Fantastic. Bummer that I was speed reading, but this has been one of the more enjoyable reads of the semester.

I think this is a great Biography of Augustine, but I wish there was some more focus and clarification on Augustine's theology. I think I will have to explore some more books on that specifically. However, Brown does focus on aspects of Augustine's Theology and it is interesting to see it in contrast to many views of Augustine today. Overall very good and I learned a lot.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As other reviewers have pointed out, it is remarkable the degree to which Brown can reconstruct the interior life of a man who lived nearly 1600 years ago. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to read about the Roman world, but doesn't want to just read about Emperors, debauchery and military conquest. This is at least as good as any biography of an American president that you'll ever read.

If you're historically inclined, the epilogue and other materials at the end are extremely interesting. Brown is very good about explaining how the materials he used for the biography wound up shaping what he had written and how recent discoveries and scholarship have revised our impressions of Augustine.

Do not be daunted by its length. Granted, this is just the kind of book that appeals more to me than most people, but this was my breakfast table reading for a month or two with a small baby. If I can read this through in a moderate to severe state of sleep depression, then you too should be able to get through it without much difficulty.

It took me forever to read this scholarly, interesting, and sometimes difficult book. I felt like I learned a lot about Augustine and the research is superb -- and ably supplemented by the afterword, which I really enjoyed -- but the theology is fairly heavy and the book doesn't exactly zip by (though the writing is generally engaging). I'm glad I read it, though if I reread anything I suspect I'll just go right to the wonderful Confessions themselves.

this is an extraordinary introduction to what I had suspected, but only now realize, was one of the turning points in the history of the West. For me this represented a first chapter in a long debate about human nature, from Augustine to Freud. Augustine's world was very different from ours, but Brown makes it easier to enter without over simplifying. for me the sign of a wonderful book is that it suggests a whole list of things to read. This was certainly the case with this. I am on to William Doyle's Jansenism.

Readable, detailed, insightful. An impeccable work of Patristic scholarship. Yet, this morning on the train, when I finished reading it, my first and overwhelming sentiment was: thank fuck.

A very difficult read, but easily the standard secondary source on Augustine. The broad contours of Augustine's life are well-known, but Brown places them within a theological framework. He takes intellectual themes from controversies in Augustine's life (thus the Latin-ish chapter titles) and retells the story around these themes. It makes for somewhat difficult reading at times, but it is very illuminating.

I cannot imagine a better work that more neatly captures Augustine's *sitz im leben* than this work. He demonstrates Augustine's philosophical commitment to neo-Platonism by noting how many in Augustine's time, including the man himself, were embarrassed (initially; evidence suggests Augustine later worked himself out of this embarrassment) by the "earthiness" of the Old Testament. Of course, that is just one example.

More recent editions of this book (current printing previous printings) take into account not only recent scholarship on Augustine, but recent archeological finds of some of Augustine's letters and sermons. Peter Brown is the undisputed master of classical antiquity and this book clearly shows it.

Peter Brown makes it feel like you're there, in Late Roman Africa, stumbling into Augustine's basilica and overhearing a speech. An incredible approach to history.

Okudugum en iyi Augustinus biyografisi. Tumuyle antik kaynaklara dayanan bir kitap oldugu icin gonul rahatligiyla ciddi calismalarda kullanilabilir. Referanslar sayfa altinda veriliyor, gayet iyi bir kitap.

Very well written and accessible. Brown makes the character of Augustine of Hippo come to life, drawing not only from Augustine's major works, such as the Confessions, but also incorporating much material from Augustine's letters, sermons, and other contemporary writings of his time. Brown makes parallels to historical situations which make Augustine a much more understandable person, and paints Augustine in a fair, historically savvy, light.

This was a challenge. Certainly above my head, but a good stretch. Not a purely chronological biography - the first section has so many references to the future that I kept getting lost, and really seems to presuppose that you’ve read the Confessions (which I have still not done.) I would recommend reading Confessions first before this book. But it’s a really fantastic biography. Really thorough overview of his life and thought, and the cultural influences surrounding him in his day. Now to condense this 400+ page book into a 10-page paper…

An extraordinary book, in which Augustine emerges in all his maddening complexity, with his views on freedom, miracles and predestination constantly evolving over his long years as bishop and polemicist. He is ferocious against anything that held him and his flock back from the full light of truth: against Manicheaism, Pelagianism, Donatism and Arianism, but most of all against his own past self, and all its habits and desires which can never be definitively cast off.