Mijn plan was om voordat ik aan de Belijdenissen zou beginnen 'eventjes' een biografie van Augustinus te lezen. Dat 'eventjes' viel behoorlijk tegen. Deze biografie, geschreven door Peter Brown, is blijkbaar dé biografie van Augustinus geschreven voor professionals én leken. Maar dan wel voor leken die al precies weten wat Manicheïsme, Donatisme en Pelagianisme inhouden en precies op de hoogte zijn van alle kerkelijke ins en outs van die tijd, niet voor echte leken. Hard werken dus.

I read the 1967 edition without the epilogues, so I am aware that the book is dated in parts; however, Peter Brown’s classic biography of Augustine of Hippo has got to be the greatest biography I have ever read. Brown gives his reader a human portrait of a complex figure in the history of Western Christianity. Such an engrossing read!

Despite the highly unpleasant teachings in Augustine’s writings against Julian of Eclanum, I feel that the “Augustinian pessimism” is actually quite comforting. Our imperfections, our pride, our lust for power – they are all-too-human. And while we should all aim to overcome our weaknesses, we have to learn to love ourselves and our neighbor despite them.

“Whoever does not want to fear, let him probe his inmost self. Do not just touch the surface; go down into yourself; reach into the farthest corner of your heart. Examine it then with care: see there, whether a poisoned vein of the wasting love of the world still does not pulse, whether you are not moved by some physical desires, and are not caught in some law of the senses; whether you are never elated with empty boasting, never depressed by some vain anxiety: then only can you dare to announce that you are pure and crystal clear, when you have sifted everything in the deepest recesses of your inner being” (432).

Augustine’s weaknesses are not overlooked by the author. Brown shows us an Augustine who encourages the use of force to suppress the Donatist and Pelagian heresies. He does not criticize the atrocities committed by Christian generals, although he asks his fellow monks to refrain from gossip and to live frugally. While Augustine certainly does not sanction sin he is more likely to excuse it than many of his contemporaries. Brown may claim that Augustine was no inquisitor, but his tactics are not always the most virtuous. One wonders what Augustine would have done if he had been given more freedom (a concept Augustine has a lot to say about).

Augustine’s last years are a testament to the evolution of his character. As a young man he had illusions of living in a Christian community apart from the world. As bishop of Hippo, Augustine chooses to remain in North Africa and face the barbarian invasions with his “flock”. He never renounces his ascetic practices, but he does not expect everyone to be a servus dei.

Augustine’s life and writings have had a huge influence on the West. His commentaries on the human condition in The Confessions have withstood the test of time and have influenced countless philosophers and theologians, both secular and religious (Blaise Pascal, Søren Kierkegaard, Marcel Proust, Wittgenstein, etc.). It is perhaps for this reason that Peter Brown’s biography of Augustine should appeal to a wide audience.

Packed full of pure wisdom about Augustine's endless search for truth. Sometimes laborious reading, but worth it to understand Augustine's mind and struggles with why God exists with evil.

Augustine is a phenomenal character. Both a theolgian and philosopher, Augustine worked hard with an exacting and brilliant mind to build the foundations of Christian theology on topics concerning the nature of God (the Trinity), the nature of the soul, predestination and so much more. Augustine was not only a intelligent man, but he was a man of feeling. Brown recounts how he engaged his congregations when he preached by appealing to their feeling capacities. Not to mention his 'Confessions' which encompassed all of that by, as he says, showing the greatness of God in the weakness of Augustine.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was historically dense, but easy to read. Interwoven with philosophical and theological discussions. It was everything I could want in one place. My love for Augustine grew ten-fold after and during reading this book. I saw myself in his life in many ways. His own struggles and insecurities; his ambition; his relationships with his parents and friends; his deep longings and desires. I'm going to be referencing and recommending this book in the near future.

I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the life and world of Augustine through Brown's landmark biography. There is a reason why it has remained the standard life of Augustine for over 45 years.

The epilogue, which was not a part of the original biography, includes two chapters reflection on the advances in Augustine scholarship since Brown first wrote. The first focuses on the significance of the discovery of two groups of manuscripts - one of sermons and another of letters - that have occurred since Brown first wrote. The second is more reflective on Brown's own cultural and scholarly milieu in the 1960's and how that influenced his writing as well as how scholarship has changed and advanced since then. This final chapter is a marvelously honest and humble self-reflection, perhaps in the spirit of Augustine's own Retractions.

A highly respected work that does not need my commendation but which I offer nonetheless.

A masterful work that really takes you into both the life and thought of St. Augustine as well as the times and places in which he lived. Truly an essential read for understanding Augustine and it has greatly enriched my exploration in Augustine's writings and given me a greater appreciation for this highly influential Christian thinker.

A phenomenal book by a first rate scholar. Peter Brown is one of the foremost Augustinian scholars of our day. In this book he traces Augustine's way of thought from phase to phase. He presents a portrait of an Augustine of complexity, with differing ideas throughout his life. He documents Augustine's ties to Platonism, manicheeism, and the influence of Ambrose upon his thought. Browns prose was delightful, his references were exceptional, and the end result was a full bodied picture of a man of great complexity.

Overall excellent. Brown is most interested in Augustine's establishment and exercise of his authority as a bishop in Roman Africa. Focusing on his conflicts with the Donatists and Pelagians, Brown depicts Augustine as a stern authoritarian figure, especially in his old age. However, he revises this portrait in the 2 chapters of the epilogue where he treats the more recently discovered sermons and letters of Augustine. As Brown himself admits, the book is short on Augustine's theology, yet there are a few nuggets of insight scattered throughout. Brown is an engaging writer, and the book is fun to read!

insightful background to Augustine's work

Brilliant! I had this on my shelf for a year before I got to it – the size and subject matter just seemed a bit daunting – but it turned out to be engrossing and readable. Brown is a wonderful writer (though his style includes more use of commas than I am accustomed to), and he does a beautiful job balancing the personal details of Augustine's life with the history of the period. I would assume that most readers going in to this would have a basic familiarity with traditional Roman religion, the history of the late Roman Empire, and with the major controversies within the Church in this period, but even without this background I think this book would be enjoyable (though more challenging. For example, the Donatist controversy comes up quite a bit before Brown goes in to it in detail. Similarly with Pelagianism. And Platonism. But when he does get to explaining things, he does it wonderfully well!)

I love the way Brown draws connections between various of Augustine's writings, tracing the development of his ideas along with the events of his life and the changing circumstances of the Church. I hadn't realized before this what an incredibly rich body of work Augustine had left, and Brown uses excerpts from his letters, sermons, pamphlets, and books throughout.

My copy of Augustine of Hippo is the New Edition with An Epilogue, published in 2000, which updates the 1967 edition with an Epilogue consisting of two chapters – “New Evidence” and New Directions.” In “New Evidence” he discusses how the 'Divjak letters,' 27 letters by Augustine found in a manuscript discovered in 1975, and the 'Dolbeau sermons,' 26 sermons, found in 1990, have added to historians' understanding of the period and of Augustine's thought, and also how they have changed his (Brown's) thinking on Augustine. “New Directions” is more personal. In this chapter he describes how his own thinking on Augustine has changed since he began his research in 1961. Both the study of the newly found documents and his own maturing over the thirty years or so have given him a more nuanced and sympathetic understanding of Augustine, and particularly of the apparently severe, elderly Augustine. Not to say that Brown's presentation of Augustine in the 1967 biography is unnuanced or unsympathetic at all, but that he now sees compassion and kindness in places where he previously saw only rigidity.

For an example of the tone of “New Directions”....

“There is a harshness in my judgements on the old Augustine which the indulgent reader should put down to a young man's lack of experience of the world. Since then I have come to know bishops. Some can be saintly; many are really quite nice; and most are ineffective. They are as ineffective, that is, in the face of a confidently profane world, as Augustine and his colleagues are now revealed by the Divjak letters to have been in their own time. Augustine's writings and the examples of his activities in Africa may have contributed decisively to the formation of Catholic Christendom in Western Europe. But fifth-century African bishops did not live in such a Christendom. They were far from being the undisputed spiritual leaders of a society 'in which church and state had become inextricably interdependent'.” (pg 492)

I read the Epilogue before I started the rest of the book, and I recommend this order, although I suppose the fact that Brown chose to make it an “epilogue” rather than a “prologue” suggests he would not agree with me.

There were so many marvelous passages from Augustine here that picking one is hard, but this one (and I include Brown's words to make the situation clear) nicely conveys what makes him so loveable...

“Not every man lives to see the fundamentals of his life's work challenged in his old age. Yet this is what happened to Augustine during the Pelagian controversy. At the time that the controversy opened, he had reached a plateau. He was already enmeshed in a reputation that he attempted to disown with characteristic charm: 'Cicero, the prince of Roman orators,' he wrote to Marcellinus, in 412, 'says of someone that “He never uttered a word which he would wish to recall.” High praise indeed! – but more applicable to a complete ass than to a genuinely wise man... If God permit me, I shall gather together and point out, in a work specially devoted to this purpose, all the things which justly displease me in my books: then men will see that I am far from being a biased judge in my own case. … For I am the sort of man who writes because he has made progress, and who makes progress – by writing.'” (pg 354)

This is an intellectual biography of Augustine, written for intellectuals. I cannot criticize a book for not being something it never intended to be, but I can say that if you want an account of Augustine's life written largely with an eye to his thoughts, beliefs, and participation in theological controversies, this is a good book to read. If you would prefer a discussion of the events of Augustine's life or his relationships, you should look elsewhere. This is a thoroughly academic treatment of the inner life of Augustine (at least 10 footnotes/page, untranslated Latin and French idioms).

This edition of the book is interesting in that it contains an afterward by the author looking back upon his initial work 30 years after its publication. He did not update the text of the book but rather comments on recent discoveries related to Augustine that would change some of his emphases and conclusions were he to begin the biography now.

This is an excellent biography on Augustine. Brown also provides a wonderful appendix where he has updated previous biographical information based on what he has learned since writing the first edition.