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Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (New Edition, with an Epilogue) | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Brown
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $15.61
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Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 34686
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0520227573
Dewey Decimal Number: 270.2092
EAN: 9780520227576
ASIN: 0520227573
Publication Date: August 7, 2000
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Product Description
This classic biography was first published thirty years ago and has since established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine's life and teaching. The remarkable discovery recently of a considerable number of letters and sermons by Augustine has thrown fresh light on the first and last decades of his experience as a bishop. These circumstantial texts have led Peter Brown to reconsider some of his judgments on Augustine, both as the author of the Confessions and as the elderly bishop preaching and writing in the last years of Roman rule in north Africa. Brown's reflections on the significance of these exciting new documents are contained in two chapters of a substantial Epilogue to his biography (the text of which is unaltered). He also reviews the changes in scholarship about Augustine since the 1960s. A personal as well as a scholarly fascination infuse the book-length epilogue and notes that Brown has added to his acclaimed portrait of the bishop of Hippo.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
A Fantastic and Thorough Biography of an Early Church Patriarch December 30, 2008
Brown's account of Augustine's life is amazingly detailed and thorough. Weighing in at over 500 pages, Brown takes pains to paint an accurate and comprehensive picture of Augustine's life and the times in which he lived.
Growing up in the late Roman Empire, Augustine lived through tumultuous political and social upheaval. Some of the events that contributed to this turmoil included the sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths, countless controversies within the Catholic Church (including Augustine's famous debates with Pelagius, Julian and Jerome) and the siege and eventual conquest of his home in North Africa near the time of his death. These events allowed Augustine to write on a variety of subjects that were far more than just matters of abstract philosophy but were, instead, treatises on real events that influenced Augustine's own life and world.
Brown begins by tracing Augustine's formative years, from his birth in northern Africa to his rise as a teacher and government official in Rome. Brown borrows heavily from Augustine's own autobiographical masterpiece, The Confessions, as there is not a lot of other material or documentation on Augustine's early years. Brown relates the remarkable story of Augustine's own conversion and includes the significant influence his devout mother, Monica, had on him. While Augustine was still a Manichean, Monica fervently prayed for her son's conversion to the point her local bishop assured her that her son would convert before he died - because Heaven could not deny such an impassioned plea from a mother!
Of course, under the influence of Ambrose, another influential early church patriarch, Augustine did eventually convert. At the time of his conversion, Augustine was a highly regarded philosophy teacher and, immediately upon converting, poured his heart and soul into figuring out how reason and faith could coexist. Brown explains that, a short time after his conversion, Augustine retired from public life, hoping to spend his life immersed in the study of Scriptures and philosophy.
Augustine's seclusion from society would not last long, however, as the writings he produced during this time became popular, causing his fame to spread. Augustine became so well-known, in fact, that on a trip to Hippo the local church practically seized him and literally forced him to become a local priest! Augustine succumbed to the town's wishes and he spent the remainder of his life serving the church in Hippo, first as a priest and later as its bishop.
In many ways, the longer the book, the harder it is to capture its spirit in such a short blog post. Brown's tome has long been considered the gold standard for an English biography on Augustine's life and thought and, after reading it, it is easy to see why. Throughout the book Brown interacts with Augustine's writings, his sermons, his personal correspondence and, even his critics.
Brown dedicates a good portion of the biography to Augustine's famous intellectual clashes with Pelagius, a British monk who taught that it was possible for a Christian to live a perfect life. Augustine denounced Pelagius's teachings as heretical, and countered their widespread popularity by teaching total depravity, original sin and the necessity of Christ's atoning death on the cross. Augustine stood on the front lines of defending Biblical teachings (in many cases he was the first to explain these teachings) and gave the church the theological foundation on which orthodox Christianity still stands today.
Brown's biographical tome was originally published in 1967. In 2000, it was republished with two major new sections entitled "New Evidence" and "New Directions." In "New Evidence" Brown shares with us new Augustinian manuscripts discovered since the time of the book's first publishing. In 1975, twenty-seven previously unknown letters of Augustine were found in a library in Marseilles. In 1990, more than twenty long sermons were discovered in a municipal library in Mainz, all of which were previously unpublished.
Brown explains these documents fill in a lot of blanks in Augustine's teachings. For instance, it was commonly taught in the early church that sex should be abstained from, even between husbands and wives! While making concessions for the sole purpose of procreation, apparently many early church leaders taught the act of sex was unbefitting for a child of God, and should be abstained from as much as possible. Augustine countered this movement with a long series of sermons and writings, explaining that sex between a man and his wife was a beautiful gift from God and helped keep temptations at bay. Augustine's teachings on this subject would have been lost if not for the discovery of these documents and Brown did his readers a service by highlighting these more recent discoveries.
Brown's book is a wonderful combination of historical narrative and theological hypothesis. Far more than a picture painted through a rosy lens, Brown does a good job of taking pains to interact with Augustine's supporters and critics, his triumphs and shortcomings. Brown also does a commendable job of offering his readers a rare glimpse of life in the early church, from its structure and hierarchy to its mechanisms and daily routine. Brown's book is a must for those interested in early church history and how the foundations of Orthodox Christianity were first articulated by one of the church's finest scholars and servants.
Bio of St AGustine July 3, 2008
this is the best and most easily understood bio of St Augustine, I love it.
Excellent book, but not for the neophyte February 10, 2008
This is an excellent scholarly biography of Augustine of Hippo. Peter Brown gives a thorough and balanced treatment of all of the important aspects of Augustine's life, thought, and historical context. I personally used this book as my set textbook for an independent study course I took on St. Augustine when I was attending university.
Brown does a very good job of summarizing important philosophical and theological concepts that are central to understanding Augustine's significance to the history of Christianity.
However, despite my very positive appraisal of this book, I feel that this might not be the best choice for people making their first entry into Augustine.
A brilliant thinker made accessible November 13, 2007
Augustine's is a severe and forbidding character. His intellectually rigorous reasoning on(and harsh views of) salvation and grace made him an inspiration to Calvin and the Puritans. But gloomy though his view of human nature might be, Augustine was intense and passionate, a theologian and philosopher with a poet's sensitivity to natural beauty and the use of language. This books puts the reader in Augustine's mind and life: there is the young man dedicated to an idealistic pursuit of truth,surrounded by admiring friends and family; later, his imposition of that truth on the all-too-human structure of the early Christian church will be fraught with challenge. Augustine knew Rome and Roman Africa in their glory days; he died as Africa fell to Vandal invaders who would impose a century of brutal rule. Peter Brown brings the tumultuous period in which Augustine lived fully and comprehensively alive; he makes us one with a brilliant, uncompromising, surprisingly compassionate human being.
Augustine of Hippo: A Biography September 3, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This a revised edition of a very good biography of St Augustine of Hippo. Although I am in the mist of reading this bio I find the writing inviting and histology very well done.
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