Augustine (354–430)

Along with Paul and Thomas Aquinas, Augustine is one of the most groundbreaking and influential figures in the history of Christianity and in Western philosophy and politics. His works intertwined Christianity and Platonism and offered original, creative insights into the relations of reason and faith and of works and grace as well as the doctrine of original sin. He also presents a compelling figure of a converted sinner who struggles with temptations as he comes to live an exemplary Christian life. Augustine's importance is so paramount that the early-modern theological battles waged during the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation can be viewed as (in part) a battle over whose would be the definitive interpretation of Augustine's thought.

Aurelius Augustinus lived from 354 to 430, almost entirely in northern Africa (in present-day Algeria). His mother, Monica, was a devout and pious Christian, but her young son did not follow in her footsteps. Augustine spent his youth mired in sin, leading a life of pleasure that included fathering a son, Adeodatus, out of wedlock. He also joined the Manichees, a sect that preached a dualistic worldview, according to which evil emerged from a cosmic clash between Light and Dark, or ideal and material realities. Manicheism combined with Augustine's education in classical rhetoric (especially Cicero) to form his intellectual foundation, to which he added Neoplatonic influences such as Plotinus and Porphyry. In 384, Augustine met Ambrose, a Christian bishop, who began to turn Augustine toward Christianity. This intellectual turn was followed by a spiritual turn, a “conversion of the heart,” in 386, culminating in a mystical experience in 387.

These experiences Augustine narrates in his Confessions, which charts his personal journey from sin through spiritual struggle to conversion. He offers a written version of the Christian ritual of (the then public) confession, in the form of an extended prayer addressed to God. In doing so, he writes what is often regarded as the first Western autobiography and shapes notions of the self and the will that still exert influence. Along with his extended self-examination, his Confessions includes creative meditations on the nature of God and of evil as well as original theories of memory and of time. It concludes with an inventive interpretation of the opening chapters of the Genesis.

Augustine wrote his Confessions just after being appointed bishop of Hippo in 396. He continued to produce influential texts such as On Christian Doctrine and The Trinity in addition to sermons and commentaries on biblical texts. His impressive corpus concludes with The City of God, a massive tome written between 413 and 426 as a critique of Roman moral and religious traditions and as a defense of a Platonic-Christian social vision of just living that concludes with accounts of apocalypse, judgment, and eternity.