Augustine of Hippo:
His Life and Impact
DETAILS: Series: The Early Church Fathers Publisher: Christian Focus Publications Publication Date: November 6, 2020 Format: Kindle Edition Length: 224 pg. Read Date: May 22, 2022
At the end of the day, we stand on the shoulders of giants. One of the giants of giants is undoubtedly Augustine. Protestants and Catholics will continue to read him and mine his works, which is as it should be. He built the edifice of Western theology, and one simply cannot grasp the nature and contour of Western theology without going through Augustine.
What’s Augustine of Hippo About?
This is a mini-biography of Augustine and an overview of his more significant writing and teaching.
As a biography, the emphasis is on Augustine’s early life up through being made a priest—and it tends to gloss over everything else. It was interesting—even if a lot of it was common knowledge (if it can be said that anything about a Church Father is common knowledge).
Then it moves into an overview of some of Augustine’s teachings and the controversies he was involved in—the Pelagian controversy and his struggles against the Donatists in particular.
Strengths
I thought the material on the nature of God and The Trinity was very helpful. The section on the Donatists was great—and not just because that’s something I’ve been meaning to read about for a dozen years.
The chapter “Augustine and the Protestant,” was a great addition to this book. Green’s honest about the differences between Augustine and those who’d claim to follow him during and after the Reformation. But he’s also good at pointing out where Augustine would have common ground with us, and it’s good to see how Protestant thought developed Augustine.
The Series
I literally stumbled on to this series, The Early Church Fathers, a few weeks ago and thought it sounded like a great idea. It looked kind of like a mix of Crossway’s Theologians on the Christian Life and Oxford’s Very Short Introductions (incidentally, that’s what it ended up being).
I picked this one to start with because while I’m no Augustine expert at all, I’m familiar enough with him—his life and writing—to have a rough idea about how to evaluate the book. If I’d picked Basil or Patrick, there’s be more guesswork involved.
So, what did I think about Augustine of Hippo?
First, as I began to lay out my writing and reading agenda, and to think through how to structure the book, one thought kept pressing itself upon me: I want to write a book that I would hand to someone who asked: ‘What would you recommend to me if I wanted to begin to understand Augustine?’ Life is too short for ‘just another book’ on Augustine. So, I hope you find that this is a book about which you can say: ‘It gave me a good overview of who Augustine was and what he thought.’ Second, this book is written by someone committed to the theological perspective of the Protestant Reformation. Rather than be coy or even duplicitous, it is best to be straightforward on this point.
On those terms, the book was a success. I really thought this was great—I really liked both the look at his life and his writings. Green provided an overview of Augustine and his thought that covers all the basics, and while it may not get into the weeds on everything—he at least points out where some of the weeds are.
You can’t be thorough in 200 pages when it comes to someone like Augustine (it can’t be done when it comes to most people—and most people aren’t Augustine) and Green doesn’t even pretend to try. This is about the essentials. This is about beginning to understand.
Yes, Roman Catholics are going to have some problems with what he says about Augustine. But I think he made a good-faith effort to not just get Augustine on his side (as he says a couple of times).
This is an easy read, but still thoughtful. It’ll also make the reader want to read more about Augustine* and maybe take Green’s advice on where to start reading the man himself.
* Like maybe the entry on Augustine in the aforementioned Crossway series.
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