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Theology, Epistemology & Ethics
Augustine of Hippo
354 – 430
“Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”
The towering intellectual of Latin Christianity. Augustine fused Platonic philosophy with Christian theology, shaping Western thought on original sin, free will, predestination, and the City of God for over a millennium.
Biography
Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) was born in Thagaste, North Africa, to a pagan father and a devout Christian mother, Monica. After years as a Manichaean, a sceptic, and an admirer of Neoplatonism, he converted to Christianity at age thirty-two under the influence of Ambrose of Milan.
His Confessions is one of the first and greatest autobiographies in Western literature — a searching account of his restless intellectual journey to God. The City of God, written in response to the sack of Rome (410), argued that history is a conflict between two cities: the earthly city of self-love and the heavenly city of love for God.
His theological legacy is immense: he developed the doctrines of original sin and grace into systematic form, defended the compatibility of free will and divine foreknowledge, and shaped the entire Augustinian tradition that runs from the medieval period through the Reformation.
Important Works
Confessions
400The autobiography of a restless soul — from Manichaeism and scepticism to Christian conversion.
The City of God
426History as a conflict between the earthly city of self-love and the heavenly city of love of God.
On Free Choice of the Will
395A dialogue defending free will while anchoring goodness in the eternal truth of God.
Key Takeaways
- The restless heart: the soul is made for God and finds no lasting peace elsewhere.
- Original sin radically wounded human nature — reason and will are both affected.
- Grace is prior to human merit; salvation depends entirely on God's unmerited gift.
- Illuminationism: God is the inner teacher who illumines the mind to grasp eternal truths.
- Two cities, one history: all politics is ultimately a struggle between love of self and love of God.