Augustine already.
O'Donnell paints Augustine as a would-be philosopher in the classic Greek model. Living the life of a provincial noble, his actions were less than admirable. He fell in with a fairly kindred spirit in Ambrose during his travels, and becomes attached as the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa due to a deathbed bestowal of that office. These are events that Augustine is clearly not in control of, but is clearly influenced by. Augustine loved to write, and this gives us his greatest gifts. He went picking fights and public discourses, first with the majority Donatists (ultimately winning the day for the Caecilianists), then with Pelagius, and then Julien. He harassed Jerome into a correspondence, aimed at getting his name more publicity in the finest political sense. All of these actions allow O'Donnell to easily paint Augustine as an ambitious social climber. Theologically, O'Donnell paints Augustine as an extremist, who never really threw off the shackles of his Manichean past. In this, O'Donnell lands a few fair punches, but his opinion, I don't think, would be shared by the mainstream of today precisely because Augustine's thought has been so ingrained in Christian thought that it is largely still mainstream.
Despite the sometimes hostile attitude that O'Donnell takes towards Augustine, the biography is a very worthy read to anyone wishing to get a different perspective on Augustine the man. I learned much from this biography despite having read much about Augustine already.
August 30, 2008
Got me on the edge of my seat, moreso than a Cowboys game! Really. Honest.
Revises and opens up much about the life of this beloved putz, one of my faves, who seems to become closer to me as the years pass. It incorporates the newly discovered sermons and letters much more effectively than Peter Brown's recent re-vamp of his flawed yet still classic "Augustine of Hippo."
O'Donnell has a deft touch of style and of scholarship. It manages to critically interrogate and profoundly respect the self which Augustine at turns lays bare, conceals, and invents as if he were somehow in the very dark of the room with us and 16 centuries distant in the same instant.
A big part of me still wants to be St. Augustine when I grow up.
Except for maybe the part about being on my deathbed as my city is being beseiged by Vandals...
...but then again that does sound pretty cool...
...and the way things are going these days...
Revises and opens up much about the life of this beloved putz, one of my faves, who seems to become closer to me as the years pass. It incorporates the newly discovered sermons and letters much more effectively than Peter Brown's recent re-vamp of his flawed yet still classic "Augustine of Hippo."
O'Donnell has a deft touch of style and of scholarship. It manages to critically interrogate and profoundly respect the self which Augustine at turns lays bare, conceals, and invents as if he were somehow in the very dark of the room with us and 16 centuries distant in the same instant.
A big part of me still wants to be St. Augustine when I grow up.
Except for maybe the part about being on my deathbed as my city is being beseiged by Vandals...
...but then again that does sound pretty cool...
...and the way things are going these days...
June 22, 2009
I wasn't sure whether to call this a non-fiction or theology book? Quite interesting in several ways (background, relationships Augustine had, his theology and theological concepts that formed much of what we call Christian and Catholic) and was a times dense and overly wordy (odd coming from me!) In some parts the book was really hard to follow - what was the point of that section? But in others, it was brilliant, insightful and even witty.
Augustine has always been an intriguing historical figure. This book has open new insights into the man, his life, and his relationships - all of them providing insights into what he wrote.
And write he did. Can you imagine dictating and scribes wrote on papaya scrolls an equivalent of 300 pages of printed material (by today's standards) every year for almost 40 years!? Amazing.
I recommend it. But, don't try to read it in bed...
Augustine has always been an intriguing historical figure. This book has open new insights into the man, his life, and his relationships - all of them providing insights into what he wrote.
And write he did. Can you imagine dictating and scribes wrote on papaya scrolls an equivalent of 300 pages of printed material (by today's standards) every year for almost 40 years!? Amazing.
I recommend it. But, don't try to read it in bed...
June 24, 2019
At the end of the day, I did find O'Donnell's translations much more approachable than the original latin or the pulp paperback that I have of the confessions. Rereading this gave me a greater appreciation for just how much of Augustine's thought has shaped Christianity. He was also aware of Plato & tried to consolidate the idea that there is no evil, just corrupted misshaped or incomplete embodying methods.
For my future self, I want to read his translation of the confessions & Augustine's later Reconsiderations.
For my future self, I want to read his translation of the confessions & Augustine's later Reconsiderations.
October 12, 2012
This was a little thick for me, and I'm quite a theology buff. However, it was quite gripping and gave me a new understanding of Augustine as well as answers to several unanswered questions. Would definitely recommend to anyone with an open mind and a passionate interest in early Christian history and theology.
August 5, 2011
A pretty interesting book exploring the life and legend of Augustine. It is quite educational though often the narrative of the biography is not super compelling, which can make it a bit boring at times. Nevertheless, it is a good book for those who are interested in the history of western culture
November 11, 2008
Favorite quote: "We don't laugh enough at Augustine." Favorite emphases: Augustine's contemporary culture of late-antiquity, and continued (mis)readings of his self-constructed persona(e).
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