Augustine of Hippo
354 – 430 · Bishop of Hippo Regius
Also known as Aurelius Augustinus · Saint Augustine
Feast: 28 August (Catholic) · 15 June (Orthodox)
Bishop of Hippo and the most influential Latin Father. Author of Confessions, City of God, On the Trinity, and the anti-Pelagian works.
Augustine is the deepest pool in Western thought after Plato. Confessions invented spiritual autobiography — nobody before him wrote like that about an inner life. City of God invented the Christian philosophy of history. His doctrines of original sin, grace, predestination, free will, the church, and the sacraments shaped everything Catholic and Protestant fought about a thousand years later. Calvin is downstream of Augustine. Aquinas is downstream of Augustine. Even modern atheist philosophers writing about selfhood and time keep returning to him.
Notable works
- ·Confessions · 400
- ·City of God · 426
- ·On Christian Doctrine · 397
- ·On the Trinity · 419
- ·Enchiridion · 421
- ·Sermons · 400
Primary sources
- ·Augustine, Confessiones
- ·Augustine, Retractationes
- ·Possidius, Vita Augustini
Book of the day
Confessions
Augustine of HippoA reading pick tied to today's figure, quote, era, or event. The most approachable major Latin Father: autobiography, prayer, memory, sin, grace, and desire.
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