Augustine, St. (354-430 CE)

African Bishop and Doctor of the Catholic Church. He lived much of his life in Roman North Africa and was, for the last 34 years of his life, the Bishop Regius of the seaport known as Hippo, located in modern-day Algeria. He is the most acute of Christian Platonists and did much to lay the foundations for the synthesis between Christianity and the classical theism that stemmed from Plato and Aristotle. Later authors including Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Pascal and Kierkegaard, all stand within the tradition that he established. His writings were also amongst the favourite books of Wittgenstein and Nietzsche. He was one of the first to explore the existence of a ‘sub-conscious’, anticipating the work of Freud by some fifteen centuries. A biography is located within the pages of his Confessions, but he also wrote on commentaries on the gospel of John, the doctrine of the Trinity and the idea of the just city in City of God: Against the Pagans.

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Theology

Contributed by: Richard P Whaite