Augustine of Hippo: A Biography

First class writing

An excellent biography of St Augustine

A classical work on the life of Saint Augustine, no more needs to be said, if you are interested in Saint Augustine, read it.

This biography is very much for the general reader, and as such it serves as an adequate introduction to the life and writings of the most important Christian thinker between St Paul and Thomas Aquinas. However, the contextual background of Late Antiquity North Africa is only sketched out, and as such Augustine's thought is never embedded fully within the political, social, and economic developments of his age, while the sack of Rome in 410 and the Vandals invasion from Spain in 429 are dealt with only briefly, giving the unfortunate impression that these two seismic events that occur in the middle of his life and at the very end come somewhat out of the blue.In a similar vein, while the two important doctrinal battles of Augustine's life, firstly, against the Donatists, and secondly, against Pelagius are fleshed out, as are his early Manichean beliefs and conversion while in Italy, his radical theology, particularly with regards to grace and predestination, is not fully explored as it might have been, as it is as a theologian that Augustine was to have his most important influence upon the Church and Christianity, an influence that is still today far more vital than his contribution, however valuable it might have been to contemporaneous Catholicism, as bishop and dogmatist. In particular, the author fails to construct the seamless thread in his protagonist's intellectual development, a progression Augustine, as a product of a classical education which propounded the immutable nature of human character, himself identified, with his deep examination of Neoplatonism providing the bridge over which the dualist Manichean would travel on his journey on his way to the unity of Catholic orthodoxy: the bishop is inherent in the student, and the spiritual, internal governance of the 'Confessions' is a conduit to the public governance of 'The City of God'.Similarly, the vehemence of Augustine's anti-Donatism and anti-Pelagianism is to be found in both in his need to defend himself against those who would use his Manichean past against him, a past that Augustine regarded as in error, but innocently, and as transitional because it preceded his conversion, and thus constituted a juvenile life of growth leading to Christian rebirth, and because he understood the attractiveness of these ideas, as he himself, as African Manichean student and then Platonic teacher of rhetoric, had held similar concepts of dualism and free will. The road to conversion was later to lead Augustine to the unity of Catholicism and the determinism of salvation: the Church was one body of a single faith, and the exercise of will rested not with the individual but only with God. In this sense, the Neoplatonist, ex-Manichean was fully developed in the stern, Catholic.This then is not an intellectual biography, or an examination of Augustine as Christian thinker, but rather a straightforward retelling of his life as a man of Roman Africa, and it is at its best when drawing out his rooted existence in Thagaste, Carthage, and Hippo, but it never really integrates that prosaic story, interesting though it is, with life and thought in the rest of western Christendom at the end of Antiquity, let alone with the flourishing and intellectually vibrant developments in the Byzantine East, excepting a cursory detour associated with the exiled Pelagians.This then must be regarded as only an introduction to this towering figure, and as such it leaves one a little unsatisfied, and wanting a more substantial study that more fully places Augustine within the Church and society of his time, not only in North Africa, and examines the truly original thought of this theological colosus, whose ideas regarding the primacy of grace and the predestination of the elect were to determine the history of Catholicism to an extent exceeded by no other thinker than St Paul.

I first read this for my undergraduate degree years ago and have re-visited it since beginning research on Augustine. This book never fails to impress me and is a joy to read, I am always finding new things. The scope of this book is truly staggering and is an absolute master-piece of a book. The notes are very helpful, though a bit dated, but not out-of-date. If you are just a casual reader, an undergraduate or doing research, you will find it helpful, it is also unusually easy to read as well as being immensely scholarly. If you’re looking for a biography on Augustine this is, after 40+ years, still the one to get.

It is extremely easy to view a Saint in one-dimensional terms of goodness. Peter Brown has penned a multi-faceted portrayal of the human being behind the saintliness. In a biography in which scholarliness does not impede readability, Brown conducts his readers on a fascinating journey from 4th/5th-century Roman Africa, to Rome, Milan, and back full circle to Roman Africa. In the process of the journey, he brings his insight to the life of an admittedly less-than-perfect man, his less-than-perfect family, and the turmoil and ferment of a multi-cultural society rent by riots, the strife of heresy, the depredations of imperial taxmen, strong-arm landlords, religious fanatics, and "barbarians."The See of Hippo Regius represented an oasis in Augustine's troubled world. As Bishop, he intervened with the landlords, he interceded on behalf of prisoners, he gave succor to his small community; he gave alms to the poor. Augustine, according to Brown, prized humanitas, and it is appropriate that the publishers have chosen Carpaccio's very human portrayal of Augustine--his face uplifted in expectation to the light--for the cover of this splendid book.I especially enjoyed reading Professor Brown's analysis of the "Confessions," which he envisions as a truly revolutionary work among what was once a plethora of conversion tales, which, Brown explains, usually dwelt on the experience after the conversion, burying the pagan past forever. Augustine, as one infers from reading his autobiography, is haunted by his past; he cannot let it go; and, according to Brown, the "Confessions" works as sort of a therapy; an antidote to the guilty pleasures of Cicero and Vergil, even though Augustine cannot help incorporating echos of Plotinus and Neo-Platonism into his thought. "Augustine of Hippo" makes a perfect companion piece to Augustine's "Confessions.Indeed, Peter Brown's biography ought to be required reading for students of the late Roman Empire.

Item arrived as expected.

Not just a good book written by a great author, this edition is also beautifully made and designed.