View source for Augustine of Hippo

{{Short description|Christian theologian and philosopher (354–430)}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Redirect-multi|3|Augustine|Saint Augustine|Augustinus}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix= [[Saint]]
| name= Augustine of Hippo
| titles= [[Bishop of Hippo Regius]]<br>[[Church Father]], [[Doctor of the Church]]<br>[[Blessed (Orthodox)|Blessed]]
| birth_name = Aurelius Augustinus
| birth_date= 13 November 354
| birth_place= [[Thagaste]], [[Numidia Cirtensis]], [[Roman Empire]]
| death_date= 28 August 430 (aged 75)
| death_place= [[Hippo Regius]], Numidia Cirtensis, [[Western Roman Empire]]
| resting_place= [[Pavia]], Italy
| feast_day= {{plainlist|
* 28 August ([[Western Christianity]])
* 15 June ([[Eastern Christianity]])
* 4 November ([[Assyrian Church of the East|Assyrian]])}}
| image= Saint Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne.jpg
| caption= ''Saint Augustin'' by [[Philippe de Champaigne]], {{Circa|1645}}
| imagesize       = 230
| venerated_in= All [[Christian denomination]]s which [[veneration of saints|venerate saints]]
| beatified_date =
| beatified_place =
| beatified_by =
| canonized_date = [[Pre-Congregation]]
| canonized_place =
| canonized_by =
| major_shrine =[[San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]], [[Pavia]], Italy
| attributes = [[Crozier]], [[mitre]], young child, book, small church, flaming or pierced heart<ref>{{Cite book| last = Hall| first = James| title = Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art| page = 35| year = 1996| edition = 2nd| publisher = John Murray | isbn = 0-7195-4147-6}}; {{Cite book| last = Daniel| first = Howard |  title = Encyclopedia of Themes and Subjects in Painting| page = 35| year = 1971| publisher = Thames and Hudson | isbn = 0-500-18114-4}}</ref>
| patronage = {{hlist|[[Brewing|Brewers]]|[[Printer (publisher)|Printers]]|[[Theologians]]|[[Philosophers]]|[[Conjunctivitis|Sore eyes]]|[[Bridgeport, Connecticut]]|[[Cagayan de Oro]]|[[San Agustin, Isabela]]|[[Mendez, Cavite]]|[[Tanza|Tanza, Cavite]]|[[Baliwag|Baliwag, Bulacan]]|[[Lubao|Lubao, Pampanga]]|[[Iba, Zambales]]}}
| module =
{{Infobox philosopher
| embed = yes
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| era = {{plainlist|
* [[Ancient philosophy]]
* [[Medieval philosophy]]}}
| school_tradition =
{{flatlist|
* [[Augustinianism]]
}}
| notable_students = [[Orosius|Paul Orosius]]{{sfn|Nguyen|Prior|2014|p=66}}<br />[[Prosper of Aquitaine]]
| main_interests =
{{plainlist|
* [[Christian anthropology]]
* [[Biblical criticism]]
* [[Epistemology]]
* [[Ethics]]
* [[Metaphysics]]
* [[Pedagogy]]
* [[Philosophy of religion]]
* [[Theodicy]]
* [[Theology]]
}}
| notable_works ={{plainlist|
* ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]''
* ''[[On Christian Doctrine]]''
* ''[[On the Trinity]]''
* ''[[City of God (book)|The City of God]]''}}
| notable_ideas = {{collapsible list|title={{nbsp}}
|''[[Filioque]]''{{sfn|Siecienski|2010}}
|[[Original sin]]<ref>Bonaiuti, Ernesto, and Giorgio La Piana. "The Genesis of St. Augustine's Idea of Original Sin." ''The Harvard Theological Review'', vol. 10, no. 2, 1917, pp. 159–175. {{JSTOR|1507550}}. Accessed 20 June 2022.</ref>
|[[Free will in theology#Roman Catholic|Free will]]
|[[Augustinian soteriology]]
|[[Just war theory]]
|[[Absence of good]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Augustine|title=Enchridion|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103.iv.ii.xiii.html|chapter=What Is Called Evil in the Universe Is But the Absence of Good|access-date=17 November 2012}}</ref>
|[[Concupiscence]]{{sfn|Greenblatt|2017}}
|[[Sacramental character]]{{sfn|Ryan|1908}}
|[[Augustinian hypothesis]]<ref>St. Augustine, ''The Harmony of the Gospels'', Book 1 chapter 2 paragraph 4. from {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041222004112/http://www.hypotyposeis.org/synoptic-problem/2004/10/external-evidence-augustine.html hypothesis.com]}}</ref>
|[[Augustinian theodicy]]
|[[Augustinian values]]{{sfn|Esmeralda|n.d.|p=}}|[[Divine command theory]]{{sfn|Austin|2006}}
|[[Amillennialism]]
|''[[You are Christ]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?s=5|title=Jesus Christ Prayers – Prayers|first=Catholic|last=Online|website=Catholic Online}}</ref>
|[[Deity]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=deity |title=Deity |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=6 June 2017}}</ref>
|''[[Solvitur ambulando]]''{{sfn|Huffington|2013}}|[[Heroic virtue]]{{sfn|Wilhelm|1910}}
|''[[Incurvatus in se]]''{{sfn|Jenson|2006}}
|[[Allegorical interpretations of Genesis|Genesis as an allegory]]<ref>''Literal Interpretation of Genesis'' 1:19–20, Chapt. 19</ref><ref>''The Literal Interpretation of Genesis'' 2:9</ref>
|[[Divine illumination]]
|[[Theocentricism]]{{sfn|Demacopoulos|Papanikolaou|2008|p=271}}
|[[Limbo of Infants|Limbo]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/15011.htm |title=Church Fathers: On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants, Book I (Augustine) |publisher=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>
}}
}}
{{Ordination
| denomination = Catholic Church
| embed        = yes
| date of priestly ordination = 391
| place of priestly ordination = [[Hippo Regius]], [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]], [[Roman Empire]]
| date of consecration = 395
| consecrated by = Megalius
| sources = {{sfn|Portalié|1907a}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Theologian|url=http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/50.html|website=justus.anglican.org|publisher=Society of Archbishop Justus|access-date=22 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824001306/http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/50.html|archive-date=24 August 2017}}</ref>
}}
}}
'''Augustine of Hippo''' ({{IPAc-en|ɔː|ˈ|ɡ|ʌ|s|t|ᵻ|n}} {{respell|aw|GUST|in}}, {{IPAc-en|USalso|ˈ|ɔː|ɡ|ə|s|t|iː|n}} {{respell|AW|gə|steen}};<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Augustine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110120650/https://www.lexico.com/definition/Augustine |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 January 2022 |title=Augustine |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{langx|la|Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis}}; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430){{sfn|Wells| 2000|p=54}} was a theologian and philosopher of [[Berbers|Berber]] origin and the [[bishop of Hippo Regius]] in [[Numidia (Roman province)|Numidia]], [[Roman North Africa]]. His writings deeply influenced the development of [[Western philosophy]] and [[Western Christianity]], and he is viewed as one of the most important [[Latin Church Fathers|Church Fathers of the Latin Church]] in the [[Patristic Period]]. His many important works include ''[[The City of God]]'', ''[[De Doctrina Christiana|On Christian Doctrine]]'', and ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]''.

According to his contemporary, [[Jerome|Jerome of Stridon]], Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith".{{efn|Jerome wrote to Augustine in 418: "You are known throughout the world; Catholics honour and esteem you as the one who has established anew the ancient Faith" (''conditor antiquae rursum fidei'').{{sfn|TeSelle|2002|p=343}} Cf. [http://www.augustinus.it/latino/lettere/lettera_200_testo.htm Epistola 195]}} In his youth he was drawn to the [[Manichaeism|Manichaean faith]], and later to the [[Hellenistic philosophy]] of [[Neoplatonism]]. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives.{{sfn|TeSelle|2002|p=343}} Believing the [[Grace in Christianity|grace of Christ]] was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of [[original sin]] and made significant contributions to the development of [[just war theory]]. When the [[Western Roman Empire]] began to disintegrate, Augustine imagined the Church as a spiritual [[New Jerusalem#Christianity|City of God]], distinct from the material Earthly City.{{sfn|Durant|1992|p=}} The segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the [[Trinity]] as defined by the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicaea]] and the [[First Council of Constantinople|Council of Constantinople]]{{sfn|Wilken|2003|p=291}} closely identified with Augustine's ''[[On the Trinity]]''.

Augustine is recognized as a saint in the [[Catholic Church]], the Eastern Orthodox Church, the [[Lutheran churches]], and the [[Anglican Communion]]. He is also a preeminent Catholic [[Doctor of the Church]] and the patron of the [[Augustinians]]. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death. Augustine is the [[patron saint]] of brewers, printers, theologians, and a number of cities and dioceses.<ref name="KnoYrSaint">[http://www.catholicapologetics.info/library/saints/index.htm Know Your Patron Saint]. catholicapologetics.info</ref> His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Many [[Protestantism|Protestants]], especially [[Calvinism|Calvinists]] and [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]], consider him one of the theological fathers of the [[Protestant Reformation]] due to his teachings on [[salvation]] and [[divine grace]].{{sfn|Hägglund|2007|pp=139–140}}{{sfn|González|1987|p=}}<ref name="St. Augustine of Hippo">{{Cite book |others=Translated by Peter Holmes and Robert Ernest Wallis, and revised by Benjamin B. Warfield (revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight) |author=St. Augustine of Hippo |chapter=On Rebuke and Grace |title=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 5 |editor=Philip Schaff |location=Buffalo, New York |publisher=Christian Literature Publishing Co. |edition= 1887 |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1513.htm}}</ref> [[Protestant Reformers]] generally, and [[Martin Luther]] in particular, held Augustine in preeminence among early [[Church Fathers]]. From 1505 to 1521, Luther was a member of the [[Order of the Augustinian Eremites]].

In the [[Eastern Christianity|East]], his teachings are more disputed and were notably attacked by [[John Romanides]],<ref>{{Cite web| title = Some Underlying Positions of This Website| url = http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.00.en.some_underlying_positions_of_this_website.htm| website = www.romanity.org| access-date = 30 September 2015}}</ref> but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant approbation of his writings, chiefly [[Georges Florovsky]].<ref>{{Cite web| title = Limits of Church| url = http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/limits_church.htm| website = www.fatheralexander.org| access-date = 30 September 2015}}</ref> The most controversial doctrine associated with him, the [[filioque]],<ref name="Rev. Dr.">Papademetriou, George C. [http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8153 "Saint Augustine in the Greek Orthodox Tradition"]. goarch.org {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105045903/http://goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8153 |date=5 November 2010 }}</ref> was rejected by the Eastern Orthodox Church.{{sfn|Siecienski|2010|pp=53–67}} Other disputed teachings include his views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and [[predestination]].<ref name="Rev. Dr." /> Though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is still considered a saint and has influenced some Eastern Church Fathers, most notably [[Gregory Palamas]].<ref>{{Cite book| chapter= Gregorios Palamas' Reception of Augustine's Doctrine of the Original Sin and Nicholas Kabasilas' Rejection of Aquinas' Maculism as the Background to Scholarios' Immaculism| title=Never the Twain Shall Meet?|editor=Denis Searby |publisher=De Gruyter| doi=10.1515/9783110561074-219| date = 2017| last1 = Kappes| first1 = Christian| pages=207–258| isbn=978-3-11-056107-4}}</ref> In the [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek]] and [[Russian Orthodox Church]]es, his feast day is celebrated on 15 June.<ref name="Rev. Dr." /><ref>{{Cite journal | last =[[Archimandrite]] | title = Book Review: ''The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church'' | journal =Orthodox Tradition | volume =II | issue =3&4 | pages =40–43 | url =http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/bless_aug.aspx#rose | access-date =28 June 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070710012506/http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/bless_aug.aspx| archive-date= 10 July 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>

== Life ==
=== Background ===
Augustine of Hippo, also known as ''Saint Augustine'' or ''Saint Austin'',<ref>{{Cite book |title=The American Heritage College Dictionary |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin Company]] |location=Boston|year=1997 |isbn=978-0-395-66917-4 |page=91}}</ref> is known by various [[cognomen]]s throughout the many denominations of the Christian world, including ''Blessed Augustine'' and the ''Doctor of Grace''{{sfn|Portalié|1907a}} ({{Langx|la|Doctor gratiae}}).

[[Hippo Regius]], where Augustine was the [[bishop]], was in modern-day [[Annaba]], Algeria.{{sfn|Chadwick|2001|p=26}}{{sfn|Oakes|2008|p=183}}

=== Childhood and education ===
[[File:7 Nicolo di Pietro. 1413-15. The Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica. Pinacoteca, Vatican..jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica'', by [[Niccolò di Pietro]], 1413–15]]
{{Christianity sidebar}}
Augustine was born in 354 in the [[municipium]] of [[Thagaste]] (now [[Souk Ahras]], Algeria) in the [[Numidia (Roman province)|Roman province of Numidia]].<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica">{{Cite web | title=Saint Augustine – Biography, Philosophy, & Major Works | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Augustine | access-date=28 January 2018}}</ref>{{sfn|Magill|2003|p=172}}<ref>{{Cite book|author=Saint Augustine (Bishop of Hippo)|title=On Christian Teaching|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5pv1MGv0TUC&pg=PR26|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-283928-2|page=26}}</ref>{{sfn|Jones|2017|p=39}}{{sfn|Jayapalan|2001|p=51}} His mother, [[Saint Monica|Monica]] or Monnica,{{efn|"[T]he names Monnica and Nonnica are found on tombstones in the Libyan language{{snd}}as such Monnica is the only Berber name commonly used in English."{{harvnb|Brett|Fentress|1996|p=293}}}} was a devout Christian; his father Patricius was a [[Paganism|pagan]] who converted to Christianity on his deathbed.<ref>Vesey, Mark, trans. (2007) "Confessions Saint Augustine", introduction, {{ISBN|978-1-59308-259-8}}.</ref> He had a brother named Navigius and a sister whose name is lost but is conventionally remembered as [[Perpetua of Hippo|Perpetua]].{{sfn|Bonner|1986|p=}}

Scholars generally agree that Augustine and his family were [[Berbers]], an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa,{{sfn|Hollingworth|2013|pp=50–51}}{{sfn|Leith|1990|p=24}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HAAXAQAAIAAJ|title=Catholic World, Volumes 175–176|publisher=Paulist Fathers|year=1952|page=376|quote=The whole of North Africa was a glory of Christendom with St. Augustine, himself a Berber, its chief ornament.}}</ref> but were heavily Romanized, speaking only Latin at home as a matter of pride and dignity.{{sfn|Hollingworth|2013|pp=50–51}} In his writings, Augustine mentions in passing his identity as a [[Roman Africa]]n. For example, he refers to [[Apuleius]] as "the most notorious of us Africans,"{{sfn|Hollingworth|2013|pp=50–51}}<ref>Ep., CXXXIII, 19. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102138.htm English version], [http://www.augustinus.it/latino/lettere/lettera_139_testo.htm Latin version]</ref> to Ponticianus as "a country man of ours, insofar as being African,"{{sfn|Hollingworth|2013|pp=50–51}}<ref>Confess., VIII, 6, 14. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/110108.htm English version], [http://www.augustinus.it/latino/confessioni/index2.htm Latin version]</ref> and to [[Faustus of Mileve]] as "an African [[Gentleman]]".{{sfn|Hollingworth|2013|pp=50–51}}<ref>Contra Faustum, I, 1. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/140601.htm English version], [http://www.augustinus.it/latino/contro_fausto/index2.htm Latin version]</ref>

Augustine's family name, Aurelius, suggests his father's ancestors were [[liberti|freedmen]] of the ''[[Aurelia (gens)|gens Aurelia]]'' given full Roman citizenship by the [[Edict of Caracalla]] in 212. Augustine's family had been Roman, from a legal standpoint, for at least a century when he was born.{{sfn|Lancel|2002|p=5}} It is assumed that his mother, Monica, was of Berber origin, on the basis of her name,{{sfn|Power|1999|pp=353–354}}{{sfn|Brett|Fentress|1996|pp=71, 293}} but as his family were ''[[Decurion (administrative)|honestiores]]'', an upper class of citizens known as honorable men, Augustine's first language was likely Latin.{{sfn|Power|1999|pp=353–354}}

At the age of 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus (now [[M'Daourouch]]), a small Numidian city about {{convert|19|mi|km|abbr=off|order=flip}} south of Thagaste. There he became familiar with [[Latin literature]], as well as pagan beliefs and practices.{{sfn|Knowles|Penkett|2004|p=|loc=Ch. 2}} His first insight into the nature of sin occurred when he and a number of friends stole pears from a neighbourhood garden. He tells this story in his autobiography, ''Confessions''. He realises that the pears were "tempting neither for its colour nor its flavour" – he was neither hungry nor poor, and he had enough of fruit which were "much better". Over the next few chapters, Augustine agonises over this past sin of his, recognising that one does not desire evil for evil's sake. Rather, "through an inordinate preference for these goods of a lower kind, the better and higher are neglected".<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 2:5</ref> In other words, man is drawn to sin when grossly choosing the lesser good over a greater good. Eventually, Augustine concludes that it was the good of the "companionship" between him and his accomplices that allowed him to delight in this theft.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 2:8</ref>

At the age of 17, through the generosity of his fellow citizen Romanianus,<ref name=EA>''Encyclopedia Americana'', v. 2, p. 685. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, 1997. {{ISBN|0-7172-0129-5}}.</ref> Augustine went to [[Carthage]] to continue his education in [[rhetoric]], though it was above the financial means of his family.<ref name="ReferenceA">Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 2:3.5</ref> Despite the good warnings of his mother, as a youth Augustine lived a [[Hedonism|hedonistic]] lifestyle for a time, associating with young men who boasted of their sexual exploits. The need to gain their acceptance encouraged inexperienced boys like Augustine to seek or make up stories about sexual experiences.<ref name="FLNZ1">Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 2:3.7</ref>

It was while he was a student in Carthage that he read [[Cicero]]'s [[dialogue]] ''[[Hortensius (Cicero)|Hortensius]]'' (now lost), which he described as leaving a lasting impression, enkindling in his heart the love of wisdom and a great thirst for truth. It started his interest in philosophy.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 3:4</ref> Although raised Christian, Augustine became a [[Manichaeism|Manichaean]], much to his mother's chagrin.{{sfn|Pope|1911}}

At about the age of 17, Augustine began a relationship with a young woman in Carthage. Though his mother wanted him to marry a person of his class, the woman remained his lover. He was warned by his mother to avoid fornication (sex outside marriage), but Augustine persisted in the relationship{{sfn|Ranke-Heinemann|1990|p=}} for over fifteen years,<ref name="utne.com">Boyce, James (May 2015) [http://www.utne.com/mind-and-body/st-augustine-and-original-sin-ze0z1505zken.aspx "Don't Blame the Devil: St Augustine and Original Sin"]. ''[[Utne Reader]]''.</ref> and the woman gave birth to his son Adeodatus (372–388), which means "Gift from God",<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 4:2</ref> who was viewed as extremely intelligent by his contemporaries. In 385, Augustine ended his relationship with his lover in order to prepare to marry a teenage heiress. By the time he was able to marry her, however, he had already converted to Christianity and decided to become a Christian priest and the marriage did not happen.<ref name="utne.com" />{{sfn|Brown|2000|p=63}}

Augustine was, from the beginning, a brilliant student, with an eager intellectual curiosity, but he never mastered Greek{{sfn|O'Donnell|2005|p=}} – his first Greek teacher was a brutal man who constantly beat his students, and Augustine rebelled and refused to study. By the time he realized he needed to know Greek, it was too late; and although he acquired a smattering of the language, he was never eloquent with it. He did, however, become a master of Latin.

=== Move to Carthage, Rome, and Milan ===
[[File:Augustine Lateran.jpg|thumb|The earliest known portrait of Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome]]

Augustine taught grammar at Thagaste during 373 and 374. The following year he moved to Carthage to conduct a school of rhetoric and remained there for the next nine years.<ref name=EA /> Disturbed by unruly students in Carthage, he moved to establish a school in Rome, where he believed the best and brightest rhetoricians practised, in 383. However, Augustine was disappointed with the apathetic reception. It was the custom for students to pay their fees to the professor on the last day of the term, and many students attended faithfully all term, and then did not pay.

Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, [[Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|Symmachus]], who had been asked by the imperial court at [[Milan]]{{sfn|Portalié|1907a}} to provide a rhetoric professor. Augustine won the job and headed north to take his position in Milan in late 384. Thirty years old, he had won the most visible academic position in the Latin world at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers.

Although Augustine spent ten years as a Manichaean, he was never an initiate or "elect", but an "auditor", the lowest level in this religion's hierarchy.{{sfn|Portalié|1907a}}{{sfn|Chadwick|2001|p=14}} While still at Carthage a disappointing meeting with the Manichaean bishop, [[Faustus of Mileve]], a key exponent of Manichaean theology, started Augustine's scepticism of Manichaeanism.{{sfn|Portalié|1907a}} In Rome, he reportedly turned away from Manichaeanism, embracing the [[Philosophical scepticism|scepticism]] of the [[New Academy]] movement. Because of his education, Augustine had great rhetorical prowess and was very knowledgeable of the philosophies behind many faiths.{{sfn|Kishlansky|Geary|O'Brien|2005|pp=142–143}} At Milan, his mother's religiosity, Augustine's own studies in [[Neoplatonism]], and his friend [[Simplician]]us all urged him towards Christianity.<ref name="EA" /> This was shortly after the Roman emperor [[Theodosius I]] declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire on 27 February 380 by the [[Edict of Thessalonica]]{{sfn|Doniger|1999|pp=689–690}} and then issued a decree of death for all Manichaean monks in 382. Initially, Augustine was not strongly influenced by Christianity and its ideologies, but after coming in contact with [[Ambrose]] of Milan, Augustine reevaluated himself and was forever changed.

[[File:Saint Augustine and Saint Monica.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica'' (1846) by [[Ary Scheffer]]]]
Augustine arrived in Milan and visited Ambrose, having heard of his reputation as an orator. Like Augustine, Ambrose was a master of rhetoric, but older and more experienced.{{sfn|BeDuhn|2010|p=163}} Soon, their relationship grew, as Augustine wrote, "And I began to love him, of course, not at the first as a teacher of the truth, for I had entirely despaired of finding that in thy Church{{snd}}but as a friendly man."<ref name="Augustine: Account of His Own Conversion" /> Augustine was very much influenced by Ambrose, even more than by his own mother and others he admired. In his ''Confessions'', Augustine states, "That man of God received me as a father would, and welcomed my coming as a good bishop should."<ref name="Augustine: Account of His Own Conversion">{{Cite web| last1=Outler| first1=Albert| title='Medieval Sourcebook' Internet History Sourcebooks Project| url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-conv.asp| website=Fordham University, Medieval Sourcebook| publisher=[[Fordham University]] |access-date=30 October 2014}}</ref> Ambrose adopted Augustine as a spiritual son after the death of Augustine's father.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=90}}

Augustine's mother had followed him to Milan and arranged a respectable marriage for him. Although Augustine acquiesced, he had to dismiss his concubine and grieved for having forsaken his lover. He wrote, "My mistress being torn from my side as an impediment to my marriage, my heart, which clave to her, was racked, and wounded, and bleeding." Augustine confessed he had not been a lover of wedlock so much as a slave of lust, so he procured another concubine since he had to wait two years until his fiancée came of age. However, his emotional wound was not healed.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 6:15</ref> It was during this period that he uttered his famously insincere prayer, "Grant me [[chastity]] and [[sexual abstinence|continence]], but not yet."<ref name="FLNZ2">Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 8:7.17</ref>

There is evidence Augustine may have considered this former relationship to be equivalent to marriage.{{sfn|Burrus|2011|pp=1–20}} In his ''Confessions'', he admitted the experience eventually produced a decreased sensitivity to pain. Augustine eventually broke off his engagement to his eleven-year-old fiancée but never renewed his relationship with either of his concubines. [[Alypius of Thagaste]] steered Augustine away from marriage, saying they could not live a life together in the love of wisdom if he married. Augustine looked back years later on the life at [[Cassago Brianza|Cassiciacum]], a villa outside of Milan where he gathered with his followers, and described it as ''Christianae vitae otium'' – the leisure of Christian life.{{sfn|Ferguson|1999|p=208}}

=== Conversion to Christianity and priesthood ===
[[File:Fra angelico - conversion de saint augustin.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The Conversion of St. Augustine'' by [[Fra Angelico]]]]

In late August of 386,{{efn|{{harvnb|Brown|2000|p=64}} places Augustine's garden conversion at the end of August, 386.}} at the age of 31, having heard of Ponticianus's and his friends' first reading of the life of [[Anthony the Great|Anthony of the Desert]], Augustine converted to Christianity. As Augustine later told it, his conversion was prompted by hearing a child's voice say "take up and read" ({{langx|la|tolle, lege}}). Resorting to the ''[[sortes biblicae]]'', he opened a book of St. Paul's writings (''Confessiones'' 8.12.29) at random and read Romans 13:13–14: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."<ref>{{Cite book| author = Augustine of Hippo | title = Confessions |year= 2008| publisher= Oxford University Press| place = New York | pages =152–153 | others = Chadwick, Henry transl}}</ref>

He later wrote an account of his conversion in his ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'' ({{langx|la|Confessiones}}), which has since become a classic of Christian theology and a key text in the history of [[autobiography]]. This work is an outpouring of thanksgiving and penitence. Although it is written as an account of his life, the ''Confessions'' also talks about the nature of time, causality, free will, and other important philosophical topics.<ref name="justus.anglican.org">[http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/50.html Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Theologian]. Justus.anglican.org. Retrieved on 17 June 2015.</ref> The following is taken from that work:

{{blockquote|<poem>Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I sought thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee. These things kept me far from thee; even though they were not at all unless they were in thee. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and didst force open my deafness. Thou didst gleam and shine, and didst chase away my blindness. Thou didst breathe fragrant odours and I drew in my breath; and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for thy peace.<ref>Augustine, Confessions 10.27.38, tr. Albert C. Outler. https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/augustine/conf.pdf</ref></poem>}}
[[File:Ascanio Luciano – Capriccio with the vision of St. Augustine in a ruined arcade.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The vision of St. Augustine'' by [[Ascanio Luciano]]]]

[[Ambrose]] baptized Augustine and his son Adeodatus, in Milan on [[Easter Vigil]], 24–25 April 387.{{sfn|Brown|2000|p=117}} A year later, in 388, Augustine completed his [[Christian apologetics|apology]] ''On the Holiness of the Catholic Church''.{{sfn|Portalié|1907a}} That year, also, Adeodatus and Augustine returned home to Africa.<ref name=EA /> Augustine's mother [[Saint Monica|Monica]] died at [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]], Italy, as they prepared to embark for Africa.{{sfn|Pope|1911}} Upon their arrival, they began a life of aristocratic leisure at Augustine's family's property.{{sfn|Possidius|2008|p=|loc=3.1}} Soon after, Adeodatus, too, died.{{sfn|A'Becket|1907}} Augustine then sold his patrimony and gave the money to the poor. He only kept the family house, which he converted into a [[monastic]] foundation for himself and a group of friends.<ref name=EA /> Furthermore, while he was known for his major contributions to Christian rhetoric, another major contribution was his preaching style.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Oort|first=Johannes van|date=5 October 2009|title=Augustine, His Sermons, and Their Significance|journal=HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies|volume=65|pages=1–10}}</ref>

After converting to Christianity, Augustine turned against his profession as a rhetoric professor in order to devote more time to preaching.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Tell|first=Dave|date=1 November 2010|title=Augustine and the 'Chair of Lies': Rhetoric in The Confessions|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/rhetorica/article-abstract/28/4/384/82868/Augustine-and-the-Chair-of-Lies-Rhetoric-in-The?redirectedFrom=fulltext|journal=Rhetorica|language=en|volume=28|issue=4|pages=384–407|doi=10.1525/RH.2010.28.4.384|issn=0734-8584|hdl=1808/9182|s2cid=146646045 |hdl-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 391 Augustine was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[priest]] in [[Hippo Regius]] (now Annaba), in Algeria. He was especially interested in discovering how his previous rhetorical training in Italian schools would help the Christian Church achieve its objective of discovering and teaching the different scriptures in the Bible.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Herrick|first=James|title=The History and Theory of Rhetoric|publisher=Pearson|year=2008|isbn=978-0-205-56673-0|location=New York|edition=4th}}</ref> He became a famous [[preacher]] (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted for combating the [[Manichaeism|Manichaean religion]], to which he had formerly adhered.{{sfn|Portalié|1907a}} He preached around 6,000 to 10,000 sermons when he was alive; however, there are only around 500 sermons that are accessible today.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Sypert|first=John|date=1 May 2015|title=Redeeming Rhetoric: Augustine's Use of Rhetoric in His Preaching Ministry|url=https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/eleu/vol4/iss1/3|journal=Eleutheria|volume=4|issue=1|issn=2159-8088}}</ref> When Augustine preached his sermons, they were recorded by stenographers.<ref name=":4" /> Some of his sermons would last over one hour and he would preach multiple times throughout a given week.<ref name=":2" /> When talking to his audience, he would stand on an elevated platform; however, he would walk towards the audience during his sermons.<ref name=":2" /> When he was preaching, he used a variety of rhetorical devices that included [[Analogy|analogies]], word pictures, [[simile]]s, [[metaphor]]s, [[Repetition (rhetorical device)|repetition]], and [[antithesis]] when trying to explain more about the Bible.<ref name=":2" /> In addition, he used questions and rhymes when talking about the differences between people's life on Earth and Heaven as seen in one of his sermons that was preached in 412 AD.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Conybeare|first=Catherine|editor1-first=Michael J|editor1-last=MacDonald|date=30 November 2017|title=Augustine's Rhetoric in Theory and Practice|url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199731596.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199731596-e-025|access-date=8 March 2021|website=The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies|language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199731596.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-973159-6}}</ref> Augustine believed that the preachers' ultimate goal is to ensure the salvation of their audience.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Farrell|first=James|date=1 January 2008|title=The Rhetoric(s) of St. Augustine's Confessions|url=https://scholars.unh.edu/comm_facpub/3|journal=Augustinian Studies|volume=39|issue=2|pages=265–291|doi=10.5840/augstudies200839224|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 395, he was made [[coadjutor Bishop]] of Hippo and became full Bishop shortly thereafter,{{sfn|Brown|2000|p=}} hence the name "Augustine of Hippo"; and he gave his property to the church of Thagaste.<ref>Augustine, ''ep''.126.1</ref> He remained in that position until his death in 430. Bishops were the only individuals allowed to preach when he was alive and he scheduled time to preach after being ordained despite a busy schedule made up of preparing sermons and preaching at other churches besides his own.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sanlon |first=Peter T. |title=Augustine's Theology of Preaching |publisher=Fortress Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4514-8278-2 |location=Philadelphia |pages=}}</ref><ref>Sanlon, P. T., & University of Cambridge. Faculty of Divinity. (2012). "Interiority, temporality & scripture in Augustine’s preaching." 
 [https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/16u99e0/44CAM_ALMA21432548470003606 Cambridge Univ. Library website] Retrieved 16 June 2025.</ref> When serving as the Bishop of Hippo, his goal was to minister to individuals in his congregation and he would choose the passages that the church planned to read every week.<ref name=":42">{{Cite journal |last=Oort |first=Johannes van |date=5 October 2009 |title=Augustine, His Sermons, and Their Significance |journal=HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies |volume=65 |pages=1–10}}</ref> As bishop, he believed that it was his job to interpret the work of the Bible.<ref name=":42" /> He wrote his autobiographical ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'' in 397–398. His work ''The City of God'' was written to console his fellow Christians shortly after the [[Visigoths]] had [[Sack of Rome (410)|sacked Rome in 410]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Donnell |first=James J. |title=Augustine |publisher=Twayne Publishers |year=1985 |isbn=0-8057-6609-X |location=Boston |page=12}}</ref> Augustine worked tirelessly to convince the people of Hippo to convert to Christianity. Though he had left his monastery, he continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence.{{sfn|Portalié|1907b}}

Much of Augustine's later life was recorded by his friend [[Possidius]], bishop of [[Calama (Numidia)|Calama]] (present-day [[Guelma]], Algeria), in his ''Sancti Augustini Vita''. During this latter part of Augustine's life, he helped lead a large community of Christians against different political and religious factors which had a major influence on his writings.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wagner|first=Nathan|date=1 May 2018|title=Rhetorical Distinctions in Augustine's Early and Later Writing|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/rhetorica/article-abstract/36/2/105/83045/Rhetorical-Distinctions-in-Augustine-s-Early-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext|journal=Rhetorica|language=en|volume=36|issue=2|pages=105–131|doi=10.1525/rh.2018.36.2.105|s2cid=172122521 |issn=0734-8584|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Possidius admired Augustine as a man of powerful intellect and a stirring orator who took every opportunity to defend Christianity against its detractors. Possidius also described Augustine's personal traits in detail, drawing a portrait of a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence in the financial stewardship of his see.{{sfn|Possidius|2008|p=}}

== Death and sainthood ==
Shortly before Augustine's death, the [[Vandals]], a [[Germanic tribe]] that had converted to [[Arianism]], [[Vandalic conquest of Roman Africa|invaded Roman Africa]]. The Vandals besieged Hippo in the spring of 430 when Augustine entered his final illness. According to Possidius, one of the few miracles attributed to Augustine, the healing of an ill man, took place during the siege.{{sfn|Possidius|2008|p=43}} Augustine has been cited to have excommunicated himself upon the approach of his death in an act of public penance and solidarity with sinners.<ref>Joseph Ratzinger, Behold the Pierced One (Ignatius Press: 2011), ePub ed. 63

See also, J.van der Meer, Augustinus der Seelsorger (Cologned 1951), 324</ref> Spending his final days in prayer and repentance, he requested the penitential [[Psalms]] of David be hung on his walls so he could read them and upon which led him to "[weep] freely and constantly" according to Possidius' biography.<ref>Possidius, Life of St. Augustine (trans. Weiskotten), Chapter XXXI. Death and burial, https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/possidius_life_of_augustine_02_text.htm#C31</ref> He directed the library of the church in Hippo and all the books therein should be carefully preserved. He died on 28 August 430.{{sfn|Possidius|2008|p=57}} Shortly after his death, the Vandals lifted the siege of Hippo, but they returned soon after and burned the city. They destroyed all but Augustine's cathedral and library, which they left untouched.

Augustine was [[canonization|canonized]] by popular acclaim, and later recognized as a Doctor of the Church in 1298 by [[Pope Boniface VIII]].{{sfn|Oestreich|1907}} His [[feast day]] is 28 August, the day on which he died. He is considered the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and a number of cities and dioceses. He is invoked against sore eyes.<ref name="KnoYrSaint" />

Augustine is remembered in the [[Church of England]]'s [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|calendar of saints]] with a [[Lesser Festival (Anglicanism)|lesser festival]] on 28 August.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=27 March 2021|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref>

=== Relics ===
[[File:Basilica-sant'agostino-annaba03.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Augustine's arm bones, [[Saint Augustin Basilica]], Annaba, Algeria]]
According to [[Bede]]'s ''True Martyrology'', Augustine's body was later [[Translation (relic)|translated]] or moved to [[Cagliari]], [[Sardinia]], by the Catholic bishops expelled from North Africa by [[Huneric]]. Around 720, his remains were transported again by Peter, [[bishop of Pavia]] and uncle of the Lombard king [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]], to the church of [[San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]] in Pavia, to save them from frequent coastal raids by [[Saracen]]s. In January 1327, [[Pope John XXII]] issued the papal bull ''Veneranda Santorum Patrum'', in which he appointed the Augustinians guardians of the tomb of Augustine (called ''Arca''), which was remade in 1362 and elaborately carved with bas-reliefs of scenes from Augustine's life, created by [[Giovanni di Balduccio]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Girelli |first1=Francesca |title=L'Arca di Sant'Agostino: opera di Giovanni di Balduccio |journal=Bollettino d'Arte |date=2021 |volume=45 |pages=1–15 |url=https://www.lerma.it/download/2836/5e31a47f407a/pagine-da-9788891322654-fasc-45-x-web-1.pdf |access-date=29 September 2023 |language=it |issn=0394-4573}}</ref>
[[File:Arca di S. Agostino (1362), Pavia, S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro 16.JPG|thumb|[[Giovanni di Balduccio]], Tomb of St Augustine, 1362–1365, [[San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]], [[Pavia]]]]

In October 1695, some workmen in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia discovered a marble box containing human bones (including part of a skull). A dispute arose between the Augustinian hermits (Order of Saint Augustine) and the regular canons ([[Canons Regular of Saint Augustine]]) as to whether these were the bones of Augustine. The hermits did not believe so; the canons affirmed they were. Eventually [[Pope Benedict XIII]] (1724–1730) directed the Bishop of Pavia, [[Monsignor]] Pertusati, to make a determination. The bishop declared that, in his opinion, the bones were those of Augustine.<ref>[http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=2213&iparentid=145 Augustine's tomb, Augnet] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222172526/http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=2213&iparentid=145 |date=22 February 2014 }}. Augnet.org (22 April 2007). Retrieved on 17 June 2015.</ref>

The Augustinians were expelled from Pavia in 1785,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Monasteri Imperiali Pavia |title=San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro |url=https://www.monasteriimperialipavia.it/san-pietro-in-ciel-doro/ |website=monasteriimperialipavia.it |publisher=University of Pavia |access-date=29 September 2023}}</ref> Augustine's ark and relics were brought to [[Pavia Cathedral]] in 1799.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Regione Lombardia |title=Arca di S. Agostino |url=https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/opere-arte/schede/PV300-00010/ |website=lombardiabeniculturali.it |publisher=Regione Lombardia |access-date=29 September 2023}}</ref> San Pietro fell into disrepair but was finally restored in the 1870s, under the urging of [[Agostino Gaetano Riboldi]], and reconsecrated in 1896 when the relics of Augustine and the shrine were once again reinstalled.{{sfn|Dale|2001|p=55}}{{sfn|Stone|2002|p=}}

In 1842, a portion of Augustine's right arm (cubitus) was secured from Pavia and returned to Annaba.{{sfn|Schnaubelt|Van Fleteren|1999|p=165}} It now rests in the [[Saint Augustin Basilica]] within a glass tube inserted into the arm of a life-size marble statue of the saint.

== Views and thought ==
{{Catholic philosophy|expanded=Philosophers|expanded2=Ancient}}
Augustine's large contribution of writings covered diverse fields including theology, philosophy and sociology. Along with [[John Chrysostom]], Augustine was among the most prolific scholars of the early church by quantity.

=== Theology ===
==== Christian anthropology ====
Augustine was one of the first Christian [[Late Latin|ancient Latin]] authors with a very clear vision of [[Christian anthropology|theological anthropology]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia | publisher = Stanford | title = Encyclopedia of Philosophy | url = http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine/#PhiAnt | contribution = Saint Augustine {{ndash}} Philosophical Anthropology | year = 2016 }}</ref> He saw the human being as a perfect unity of soul and body. In his late treatise ''[[s:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume III/Moral Treatises of St. Augustin/On Care to Be Had for the Dead/Section 5|On Care to Be Had for the Dead, section 5]]'' (420) he exhorted respect for the body on the grounds it belonged to the very nature of the human [[person]].<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De cura pro mortuis gerenda'' [[Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum|CSEL]] 41, 627 [13–22]; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">[[Patrologia Latina|PL]]</abbr> 40, 595: ''Nullo modo ipsa spernenda sunt corpora. (...) Haec enim non-ad ornamentum vel adiutorium, quod adhibetur extrinsecus, sed ad ipsam naturam hominis pertinent''.</ref> Augustine's favourite figure to describe ''body-soul'' unity is marriage: ''caro tua, coniunx tua – your body is your wife''.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Enarrationes in psalmos'', 143, 6.</ref><ref>[[Corpus Christianorum|CCL]] 40, 2077 [46] – 2078 [74]; 46, 234–235.</ref><ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De utilitate ieiunii'', 4, 4–5.</ref>

Augustine believed that though initially the two elements of body and soul were in perfect harmony, after the [[#Original sin|fall of humanity]] they came into dramatic combat with one another. He wrote of them as two categorically different things: the body as a three-dimensional object composed of the four elements, and the soul as spatially dimensionless.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De quantitate animae'' 1.2; 5.9.</ref> He further defined the soul as a kind of substance, participating in reason, fit for ruling the body.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De quantitate animae'' 13.12: ''Substantia quaedam rationis particeps, regendo corpori accomodata''.</ref>

Augustine was not preoccupied, as [[Plato]] and [[Descartes]] were, in detailed efforts to explain the [[metaphysics]] of the soul-body union. It sufficed for him to admit they are metaphysically distinct: to be a human is to be a composite of soul and body, with the soul superior to the body. The latter statement is grounded in his [[hierarchical classification]] of things into those that merely exist, those that exist and live, and those that exist, live, and have intelligence or reason.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''On the free will'' (''De libero arbitrio'') 2.3.7–6.13.</ref>{{sfn|Mann|1999|pp=141–142}}

Sermons directed at Manichaeism focused on their error of teaching the soul was part of God instead of admission that the soul is 'full of illusions'.<ref>van Oort, Johannes. “AUGUSTINE ON MANICHAEISM IN HIS ‘SERMO’ 182.” ''Augustiniana'', vol. 65, no. 1/2, 2015, p. 112. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/44993063 JSTOR website] Retrieved 16 June 2025.</ref>

Like other Church Fathers such as [[Athenagoras of Athens|Athenagoras]],<ref>{{Cite web | title = A Plea for the Christians |author= Athenagoras the Athenian | url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm | publisher = New Advent}}</ref> [[Tertullian]],{{sfn|Flinn|2007|p=4}} [[Clement of Alexandria]] and [[Basil of Caesarea]],{{sfn|Luker|1985|p=12}} Augustine "vigorously condemned the practice of induced [[abortion]]", and although he disapproved of abortion during any stage of pregnancy, he made a distinction between early and later abortions.{{sfn|Bauerschmidt|1999|p= 1}} He acknowledged the distinction between "formed" and "unformed" fetuses mentioned in the [[Septuagint]] translation of Exodus 21:22–23, which incorrectly translates the word "harm" (from the original Hebrew text) as "form" in the [[Koine Greek]] of the Septuagint. His view was based on the Aristotelian distinction "between the fetus before and after its supposed 'vivification{{'"}}. Therefore, he did not classify the abortion of an "unformed" fetus as murder since he thought it could not be known with certainty the fetus had received a soul.{{sfn|Bauerschmidt|1999|p= 1}}<ref>[http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/respect-for-unborn-human-life.cfm Respect for Unborn Human Life: the Church's Constant Teaching]. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops</ref>

Augustine held that "the timing of the infusion of the soul was a mystery known to God alone".{{sfn|Lysaught|Kotva|Lammers|Verhey|2012|p=676}} However, he considered procreation as "one of the goods of marriage; abortion figured as a means, along with drugs which cause sterility, of frustrating this good. It lay along a continuum which included infanticide as an instance of 'lustful cruelty' or 'cruel lust.' Augustine called the use of means to avoid the birth of a child an 'evil work:' a reference to either abortion or contraception or both."<ref name="Vasa">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/bishops/vasapelosi.htm|title=Modern Look at Abortion Not Same as St. Augustine's|website=www.ewtn.com|access-date=4 December 2016|archive-date=20 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220044432/https://www.ewtn.com/library/bishops/vasapelosi.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Creation ====
{{See also|Allegorical interpretations of Genesis}}
In ''City of God'', Augustine rejected both the contemporary ideas of ages (such as those of certain Greeks and Egyptians) that differed from the Church's sacred writings.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Augustine of Hippo |chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-02/npnf1-02-18.htm#P2017_1154484 |chapter=Of the Falseness of the History Which Allots Many Thousand Years to the World's Past |title=The City of God |at=Book&nbsp;12: Chapt.&nbsp;10 [419]}}</ref> In ''The Literal Interpretation of Genesis'', Augustine argued that God had created everything in the universe simultaneously and not over a period of six days. He argued the six-day structure of creation presented in the Book of Genesis represents a [[framework interpretation (Genesis)|logical framework]], rather than the passage of time in a physical way – it would bear a spiritual, rather than physical, meaning, which is no less literal. One reason for this interpretation is the passage in [[Sirach]]&nbsp;18:1, ''creavit omnia simul'' ("He created all things at once"), which Augustine took as proof that the days of Genesis&nbsp;1 had to be taken non-literalistically.{{sfn|Teske|1999|pp=377–378}} As additional support for describing the six days of creation as a [[heuristic device]], Augustine thought the actual event of creation would be incomprehensible by humans and therefore needed to be translated.{{sfn|Franklin-Brown|2012|p=280}}

Augustine also does not envision original sin as causing structural changes in the universe, and even suggests that the bodies of [[Adam and Eve]] were already created mortal before [[Fall of man|the Fall]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Augustine of Hippo |title=On the Merits |at=1.2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Augustine of Hippo |title=City of God |at=13:1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Augustine of Hippo |title=Enchiridion |at=104}}</ref> Apart from his specific views, Augustine recognized that interpreting the creation story was difficult, and remarked that interpretations could change should new information come up.<ref>Young, Davis A. [http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1988/PSCF3-88Young.html "The Contemporary Relevance of Augustine's View of Creation"], ''[[Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith]]'' '''40.1''':42–45 (3/1988). Retrieved 30 September 2011.</ref>

==== Ecclesiology ====
{{See also|Ecclesiology}}
[[File:Carlo Crivelli - St. Augustine - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|''St. Augustine'' by [[Carlo Crivelli]]]]
Augustine developed his doctrine of the Church principally in reaction to the [[Donatist]] sect. He taught there is one Church, but within this Church there are two realities, namely, the visible aspect (the institutional [[hierarchy of the Catholic Church|hierarchy]], the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|Catholic sacraments]], and the [[laity]]) and the invisible (the souls of those in the Church, who are either dead, sinful members or elect predestined for Heaven). The former is the institutional body established by Christ on earth which proclaims salvation and administers the sacraments, while the latter is the invisible body of the elect, made up of genuine believers from all ages, who are known only to God. The Church, which is visible and societal, will be made up of "wheat" and "tares", that is, good and wicked people (as per Mat. 13:30), until the end of time. This concept countered the Donatist claim that only those in a [[state (theology)|state of grace]] were the "true" or "pure" church on earth, and that priests and bishops who were not in a state of grace had no authority or ability to confect the sacraments.{{sfn|González|1987|p=28}}

Augustine's ecclesiology was more fully developed in ''City of God''. There he conceives of the church as a heavenly city or kingdom, ruled by love, which will ultimately triumph over all earthly empires which are self-indulgent and ruled by pride. Augustine followed [[Cyprian]] in teaching that bishops and priests of the Church are the [[apostolic succession|successors of the Apostles]],{{sfn|González|1987|p=}} and their authority in the Church is God-given.

The concept of [[Church invisible]] was advocated by Augustine as part of his refutation of the Donatist sect, though he, as other Church Fathers before him, saw the invisible Church and visible Church as one and the same thing, unlike the later Protestant reformers who did not identify the Catholic Church as the [[One true church|true church]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Justo L. Gonzalez |title=A History of Christian Thought: Volume 2 (From Augustine to the eve of the Reformation) |date=1970–1975 |publisher=Abingdon Press}}</ref> He was strongly influenced by the [[Platonism|Platonist]] belief that true reality is invisible and that, if the visible reflects the invisible, it does so only partially and imperfectly (see [[Theory of Forms]]).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JeXFXXHBgnoC Wallace M. Alston, The Church of the Living God: A Reformed Perspective] (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002 {{ISBN|978-0-664-22553-7}}), p. 53</ref> Others question whether Augustine really held to some form of an "invisible true Church" concept.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/non-orthodox_ch7.pdf|title=Patrick Barnes, The Non-Orthodox: The Orthodox Teaching on Christians Outside of the Church}}</ref>

==== Eschatology ====
Augustine originally believed in [[premillennialism]], namely that Christ would establish a literal 1,000-year kingdom prior to the general [[resurrection]], but later rejected the belief, viewing it as carnal. During the medieval period, the Catholic Church built its system of eschatology on Augustinian [[amillennialism]], where Christ rules the earth spiritually through his triumphant church.{{sfn|Blomberg|2006|p=519}}

During the [[Reformation]], theologians such as [[John Calvin]] accepted amillennialism. Augustine taught that the eternal fate of the soul is determined at death,{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=}}<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Enchiridion'', 110</ref> and that [[purgatory|purgatorial]] fires of the [[Intermediate state (Christianity)|intermediate state]] purify only those who died in communion with the Church. His teaching provided fuel for later theology.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=}}

==== Mariology ====
Although Augustine did not develop an independent [[Mariology]], his statements on Mary surpass in number and depth those of other early writers. Even before the [[Council of Ephesus]], he defended the [[perpetual virginity of Mary|Ever-Virgin Mary]] as the [[theotokos|Mother of God]], believing her to be "full of grace" (following earlier Latin writers such as [[Jerome]]) on account of her sexual integrity and innocence.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De Sancta Virginitate'', 6,6, 191.</ref> Likewise, he affirmed that the Virgin Mary "conceived as virgin, gave birth as virgin and stayed virgin forever".<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De Sancta Virginitate'', 18</ref>

==== Natural knowledge and biblical interpretation ====
Augustine took the view that, if a literal interpretation contradicts science and humans' God-given reason, the biblical text should be interpreted metaphorically. While each passage of Scripture has a literal sense, this "literal sense" does not always mean the Scriptures are mere history; at times they are rather an [[extended metaphor]].<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De Genesi ad literam 1:19–20'', Chapt. 19 [408], ''De Genesi ad literam'', 2:9</ref>

==== Original sin ====
{{See also|Original sin}}

[[File:Saint Augustine - Tomas Giner.JPG|thumb|Painting of Augustine (1458) by Tomás Giner, tempera on panel, Diocesan Museum of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain]]
Augustine taught that the sin of Adam and Eve was either an act of foolishness (''insipientia'') followed by pride and disobedience to God or that pride came first.<ref group=lower-alpha>He explained to Julian of Eclanum that it was a most subtle job to discern what came first: ''Sed si disputatione subtilissima et elimatissima opus est, ut sciamus utrum primos homines insipientia superbos, an insipientes superbia fecerit''. (''Contra Julianum'', V, 4.18; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 795)</ref> The first couple disobeyed God, who had told them not to eat of the [[Tree of the knowledge of good and evil]] (Gen 2:17).<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''On the Literal Meaning of Genesis'' (''[[De Genesi ad litteram']]'), VIII, 6:12, vol. 1, pp. 192–93 and 12:28, vol. 2, pp. 219–220, trans. John Hammond Taylor SJ; [[Bibliothèque Augustinniene|BA]] 49,28 and 50–52; PL 34, 377; cf. idem, ''De Trinitate'', XII, 12.17; [[Corpus Christianorum|CCL]] 50, 371–372 [v. 26–31; 1–36]; ''De natura boni'' 34–35; CSEL 25, 872; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 42, 551–572''</ref> The tree was a symbol of the order of creation.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''On the Literal Meaning of Genesis'' (''De Genesi ad litteram''), VIII, 4.8; [[Bibliothèque Augustinniene|BA]] 49, 20</ref> Self-centeredness made Adam and Eve eat of it, thus failing to acknowledge and respect the world as it was created by God, with its hierarchy of beings and values.<ref group=lower-alpha>Augustine explained it in this way: "Why therefore is it enjoined upon mind, that it should know itself? I suppose, in order that, it may consider itself, and live according to its own nature; that is, seek to be regulated according to its own nature, viz., under Him to whom it ought to be subject, and above those things to which it is to be preferred; under Him by whom it ought to be ruled, above those things which it ought to rule. For it does many things through vicious desire, as though in forgetfulness of itself. For it sees some things intrinsically excellent, in that more excellent nature which is God: and whereas it ought to remain steadfast that it may enjoy them, it is turned away from Him, by wishing to appropriate those things to itself, and not to be like to Him by His gift, but to be what He is by its own, and it begins to move and slip gradually down into less and less, which it thinks to be more and more." ("[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130105.htm On the Trinity]" (''De Trinitate''), 5:7; [[Corpus Christianorum|CCL]] 50, 320 [1–12])</ref>

Augustine wrote that Adam and Eve would not have fallen into pride and lack of wisdom if [[Satan]] had not sown into their senses "the root of evil" (''radix Mali'').<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Nisi radicem mali humanus tunc reciperet sensus'' ("Contra Julianum", I, 9.42; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 670)</ref> Their nature was wounded, according to Augustine, by [[concupiscence]] or [[libido]], which affected human intelligence and will, as well as affections and desires, including sexual desire.<ref group="lower-alpha">In one of Augustine's late works, ''[[Retractationes]]'', he made a significant remark indicating the way he understood the difference between spiritual, moral libido and the sexual desire: "Libido is not good and righteous use of the libido" ("libido non-est bonus et rectus usus libidinis"). See the whole passage: ''Dixi etiam quodam loco: «Quod enim est cibus ad salutem hominis, hoc est concubitus ad salutem generis, et utrumque non-est sine delectatione carnali, quae tamen modificata et temperantia refrenante in usum naturalem redacta, libido esse non-potest». Quod ideo dictum est, quoniam "libido non-est bonus et rectus usus libidinis". Sicut enim malum est male uti bonis, ita bonum bene uti malis. De qua re alias, maxime contra novos haereticos Pelagianos, diligentius disputavi''. Cf. ''De bono coniugali'', 16.18; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 40, 385; ''De nuptiis et concupiscentia'', II, 21.36; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 443; ''Contra Iulianum'', III, 7.16; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 710; ibid., V, 16.60; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 817. See also {{Cite book |author=Idem |title=Le mariage chrétien dans l'oeuvre de Saint Augustin. Une théologie baptismale de la vie conjugale |publisher=Études Augustiniennes |year=1983 |location=Paris |page=97}}</ref> In terms of [[metaphysics]], Augustine found concupiscence to be not a state of being but a bad quality, the privation of good or a wound.<ref>''Non substantialiter manere concupiscentiam, sicut corpus aliquod aut spiritum; sed esse affectionem quamdam malae qualitatis, sicut est languor''. (''De nuptiis et concupiscentia''), I, 25. 28; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 430; cf. ''Contra Julianum'', VI, 18.53; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 854; ibid. VI, 19.58; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 857; ibid., II, 10.33; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 697; ''Contra Secundinum Manichaeum'', 15; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 42, 590.</ref>

Augustine's understanding of the consequences of original sin and the necessity of redeeming grace was developed in the struggle against [[Pelagius]] and his [[Pelagianism|Pelagian]] disciples, [[Caelestius]] and [[Julian of Eclanum]],{{sfn|González|1987|p=}} who had been inspired by [[Rufinus of Syria]], a disciple of [[Theodore of Mopsuestia]].<ref>[[Marius Mercator]] ''Lib. subnot.in verb. Iul. Praef.'',2,3; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 48,111 /v.5–13/</ref>{{sfn|Bonner|1987|p=35}} They refused to agree original sin wounded human will and mind, insisting human nature was given the power to act, to speak, and to think when God created it. Human nature cannot lose its moral capacity for doing good, but a person is free to act or not act in a righteous way. Pelagius gave an example of eyes: they have capacity for seeing, but a person can make either good or bad use of it.{{sfn|Bonner|1986|pp=355–356}}<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''[http://www.augustinus.it/latino/grazia_cristo/grazia_cristo_1_libro.htm De gratia Christi et de peccato originali]'', I, 15.16; CSEL 42, 138 [v. 24–29]; Ibid., I,4.5; CSEL 42, 128 [v.15–23].</ref>

Pelagians insisted human affections and desires were not touched by the fall either. In the Pelagian view, immorality, e.g. [[fornication]], is exclusively a matter of will, i.e. a person does not use natural desires in a proper way. In opposition, Augustine pointed out the apparent disobedience of the flesh to the spirit, and explained it as one of the results of original sin, punishment of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Against Two Letters of the Pelagians'' 1.31–32</ref>

Augustine had served as a "Hearer" for the Manichaeans for about nine years,{{sfn|Brown|2000|p=35}} who taught that the original sin was [[carnal knowledge]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.religiousstudies.uncc.edu/jcreeves/manichaean_version_of_genesis_2-4.htm |title=The Manichaean Version of Genesis 2–4 |access-date=25 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029144459/http://www.religiousstudies.uncc.edu/jcreeves/manichaean_version_of_genesis_2-4.htm |archive-date=29 October 2005 }}. Translated from the Arabic text of Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist, as reproduced by G. Flügel in ''Mani: Seine Lehre und seine Schriften'' (Leipzig, 1862; reprinted, [[Osnabrück]]: Biblio Verlag, 1969) 58.11–61.13.</ref> But his struggle to understand the cause of evil in the world started before that, at the age of nineteen.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De libero arbitrio'' 1,9,1.</ref> By ''malum'' (evil) he understood most of all concupiscence, which he interpreted as a vice dominating people and causing in men and women moral disorder. Agostino Trapè insists Augustine's personal experience cannot be credited for his doctrine about concupiscence. He considers Augustine's marital experience to be quite normal, and even exemplary, aside from the absence of Christian wedding rites.{{sfn|Trapè|1987|pp=113–114}} As J. Brachtendorf showed, Augustine used Ciceronian [[Stoicism|Stoic]] concept of passions, to interpret [[Paul the Apostle|Paul's]] doctrine of universal sin and redemption.{{sfn|Brachtendorf|1997|p=307}}

[[File:Peter Paul Rubens - St Augustine.JPG|thumb|''St. Augustine'' by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]]]
The view that not only human [[soul]] but also senses were influenced by the fall of Adam and Eve was prevalent in Augustine's time among the [[Fathers of the Church]].{{sfn|Sfameni Gasparro|2001|pp=250–251}}{{sfn|Somers|1961|p=115}}<ref>Cf. [[John Chrysostom]], ''Περι παρθενίας'' (''De Sancta Virginitate''), XIV, 6; SCh 125, 142–145; [[Gregory of Nyssa]], ''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130105.htm On the Making of Man]'', 17; SCh 6, 164–165; and ''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2907.htm On Virginity]'', 12.2; SCh 119, 402 [17–20]. Cf. Augustine of Hippo, ''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1309.htm On the Good of Marriage]'', 2.2; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 40, 374.</ref> It is clear the reason for Augustine's distancing from the affairs of the flesh was different from that of [[Plotinus]], a [[Neoplatonist]]{{efn|Although Augustine praises him in the ''Confessions'', 8.2., it is widely acknowledged that Augustine's attitude towards that pagan philosophy was very much of a Christian apostle, as {{harvnb|Clarke|1958|p=151}} writes: ''Towards Neoplatonism there was throughout his life a decidedly ambivalent attitude; one must expect both agreement and sharp dissent, derivation but also repudiation. In the matter which concerns us here, the agreement with Neoplatonism (and with the Platonic tradition in general) centres on two related notions: immutability as the primary characteristic of divinity, and likeness to divinity as the primary vocation of the soul. The disagreement chiefly concerned, as we have said, two related and central Christian dogmas: the Incarnation of the Son of God and the resurrection of the flesh''. Cf. É. Schmitt's chapter 2: ''L'idéologie hellénique et la conception augustinienne de réalités charnelles'' in: {{Cite book |title= Le mariage chrétien dans l'oeuvre de Saint Augustin. Une théologie baptismale de la vie conjugale |author= Idem |year= 1983 |publisher= Études Augustiniennes| location=Paris |pages=108–123}} {{Cite book |title= The Young Augustine: The Growth of St. Augustine's Mind up to His Conversion |last=O'Meara |first=J.J. |year= 1954 |location=London |pages=143–151 and 195f}} {{Cite book |title= Le 'platonisme' des Pères |last= Madec |first=G. |page= 42}} in {{Cite book |title=Petites Études Augustiniennes |author= Idem |year= 1994|series=«Antiquité» 142| location=Paris |pages= 27–50|publisher= Collection d'Études Augustiniennes}} Thomas Aq. STh I q84 a5; Augustine of Hippo, ''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120108.htm City of God]'' (''De Civitate Dei''), VIII, 5; CCL 47, 221 [3–4].}} who taught that only through disdain for fleshly desire could one reach the ultimate state of mankind.{{sfn|Gerson|1999|p=203}} Augustine taught the redemption, i.e. transformation and purification, of the body in the resurrection.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''"Enarrations on the Psalms"'' (''Enarrationes in psalmos''), 143:6; [[Corpus Christianorum|CCL]] 40, 2077 [46] – 2078 [74]; ''On the Literal Meaning of Genesis'' (''De Genesi ad Litteram''), 9:6:11, trans. John Hammond Taylor SJ, vol. 2, pp. 76–77; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 34, 397.</ref>

Some authors perceive Augustine's doctrine as directed against [[human sexuality]] and attribute his insistence on continence and devotion to God as coming from his need to reject his own highly sensual nature as described in the ''Confessions''.{{Efn|"It is, of course, always easier to oppose and denounce than to understand."{{sfn|Bonner|1986|p=312}}}} Augustine taught that human sexuality has been wounded, together with the whole of human nature, and requires [[Redemption (theology)|redemption]] of Christ. That healing is a process realized in conjugal acts. The virtue of continence is achieved thanks to the grace of the sacrament of Christian marriage, which becomes therefore a ''remedium concupiscentiae'' – remedy of concupiscence.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''De continentia'', 12.27; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 40, 368; Ibid., 13.28; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 40, 369; ''Contra Julianum'', III, 15.29, <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 717; Ibid., III, 21.42, <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 724.</ref>{{sfn|Burke|2006|pp= 481–536}} The redemption of human sexuality will be, however, fully accomplished only in the resurrection of the body.<ref>''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1501.htm Merits and Remission of Sin, and Infant Baptism]'' (''De peccatorum meritis et remissione et de baptismo parvulorum''), I, 6.6; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 44, 112–113; cf. ''On the Literal Meaning of Genesis'' (''De Genesi ad litteram'') 9:6:11, trans. John Hammond Taylor SJ, vol. 2, pp. 76–77; <abbr title="Patrologia Latina">PL</abbr> 34, 397.</ref>

Augustine also taught that the sin of Adam is inherited by all human beings. Already in his pre-Pelagian writings, Augustine taught that Original Sin is transmitted to his descendants by concupiscence,<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Imperfectum Opus contra Iulianum'', II, 218</ref> which he regarded as the passion of both soul and body,{{efn|In 393 or 394 he commented: ''Moreover, if unbelief is fornication, and [[idolatry]] unbelief, and [[covetousness]] idolatry, it is not to be doubted that covetousness also is fornication. Who, then, in that case can rightly separate any unlawful lust whatever from the category of fornication, if covetousness is fornication? And from this we perceive, that because of unlawful lusts, not only those of which one is guilty in acts of uncleanness with another's husband or wife, but any unlawful lusts whatever, which cause the soul to make a bad use of the body to wander from the law of God, and to be ruinously and basely corrupted, a man may, without crime, put away his wife, and a wife her husband, because the Lord makes the cause of fornication an exception; which fornication, in accordance with the above considerations, we are compelled to understand as being general and universal.'' ("[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/16011.htm On the Sermon on the Mount]", ''De sermone Domini in monte'', 1:16:46; [[Corpus Christianorum|CCL]] 35, 52).}} making humanity a ''massa damnata'' (mass of perdition, condemned crowd) and much enfeebling, though not destroying, the freedom of the will.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|pp=1200–1204}} Although earlier Christian authors taught the elements of physical death, moral weakness, and a sin propensity within original sin, Augustine was the first to add the concept of inherited guilt (''reatus'') from Adam whereby an infant was eternally damned at birth.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|pp=93, 127, 140, 146, 231–233, 279–280}}

Although Augustine's anti-Pelagian defence of original sin was confirmed at numerous councils, i.e. [[Council of Carthage (418)|Carthage (418)]], [[First Council of Ephesus|Ephesus]] (431), [[Council of Orange (529)|Orange]] (529), [[Council of Trent|Trent]] (1546) and by popes, i.e. [[Pope Innocent I]] (401–417) and [[Pope Zosimus]] (417–418), his inherited guilt eternally damning infants was omitted by these councils and popes.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|pp=221, 231, 267, 296}} [[Anselm of Canterbury]] established in his ''[[Cur Deus Homo]]'' the definition that was followed by the great 13th-century Schoolmen, namely that Original Sin is the "privation of the righteousness which every man ought to possess," thus separating it from ''concupiscence,'' with which some of Augustine's disciples had identified it,{{sfn|Bonner|1986|p=371}}{{sfn|Southern|1953|pp=234–237}} as later did Luther and Calvin.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|pp=1200–1204}} In 1567, [[Pope Pius V]] condemned the identification of Original Sin with concupiscence.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|pp=1200–1204}}

==== Predestination ====
{{Main|Augustinian soteriology}}Augustine taught that God orders all things while preserving human freedom.{{sfn|Levering|2011|p=44}} Prior to 396, he believed [[predestination]] was based on God's foreknowledge of whether individuals would believe in Christ, that God's grace was "a reward for human assent".{{sfn|Levering|2011|pp=48–49}} Later, in response to [[Pelagius]], Augustine said that the sin of [[pride]] consists in assuming "we are the ones who choose God or that God chooses us (in his foreknowledge) because of something worthy in us", and argued that God's grace causes the individual act of faith.{{sfn|Levering|2011|pp=47–48}}

Scholars are divided over whether Augustine's teaching implies [[double predestination]], or the belief God chooses some people for damnation as well as some for salvation. Catholic scholars tend to deny he held such a view while some Protestants and secular scholars have held that Augustine did believe in double predestination.{{sfn|James|1998|p=102}} About 412, Augustine became the first Christian to understand predestination as a divine unilateral pre-determination of individuals' eternal destinies independently of human choice, although his prior Manichaean sect did teach this concept.{{sfn|Widengren|1977|pp=63–65, 90}}{{sfn|Stroumsa|1992|pp=344–345}}{{sfn|Wilson|2018|pp=286–293}}{{sfn|van Oort|2010|p=520}} Some Protestant theologians, such as [[Justo L. González]]{{sfn|González|1987|p=44}} and [[Bengt Hägglund]],{{sfn|Hägglund|2007|pp=139–140}} interpret Augustine's teaching that grace is [[irresistible grace|irresistible]], results in conversion, and leads to [[perseverance of the saints|perseverance]].

In ''On Rebuke and Grace'' (''De correptione et gratia''), Augustine wrote: "And what is written, that He wills all men to be saved, while yet all men are not saved, may be understood in many ways, some of which I have mentioned in other writings of mine; but here I will say one thing: He wills all men to be saved, is so said that all the predestinated may be understood by it, because every kind of men is among them."<ref name="St. Augustine of Hippo" />

Speaking of the twins Jacob and Esau, Augustine wrote in his book ''On the Gift of Perseverance'', "[I]t ought to be a most certain fact that the former is of the predestinated, the latter is not."<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''On the Gift of Perseverance'', Chapter 21</ref>

==== Sacramental theology ====
[[File:Vittore carpaccio, visione di sant'agostino 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''[[St. Augustine in His Study (Carpaccio)|St. Augustine in His Study]]'' by [[Vittore Carpaccio]], 1502]]

Also in reaction to the Donatists, Augustine developed a distinction between the "regularity" and "validity" of the [[sacrament]]s. Regular sacraments are performed by clergy of the Catholic Church, while sacraments performed by schismatics are considered irregular. Nevertheless, the validity of the sacraments does not depend upon the holiness of the priests who perform them (''[[ex opere operato]]''); therefore, irregular sacraments are still accepted as valid provided they are done in the name of Christ and in the manner prescribed by the Church. On this point, Augustine departs from the earlier teaching of [[Cyprian]], who taught that converts from schismatic movements must be re-baptised.{{sfn|González|1987|p=}} Augustine taught that sacraments administered outside the Catholic Church, though true sacraments, avail nothing. However, he also stated that baptism, while it does not confer any grace when done outside the Church, does confer grace as soon as one is received into the Catholic Church.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Augustine of Hippo|title=St. Augustine's Writings Against The Manichaeans And Against The Donatists|edition=eBook |year= 2012|publisher=Jazzybee Verlag|isbn=978-3-8496-2109-4}}</ref>

Augustine believed that in a [[real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]], saying that Christ's statement, "This is my body" referred to the bread he carried in his hands,<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Explanations of the Psalms'' 33:1:10 [405]</ref><ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Sermons'' 227 [411]</ref> and that Christians must have faith the bread and wine are in fact the body and blood of Christ, despite what they see with their eyes.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Sermons'' 272</ref> For instance, he stated that "He [Jesus] walked here in the same flesh, and gave us the same flesh to be eaten unto salvation. But no one eats that flesh unless first he adores it; and thus it is discovered how such a footstool of the Lord's feet is adored; and not only do we not sin by adoring, we do sin by not adoring."{{sfn|Jurgens|1970|p=20|loc = §&nbsp;1479a}}

Presbyterian professor and author John Riggs argued that Augustine held that Christ is really present in the elements of the Eucharist, but not in a bodily manner, because his body remains in [[Heaven in Christianity|Heaven]].{{sfn|Riggs|2015|p=15}}

Augustine, in his work ''On Christian Doctrine'', referred to the Eucharist as a "figure" and a "sign".<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''On Christian Doctrine'', Book II, Chapter 3; Book III, Chapter 9; Book III, Chapter 16</ref>{{sfn|Ambrose|1919|p=35}}

Against the [[Pelagians]], Augustine strongly stressed the importance of [[infant baptism]]. About the question whether baptism is an absolute necessity for salvation, however, Augustine appears to have refined his beliefs during his lifetime, causing some confusion among later theologians about his position. He said in one of his sermons that only the baptized are saved.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''A Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed'', Paragraph 16</ref> This belief was shared by many early Christians. However, a passage from his ''City of God'', concerning the [[Apocalypse]], may indicate Augustine did believe in an exception for children born to Christian parents.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''City of God'', Book 20, Chapter 8</ref>

=== Philosophy ===
[[File:Nuremberg chronicles - Augustine (CXXXVIr).jpg|thumb|Saint Augustine in the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' ]]

==== Astrology ====
Augustine's contemporaries often believed [[astrology]] to be an exact and genuine science. Its practitioners were regarded as true men of learning and called ''mathematici''. Astrology played a prominent part in Manichaean doctrine, and Augustine himself was attracted by their books in his youth, being particularly fascinated by those who claimed to foretell the future. Later, as a bishop, he warned that one should avoid astrologers who combine science and [[horoscope]]s. (Augustine's term "mathematici", meaning "astrologers", is sometimes mistranslated as "mathematicians".) According to Augustine, they were not genuine students of [[Hipparchus]] or [[Eratosthenes]] but "common swindlers".{{sfn|Van Der Meer|1961|p=60}}{{sfn|Bonner|1986|p=63}}{{sfn|Testard|1958|pp=100–106}}<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'' 5,7,12; 7,6</ref>

==== Epistemology ====
[[Epistemology|Epistemological]] concerns shaped Augustine's intellectual development. His early dialogues ''Contra academicos'' (386) and ''De Magistro'' (389), both written shortly after his conversion to Christianity, reflect his engagement with sceptical arguments and show the development of his doctrine of [[divine illumination]]. The doctrine of illumination claims God plays an active and regular part in human perception and understanding by illuminating the mind so human beings can recognize intelligible realities God presents (as opposed to God designing the human mind to be reliable consistently, as in, for example, Descartes's idea of clear and distinct perceptions). According to Augustine, illumination is obtainable to all rational minds and is different from other forms of [[sense perception]]. It is meant to be an explanation of the conditions required for the mind to have a connection with intelligible entities.<ref name=encyclopedia>{{Cite encyclopedia| last=Mendelson| first=Michael| title=Saint Augustine| url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/augustine/| encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy| access-date=21 December 2012| date=24 March 2000}}</ref>

Augustine also posed the [[problem of other minds]] throughout different works, most famously perhaps in ''[[On the Trinity]]'' (VIII.6.9), and developed what has come to be a standard solution: the argument from analogy to other minds.{{sfn|Matthews|1992|p=}} In contrast to Plato and other earlier philosophers, Augustine recognized the centrality of [[Philosophical problems of testimony|testimony]] to human knowledge and argued that what others tell us can provide knowledge even if we do not have independent reasons to believe their testimonial reports.{{sfn|King|Ballantyne|2009|p=195}}

==== Just war ====
{{See also|Just war theory}}
Augustine asserted Christians should be [[pacifists]] as a personal, philosophical stance.<ref>[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/septemberweb-only/9-17-55.0.html "A Time For War?"] ''Christianity Today'' (9 January 2001). Retrieved on 28 April 2013.</ref> However, peacefulness in the face of a grave wrong that could only be stopped by violence would be a sin. Defence of one's self or others could be a necessity, especially when authorized by a legitimate authority. While not breaking down the conditions necessary for war to be just, Augustine coined the phrase in his work ''The City of God''.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120728203512/http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/augustineofhippo.html Augustine of Hippo]. Crusades-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved on 28 April 2013.</ref> In essence, the pursuit of peace must include the option of fighting for its long-term preservation.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120728203512/http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/augustineofhippo.html St. Augustine of Hippo], Crusades-Encyclopedia</ref> Such a war could not be pre-emptive, but defensive, to restore peace.<ref>[http://www.jknirp.com/mattox.htm "Saint Augustine and the Theory of Just War"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103033459/http://www.jknirp.com/mattox.htm |date=3 November 2013 }}. Jknirp.com (23 January 2007). Retrieved on 28 April 2013.</ref> [[Thomas Aquinas]], centuries later, used the authority of Augustine's arguments in an attempt to define the conditions under which a war could be just.<ref>[http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0029.html "The Just War"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423100800/https://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0029.html |date=23 April 2021 }}. Catholiceducation.org. Retrieved on 28 April 2013.</ref>{{sfn|Gonzalez|2010|p=}}

==== Free will ====
Included in Augustine's earlier [[theodicy]] is the claim God created humans and angels as rational beings possessing [[free will]]. Free will was not intended for sin, meaning it is not equally predisposed to both good and evil. A will defiled by sin is not considered as "free" as it once was because it is bound by material things, which could be lost or be difficult to part with, resulting in unhappiness. Sin impairs free will, while grace restores it. Only a will that was once free can be subjected to sin's corruption.{{sfn|Meister|Copan|2013|p=}} After 412, Augustine changed his theology, teaching that humanity had no free will to believe in Christ but only a free will to sin: "I in fact strove on behalf of the free choice of the human 'will,' but God's grace conquered" (''Retract''. 2.1).{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=285 }}

The early Christians opposed the deterministic views (e.g., fate) of Stoics, Gnostics, and Manichaeans prevalent in the first four centuries.{{sfn|McIntire|2005|pp=3206–3209}} Christians championed the concept of a relational God who interacts with humans rather than a Stoic or Gnostic God who unilaterally foreordained every event (yet Stoics still claimed to teach free will).{{sfn|Dihle|1982|p=152}} [[Patristics]] scholar Ken Wilson argues that every early Christian author with extant writings who wrote on the topic prior to Augustine of Hippo (412) advanced human free choice rather than a deterministic God.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|pp=93–94, 273–274}} According to Wilson, Augustine taught traditional free choice until 412, when he reverted to his earlier Manichaean and Stoic deterministic training when battling the Pelagians.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|pp=281–294}} Only a few Christians accepted Augustine's view of free will until the Protestant Reformation when both Luther and Calvin embraced Augustine's deterministic teachings wholeheartedly.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Luther |translator1-last=Krodel |translator1-first=Gottfried |editor1-last=Lehman |editor1-first=Helmut |title=Luther's Works |volume=48 |date=1963 |publisher=Fortress Press |page=24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Calvin |first1=John |translator1-last=Cole |translator1-first=Henry |title=Calvin's Calvinism |article=A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God |date=1927 |publisher=Sovereign Grace Union |location=London |page=38}}</ref>

The [[Catholic Church]] considers Augustine's teaching to be consistent with free will. He often said that anyone can be saved if they wish.{{sfn|Portalié|1907b}} While God knows who will and will not be saved, with no possibility for the latter to be saved in their lives, this knowledge represents God's perfect knowledge of how humans will freely choose their destinies.{{sfn|Portalié|1907b}}

=== Sociology, morals and ethics ===
==== Natural law ====
{{Integralism}}
Augustine was among the earliest to examine the legitimacy of the laws of man, and attempt to define the boundaries of what laws and rights occur naturally, instead of being arbitrarily imposed by mortals. All who have wisdom and conscience, he concludes, are able to use reason to recognize the ''lex naturalis'', [[natural law]]. Mortal law should not attempt to force people to do what is right or avoid what is wrong, but simply to remain just. Therefore "[[an unjust law is no law at all]]". People are not obligated to obey laws that are unjust, those that their conscience and reason tell them violate natural law and [[natural rights|rights]].<ref>{{Cite web| url = https://lawexplores.com/the-philosophy-of-law-in-the-writings-of-augustine/#Fn23| title = Augustine on Law and Order – Lawexplores.com}}</ref>

==== Slavery ====
Augustine led many clergy under his authority at Hippo to free their slaves as a "pious and holy" act.<ref>Augustine, "Of the Work of Monks", n. 25, in Philip Schaff, ed., ''A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church'', volume 3, p. 516. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956.</ref> He boldly wrote a letter urging the emperor to set up a new law against slave traders and was very much concerned about the sale of children. Christian emperors of his time for 25 years had permitted the sale of children, not because they approved of the practice, but as a way of preventing [[infanticide]] when parents were unable to care for a child. Augustine noted that the tenant farmers in particular were driven to hire out or to sell their children as a means of survival.<ref>''The Saints'', Pauline Books & Media, Daughters of St. Paul, Editions du Signe (1998), p. 72</ref>

In his book, ''The City of God'', he presents the development of slavery as a product of sin and as contrary to God's divine plan. He wrote that God "did not intend that this rational creature, who was made in his image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation – not man over man, but man over the beasts". Thus he wrote that righteous men in primitive times were made shepherds of cattle, not kings over men. "The condition of slavery is the result of sin", he declared.<ref>Augustine, ''The City of God'', Ch. 15, p. 411, Vol. II, ''Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers'', Eerdman's, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Reprinted 1986</ref> In ''The City of God'', Augustine wrote he felt the existence of slavery was a punishment for the existence of sin, even if an individual enslaved person committed no sin meriting punishment. He wrote: "Slavery is, however, penal, and is appointed by that law which enjoins the preservation of the natural order and forbids its disturbance."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120119.htm|title=Church Fathers: City of God, Book XIX (St. Augustine)|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=31 July 2018}}</ref> Augustine believed slavery did more harm to the slave owner than the enslaved person himself: "the lowly position does as much good to the servant as the proud position does harm to the master."<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|url=https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/300|last=Oort|first=Johannes Van|date=5 October 2009|title=Augustine, His Sermons, and Their Significance|journal=HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies|volume=65|pages=1–10}}</ref> Augustine proposes as a solution to sin a type of cognitive reimagining of one's situation, where slaves "may themselves make their slavery in some sort free, by serving not in crafty fear, but in faithful love," until the end of the world eradicated slavery for good: "until all unrighteousness pass away, and all principality and every human power be brought to nothing, and God be all in all."<ref name=":0" />

==== Jews ====
Against certain Christian movements, some of which rejected the use of [[Hebrew Scripture]], Augustine countered that God had chosen the [[Jews]] as a special people,{{sfn|MacCulloch|2010|p=8}} and he considered the scattering of Jewish people by the Roman Empire to be a fulfilment of prophecy.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''City of God'', book 18, chapter 46.</ref> He rejected homicidal attitudes, quoting part of the same prophecy, namely "Slay them not, lest they should at last forget Thy law" (Psalm 59:11). Augustine, who believed Jewish people would be converted to Christianity at "the end of time", argued God had allowed them to survive their dispersion as a warning to Christians; as such, he argued, they should be permitted to dwell in Christian lands.{{sfn|Edwards|1999|pp=33–35}}<ref>Richard S. Levy ed. ''Antisemitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution'' (2 vol ABC-CLIO, 2005) vol 1 pp 43–45.</ref><ref>. Paula Fredricksen, ''Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism'' (Yale UP, 2010).</ref>

The sentiment sometimes attributed to Augustine that Christians should let the Jews "survive but not thrive" (it is repeated by the author [[James Carroll (author)|James Carroll]] in his book ''Constantine's Sword'', for example){{sfn|Carroll|2002|p=219}} is apocryphal and is not found in any of his writings.{{sfn|Van Biema|2008}}

==== Sexuality and the sexes ====
For Augustine, the evil of sexual immorality was not in the sexual act itself, but in the emotions that typically accompany it. In ''On Christian Doctrine'' Augustine contrasts love, which is enjoyment on account of God, and lust, which is not on account of God.<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''On Christian Doctrine'', 3.37</ref> Augustine claims that, following the Fall, sexual lust (''concupiscentia'') has become necessary for copulation (as required to stimulate male erection), sexual lust is an evil result of the Fall, and therefore, evil must inevitably accompany sexual intercourse (''On marriage and concupiscence'' [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_V/On_Marriage_and_Concupiscence/Book_I/Chapter_19 1.19]<ref>[https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_Nuptiis_et_Concupiscentia_ad_Valerium Latin text]: "Carnis autem concupiscentia non est nuptiis imputanda, sed toleranda. Non enim est ex naturali connubio veniens bonum, sed ex antiquo peccato accidens malum." (Carnal concupiscence, however, must not be ascribed to marriage: it is only to be tolerated in marriage. It is not a good which comes out of the essence of marriage, but an evil which is the accident of original sin.)</ref>). Therefore, following the Fall, even marital sex carried out merely to procreate inevitably perpetuates evil (''On marriage and concupiscence'' 1.27; ''A Treatise against Two Letters of the Pelagians'' 2.27). For Augustine, proper love exercises a denial of selfish pleasure and the subjugation of corporeal desire to God. The only way to avoid evil caused by sexual intercourse is to take the "better" way (''Confessions'' 8.2) and abstain from marriage (''On marriage and concupiscence'' 1.31). Sex within marriage is not, however, for Augustine a sin, although necessarily produces the evil of sexual lust. Based on the same logic, Augustine also declared the pious virgins raped during the sack of Rome to be innocent because they did not intend to sin nor enjoy the act.{{sfn|Russell|1945|p=356}}<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''City of God'', Book I, Ch. 16, 18.</ref>

Before the Fall, Augustine believed sex was a passionless affair, "just like many a laborious work accomplished by the compliant operation of our other limbs, without any lascivious heat",<ref>''On marriage and concupiscence'' [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_V/On_Marriage_and_Concupiscence/Book_II/Chapter_26 2.26], [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0354-0430,_Augustinus,_De_Nuptiis_Et_Concupiscentia,_MLT.pdf Latin text]: "Sine qua libidine poterat opus fieri conjugum in generatione filiorum, sicut multa opera fiunt obedientia caeterorum sine illo ardore membrorum, quae voluptatis nutu moventur, non aestu libidinis concitantur."</ref> that the seed "might be sown without any shameful lust, the genital members simply obeying the inclination of the will".<ref>''On marriage and concupiscence'' [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_V/On_Marriage_and_Concupiscence/Book_II/Chapter_29 2.29], [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0354-0430,_Augustinus,_De_Nuptiis_Et_Concupiscentia,_MLT.pdf Latin text]: "sereretur sine ulla pudenda libidine, ad voluntatis nutum membris obsequentibus genitalibus"; cf. ''City of God'' 14.23</ref> After the Fall, by contrast, the penis cannot be controlled by mere will, subject instead to both unwanted impotence and involuntary erections: "Sometimes the urge arises unwanted; sometimes, on the other hand, it forsakes the eager lover, and desire grows cold in the body while burning in the mind... It arouses the mind, but it does not follow through what it has begun and arouse the body also" (''City of God'' 14.16).

Augustine censured those who try to prevent the creation of offspring when engaging in sexual relations, saying that though they may be nominally married they are not really, but are using that designation as a cloak for turpitude. When they allow their unwanted children to die of exposure, they unmask their sin. Sometimes they use drugs to produce sterility, or other means to try to destroy the fetus before they are born. Their marriage is not wedlock but debauchery.<ref>''On marriage and concupiscence'' [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_V/On_Marriage_and_Concupiscence/Book_I/Chapter_17 1.17], [https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_Nuptiis_et_Concupiscentia_ad_Valerium Latin text]: "Aliquando eo usque pervenit haec libidinosa crudelitas vel libido crudelis, ut etiam sterilitatis venena procuret et si nihil valuerit, conceptos fetus aliquo modo intra viscera exstinguat ac fundat, volendo suam prolem prius interire quam vivere, aut si in utero iam vivebat, occidi ante quam nasci. Prorsus si ambo tales sunt, coniuges non sunt; et si ab initio tales fuerunt, non sibi per connubium, sed per stuprum potius convenerunt."</ref>

Augustine believed Adam and Eve had both already chosen in their hearts to disobey God's command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge before Eve took the fruit, ate it, and gave it to Adam.<ref name="ReferenceC">Augustine of Hippo, ''City of God'', 14.13</ref>{{sfn|Clark|1996|p=}} Accordingly, Augustine did not believe Adam was any less guilty of sin.<ref name="ReferenceC" />{{sfn|Clark|1986|pp=139–162}} Augustine praises women and their role in society and in the Church. In his ''Tractates on the Gospel of John'', Augustine, commenting on the [[Samaritan]] woman from John 4:1–42, uses the woman as a figure of the Church in agreement with the New Testament teaching that the Church is the bride of Christ.<ref>{{bibleverse|John|4:1–42}}</ref> "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."<ref>{{bibleverse|Eph|5:25}}</ref>

Augustine believed that "woman has been made for man" and that "in sex she is physically subject to him in the same way as our natural impulses need to be subjected to the reasoning power of the mind, in order that the actions to which they lead may be inspired by the principles of good conduct".<ref>{{cite book |last1=May Schott |first1=Robin |title=Discovering Feminist Philosophy Knowledge, Ethics, Politics |date=2003 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=32}}</ref> Women were created as a "helper" to men for Augustine.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deborah F. |first1=Sawyer |title=Women and Religion in the First Christian Centuries |date=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=152}}</ref>

==== Pedagogy ====
[[File:Sandro Botticelli - St Augustin dans son cabinet de travail.jpg|thumb|''[[Saint Augustine in His Cell (Botticelli)|Saint Augustine in His Study]]'' by [[Sandro Botticelli]], 1494, [[Uffizi Gallery]]]]
Augustine is considered an influential figure in the history of education. A work early in Augustine's writings is ''De Magistro'' (On the Teacher), which contains insights into education. His ideas changed as he found better directions or better ways of expressing his ideas. In the last years of his life, Augustine wrote his ''Retractationes'' (''Retractations''), reviewing his writings and improving specific texts. Henry Chadwick believes an accurate translation of "retractationes" may be "reconsiderations". Reconsiderations can be seen as an overarching theme of the way Augustine learned. Augustine's understanding of the search for understanding, meaning, and truth as a restless journey leaves room for doubt, development, and change.{{sfn|McCloskey|2008|pp=}}

Augustine was a strong advocate of [[critical thinking]] skills. Because written works were limited during this time, spoken communication of knowledge was very important. His emphasis on the importance of community as a means of learning distinguishes his pedagogy from some others. Augustine believed dialectic is the best means for learning and that this method should serve as a model for learning encounters between teachers and students. Augustine's dialogue writings model the need for lively interactive dialogue among learners.{{sfn|McCloskey|2008|pp=}}
He recommended adapting educational practices to fit the students' educational backgrounds:
* the student who has been well-educated by knowledgeable teachers;
* the student who has had no education; and
* the student who has had a poor education, but believes himself to be well-educated.

If a student has been well educated in a wide variety of subjects, the teacher must be careful not to repeat what they have already learned, but to challenge the student with material they do not yet know thoroughly. With the student who has had no education, the teacher must be patient, willing to repeat things until the student understands, and sympathetic. Perhaps the most difficult student, however, is the one with an inferior education who believes he understands something when he does not. Augustine stressed the importance of showing this type of student the difference between "having words and having understanding"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guthrie |first=James W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oNobAAAAIAAJ&q=Encyclopedia+of+Education:+AACSB-Commerce |title=Encyclopedia of Education: AACSB-Commerce |date=2003 |publisher=Macmillan Reference  |isbn=978-0-02-865594-9 |pages=160 |language=en}}</ref> and of helping the student to remain humble with his acquisition of knowledge.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Under the influence of [[Bede]], [[Alcuin]], and [[Rabanus Maurus]], ''De catechizandis rudibus'' came to exercise an important role in the education of clergy at the monastic schools, especially from the eighth century onwards.{{sfn|Howie|1969|pp=150–153}}

Augustine believed students should be given an opportunity to apply learned theories to practical experience. Yet another of Augustine's major contributions to education is his study on the styles of teaching. He claimed there are two basic styles a teacher uses when speaking to the students. The ''mixed style'' includes complex and sometimes showy language to help students see the beautiful artistry of the subject they are studying. The ''grand style'' is not quite as elegant as the mixed style, but is exciting and heartfelt, with the purpose of igniting the same passion in the students' hearts. Augustine balanced his teaching philosophy with the traditional [[Bible]]-based practice of strict discipline.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Augustine knew [[Latin]] and [[Ancient Greek]]. He had a long correspondence with St Jerome regarding the textual differences existing between the [[Hebrew Bible]] and the Greek [[Septuagint]], concluding that the original Greek manuscripts were closely similar to the other Hebrew ones, and also that even the differences in the two original versions of the Holy Scripture could enlight its spiritual meaning to have been unitarily inspired by God.<ref>{{Cite journal |first1=Edmon L. |last1=Gallagher |author-link1=Edmon L. Gallagher|title=Augustine on the Hebrew Bible |journal=[[The Journal of Theological Studies]] |volume= 67 |issue=1 |date=1 April 2016 |pages=97–114 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/jts/flv160}}</ref>

==== Coercion ====
Augustine of Hippo had to deal with issues of violence and coercion throughout his entire career due largely to the Donatist-Catholic conflict. He is one of the very few authors in Antiquity who ever truly theoretically examined the ideas of religious freedom and coercion.<ref name="Brown1964" />{{rp|107}} Augustine handled the infliction of punishment and the exercise of power over law-breakers by analyzing these issues in ways similar to modern debates on penal reform.{{sfn|Brown|1964|p=115}}

His teaching on coercion has "embarrassed his modern defenders and vexed his modern detractors,"<ref name="Markus">R. A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St.Augustine (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 149–153</ref>{{rp|116}} because it is seen as making him appear "to generations of religious liberals as ''le prince et patriarche de persecuteurs.''"<ref name="Brown1964" />{{rp|107}} Yet Brown asserts that, at the same time, Augustine becomes "an eloquent advocate of the ideal of corrective punishment" and reformation of the wrongdoer.{{sfn|Brown|1964|p=116}} Russell says Augustine's theory of coercion "was not crafted from dogma, but in response to a unique historical situation" and is, therefore, context-dependent, while others see it as inconsistent with his other teachings.<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|125}}

===== The context =====
During the [[Diocletianic persecution|Great Persecution]], "When Roman soldiers came calling, some of the [Catholic] officials handed over the sacred books, vessels, and other church goods rather than risk legal penalties" over a few objects.<ref name="Tilley1996">{{Cite book |last1=Tilley |first1=Maureen A. |title=Donatist Martyr Stories The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa |date=1996 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-0-85323-931-4}}</ref>{{rp|ix}} Maureen Tilley says this was a problem by 305, that became a schism by 311, because many of the North African Christians had a long established tradition of a "physicalist approach to religion."<ref name="Tilley1996" />{{rp|xv}} The sacred scriptures were not simply books to them, but were the Word of God in physical form, therefore they saw handing over the Bible, and handing over a person to be martyred, as "two sides of the same coin."<ref name="Tilley1996" />{{rp|ix}} Those who cooperated with the authorities became known as ''traditores.'' The term originally meant ''one who hands over a physical object'', but it came to mean "traitor".<ref name="Tilley1996" />{{rp|ix}}

According to Tilley, after the persecution ended, those who had apostatized wanted to return to their positions in the church.<ref name="Tilley1996" />{{rp|xiv}} The North African Christians, (the rigorists who became known as Donatists), refused to accept them.<ref name="Tilley1996" />{{rp|ix, x}} Catholics were more tolerant and wanted to wipe the slate clean.<ref name="Cameron1993">{{Cite book |last1=Cameron |first1=Alan |title=The Later Roman Empire, 284–430 |date=1993 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-51194-1 |edition=illustrated}}</ref>{{rp|xiv, 69}} For the next 75 years, both parties existed, often directly alongside each other, with a double line of bishops for the same cities.<ref name="Tilley1996" />{{rp|xv}} Competition for the loyalty of the people included multiple new churches and violence.{{efn|French archaeology has shown the north African landscape of this time period became "covered with a white robe of churches" with Catholics and Donatists building multiple churches with granaries to feed the poor as they competed for the loyalty of the people.<ref name="Brown1964">{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first= P.|year=1964|title=St. Augustine's Attitude to Religious Coercion|journal=Journal of Roman Studies|volume= 54|issue=1–2| pages=107–116|doi=10.2307/298656|jstor= 298656|s2cid= 162757247}}</ref>}}{{rp|334}} No one is exactly sure when the [[Circumcellions]] and the Donatists allied, but for decades, they fomented protests and street violence, accosted travellers and attacked random Catholics without warning, often doing serious and unprovoked bodily harm such as beating people with clubs, cutting off their hands and feet, and gouging out eyes.<ref name="Frend1">{{Cite book|last=Frend|first=W. H. C.|title=The Donatist Church|date=2020|publisher=Wipf and Stock|isbn=978-1-5326-9755-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QNbaDwAAQBAJ}}</ref>{{rp|172, 173, 222, 242, 254}}

Augustine became [[coadjutor Bishop]] of Hippo in 395, and since he believed that conversion must be voluntary, his appeals to the Donatists were verbal. For several years, he used popular propaganda, debate, personal appeal, General Councils, appeals to the emperor and political pressure to bring the Donatists back into union with the Catholics, but all attempts failed.<ref name="Frend1" />{{rp|242, 254}} The harsh realities Augustine faced can be found in his Letter 28 written to bishop Novatus around 416. Donatists had attacked, cut out the tongue and cut off the hands of a Bishop Rogatus who had recently converted to Catholicism. An unnamed count of Africa had sent his agent with Rogatus, and he too had been attacked; the count was "inclined to pursue the matter."<ref name="Markus" />{{rp|120}} Russell says Augustine demonstrates a "hands-on" involvement with the details of his bishopric, but at one point in the letter, he confesses he does not know what to do. "All the issues that plague him are there: stubborn Donatists, Circumcellion violence, the vacillating role of secular officials, the imperative to persuade, and his own trepidations."<ref name="Markus" />{{rp|120, 121}} The empire responded to the civil unrest with the law and its enforcement, and thereafter, Augustine changed his mind about using verbal arguments alone. Instead, he came to support the state's use of coercion.<ref name="Brown1964" />{{rp|107–116}} Augustine did not believe the empire's enforcement would "make the Donatists more virtuous" but he did believe it would make them "less vicious."<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|128}}

===== The theology =====
The primary 'proof-text' of what Augustine thought concerning coercion is from Letter 93, written in 408, as a reply to bishop Vincentius, of Cartenna (Mauretania, North Africa). This letter shows that both practical and biblical reasons led Augustine to defend the legitimacy of coercion. He confesses that he changed his mind because of "the ineffectiveness of dialogue and the proven efficacy of laws."<ref name="Marcos">Marcos, Mar. "The Debate on Religious Coercion in Ancient Christianity." Chaos e Kosmos 14 (2013): 1–16.</ref>{{rp|3}} He had been worried about false conversions if force was used, but "now," he says, "it seems imperial persecution is working." Many Donatists had converted.<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|116}} "Fear had made them reflect, and made them docile."<ref name="Marcos" />{{rp|3}} Augustine continued to assert that coercion could not directly convert someone, but concluded it could make a person ready to be reasoned with.<ref name="Park">{{Cite journal |last=Park |first=Jae-Eun|title=Lacking love or conveying love?: The fundamental roots of the Donatists and Augustine's nuanced treatment of them|journal=The Reformed Theological Review |volume=72 |issue=2|date=August 2013 |pages=103–121 |url=https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=646939318099580;res=IELHSS |access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref>{{rp|103–121}}

According to Mar Marcos, Augustine made use of several biblical examples to legitimize coercion, but the primary analogy in Letter 93 and in Letter 185, is the parable of the Great Feast in Luke 14.15–24 and its statement ''compel them to come in.''<ref name="Marcos" />{{rp|1}} Russell says, Augustine uses the Latin term ''cogo'', instead of the ''compello'' of the Vulgate, since to Augustine, ''cogo'' meant to "gather together" or "collect" and was not simply "compel by physical force."<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|121}}

In 1970, Robert Markus<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Liebeschuetz |first1=Wolf |title=Robert Markus: Medieval historian noted for his writings on the early Church |date=25 February 2011 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/robert-markus-medieval-historian-noted-for-his-writings-on-the-early-church-2224995.html |publisher=Independent}}</ref> argued that, for Augustine, a degree of external pressure being brought for the purpose of reform was compatible with the exercise of free will.<ref name="Markus" /> Russell asserts that ''Confessions 13'' is crucial to understanding Augustine's thought on coercion; using Peter Brown's explanation of Augustine's view of salvation, he explains that Augustine's past, his own sufferings and "conversion through God's pressures," along with his biblical hermeneutics, is what led him to see the value in suffering for discerning truth.<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|116–117}} According to Russell, Augustine saw coercion as one among many conversion strategies for forming "a pathway to the inner person."<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|119}}

In Augustine's view, there is such a thing as just and unjust persecution. Augustine explains that when the purpose of persecution is to lovingly correct and instruct, then it becomes discipline and is just.<ref name="Marcos" />{{rp|2}} He said the church would discipline its people out of a loving desire to heal them, and that, "once compelled to come in, heretics would gradually give their voluntary assent to the truth of Christian orthodoxy."<ref name="Russell2">{{Cite book |last1=Russell |first1=Frederick H. |title=The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R.A. Markus. |date=1999 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=0-472-10997-9 |chapter=Persuading the Donatists: Augustine's Coercion by Words}}</ref>{{rp|115}} Frederick H. Russell<ref name="Russell">{{Cite web |title=Frederick Russell |url=https://sasn.rutgers.edu/academics-admissions/academic-departments/federated-department-history/faculty-emeriti/frederick-russell |website=School of Arts & Sciences-Newark Faculty Emeriti |publisher=Rutgers University Newark |quote=Ph.D., Johns Hopkins}}</ref> describes this as "a pastoral strategy in which the church did the persecuting with the dutiful assistance of Roman authorities,"<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|115}} adding that it is "a precariously balanced blend of external discipline and inward nurturance."<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|125}}

Augustine placed limits on the use of coercion, recommending fines, imprisonment, banishment, and moderate floggings, preferring beatings with rods which was a common practice in the ecclesial courts.<ref name="Hughes">{{Cite book |editor1-last=Hughes |editor1-first=Kevin L. |editor2-last=Paffenroth |editor2-first=Kim |title=Augustine and Liberal Education |date=2008 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-2383-6}}</ref>{{rp|164}} He opposed severity, maiming, and the execution of heretics.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Toleration, History of |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church|year=1912 |publisher=University of Michigan |editor-last=Herbermann|editor-first=Charles George|pages=761–772 [768]}}</ref> While these limits were mostly ignored by Roman authorities, Michael Lamb says that in doing this, "Augustine appropriates republican principles from his Roman predecessors..." and maintains his commitment to liberty, legitimate authority, and the rule of law as a constraint on arbitrary power. He continues to advocate holding authority accountable to prevent domination but affirms the state's right to act.<ref>Lamb, Michael. "Augustine and Republican Liberty: Contextualizing Coercion." Augustinian Studies (2017).</ref>

[[Herbert A. Deane]],<ref>{{Cite news |title=Herbert L. Deane, 69, Ex-Columbia Official |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/16/obituaries/herbert-l-deane-69-ex-columbia-official.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=16 February 1991 |access-date=26 August 2020 |quote=professor emeritus of political philosophy and a former vice provost at Columbia University}}</ref> on the other hand, says there is a fundamental inconsistency between Augustine's political thought and "his final position of approval of the use of political and legal weapons to punish religious dissidence" and others have seconded this view.{{efn|See: C. Kirwan, ''Augustine'' (London, 1989), pp. 209–218; and J. M. Rist. ''Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized'' (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 239–245.|<ref>H. A. Deane, ''The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine'' (New York, 1963), pp. 216–219.</ref>}} Brown asserts that Augustine's thinking on coercion is more of an attitude than a doctrine since it is "not in a state of rest," but is instead marked by "a painful and protracted attempt to embrace and resolve tensions."<ref name="Brown1964" />{{rp|107}}

According to Russell, it is possible to see how Augustine himself had evolved from his earlier ''Confessions'' to this teaching on coercion and the latter's strong patriarchal nature: "Intellectually, the burden has shifted imperceptibly from discovering the truth to disseminating the truth."<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|129}} The bishops had become the church's elite with their own rationale for acting as "stewards of the truth." Russell points out that Augustine's views are limited to time and place and his own community, but later, others took what he said and applied it outside those parameters in ways Augustine never imagined or intended.<ref name="Russell2" />{{rp|129}}

== Works ==
{{Main|Augustine of Hippo bibliography}}
[[File:Antonio Rodríguez - Saint Augustine - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Saint Augustine'' painting by Antonio Rodríguez]]
Augustine was one of the most prolific Latin authors in terms of surviving works, and the list of his works consists of more than one hundred separate titles.{{sfn|Wright|Sinclair|1931|pp=56–}} They include [[apologetics|apologetic]] works against the heresies of the [[Arianism|Arians]], [[Donatists]], [[Manichaeans]] and [[Pelagians]]; texts on Christian [[doctrine]], notably {{Lang|la|[[De Doctrina Christiana]]}} (''On Christian Doctrine''); [[exegesis|exegetical]] works such as commentaries on [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], the [[Psalms]] and [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul's]] [[Letter to the Romans]]; many [[sermon]]s and [[Letter (message)|letters]]; and the ''Retractationes'', a review of his earlier works which he wrote near the end of his life.

Apart from those, Augustine is probably best known for his ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'', which is a personal account of his earlier life, and for ''De civitate Dei'' (''[[The City of God]]'', consisting of 22 books), which he wrote to restore the confidence of his fellow Christians, which was badly shaken by the [[Sack of Rome (410)|sack of Rome]] by the [[Visigoths]] in 410. His ''[[On the Trinity]]'', in which he developed what has become known as the 'psychological analogy' of the [[Trinity]], is also considered to be among his masterpieces, and arguably of more [[doctrinal]] importance than the ''Confessions'' or the ''City of God''.{{sfn|Hill|1961|pp=540–548}} He also wrote ''On Free Choice of the Will'' (''[[De libero arbitrio (Augustine)|De libero arbitrio]]''), addressing why God gives humans free will that can be used for evil.

== Legacy ==
[[File:Vergós Group - Saint Augustine Disputing with the Heretics - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Saint Augustine Disputing with the Heretics'' painting by Vergós Group]]

In both his philosophical and theological reasoning, Augustine was greatly influenced by [[Stoicism]], [[Platonism]] and [[Neoplatonism]], particularly by the work of [[Plotinus]], author of the ''[[Enneads]]'', probably through the mediation of [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] and [[Gaius Marius Victorinus|Victorinus]] (as [[Pierre Hadot]] has argued). Some Neoplatonic concepts are still visible in Augustine's early writings.{{sfn|Russell|1945|p=|loc=Book II, Chapter IV}} His early and influential writing on the [[Will (philosophy)|human will]], a central topic in [[ethics]], would become a focus for later philosophers such as [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]. He was also influenced by the works of [[Virgil]] (known for his teaching on language), and [[Cicero]] (known for his teaching on argument).<ref name=encyclopedia /> Augustine, along with [[Ambrose]], [[Jerome]] and pope [[Gregory the Great]], is considered one of the four Great Latin [[Church Fathers]].<ref>{{cite book|author=William Dool Killen |title=The Old Catholic: Or the History, Doctrine, Worship, and Polity of the Christians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bQuV3kJWKAsC&dq=four+great+fathers++Augustine++Jerome++Gregory&pg=PA90|year=1871|publisher=T T Clark Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-85323-479-1|page=90}}</ref>

=== In philosophy ===
[[Philosopher]] [[Bertrand Russell]] was impressed by Augustine's meditation on the nature of time in the ''Confessions'', comparing it favourably to [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s version of the view that time is subjective.{{sfn|Russell|1945|pp=352–353}} Catholic theologians generally subscribe to Augustine's belief that God exists [[eternity|outside of time]] in the "eternal present"; that time only exists within the created universe because only in space is time discernible through motion and change. His meditations on the nature of time are closely linked to his consideration of the human ability of [[memory]]. [[Frances Yates]] in her 1966 study ''[[The Art of Memory]]'' argues that a brief passage of the ''Confessions'', 10.8.12, in which Augustine writes of walking up a flight of stairs and entering the vast fields of memory<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.stoa.org/hippo/text10.html#TB10C8S12| title = Confessiones Liber X: commentary on 10.8.12| access-date = 6 November 2004| archive-date = 20 October 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141020081133/http://www.stoa.org/hippo/text10.html#TB10C8S12| url-status = dead}} ''(in Latin)''</ref> clearly indicates that the ancient Romans were aware of how to use explicit spatial and architectural metaphors as a [[mnemonic]] technique for organizing large amounts of information.

Augustine's philosophical method, especially demonstrated in his ''Confessions'', had a continuing influence on Continental philosophy throughout the 20th century. His descriptive approach to intentionality, memory, and language as these phenomena are experienced within consciousness and time anticipated and inspired the insights of modern [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] and [[hermeneutics]].{{sfn|De Paulo|2006|p=}} [[Edmund Husserl]] writes: "The analysis of time-consciousness is an age-old crux of descriptive psychology and theory of knowledge. The first thinker to be deeply sensitive to the immense difficulties to be found here was Augustine, who laboured almost to despair over this problem."{{sfn|Husserl|2019|p=21}}

[[Martin Heidegger]] refers to Augustine's descriptive philosophy at several junctures in his influential work ''[[Being and Time]]''.{{efn|For example, [[Martin Heidegger]]'s articulations of how "[[Being-in-the-world]]" is described through thinking about ''seeing'': "The remarkable priority of 'seeing' was noticed particularly by Augustine, in connection with his Interpretation of ''concupiscentia''." Heidegger then quotes the ''Confessions'': "Seeing belongs properly to the eyes. But we even use this word 'seeing' for the other senses when we devote them to cognizing... We not only say, 'See how that shines', ... 'but we even say, 'See how that sounds'". ''Being and Time'', Trs. Macquarrie & Robinson. New York: Harpers, 1964, p. 171.}} [[Hannah Arendt]] began her philosophical writing with a dissertation on Augustine's concept of love, ''Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin'' (1929): "The young Arendt attempted to show that the philosophical basis for ''vita socialis'' in Augustine can be understood as residing in neighbourly love, grounded in his understanding of the common origin of humanity."{{sfn|Chiba|1995|p=507}}

Jean Bethke Elshtain in ''Augustine and the Limits of Politics'' tried to associate Augustine with Arendt in their concept of evil: "Augustine did not see evil as glamorously demonic but rather as absence of good, something which paradoxically is really nothing. Arendt ... envisioned even the extreme evil which produced [[the Holocaust]] as merely banal [in ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'']."{{sfn|Tinder|1997|pp=432–433}} Augustine's philosophical legacy continues to influence contemporary critical theory through the contributions and inheritors of these 20th-century figures. Seen from a historical perspective, there are three main perspectives on the political thought of Augustine: first, political Augustinianism; second, Augustinian [[political theology]]; and third, Augustinian political theory.{{sfn|Woo|2015|pp=421–441}}

=== In theology ===
{{Scholastic Philosophy}}
The historian [[Diarmaid MacCulloch]] has written: "Augustine's impact on Western Christian thought can hardly be overstated; only his beloved example, [[Paul the Apostle|Paul of Tarsus]], has been more influential, and Westerners have generally seen Paul through Augustine's eyes."{{sfn|MacCulloch|2010|p=319}}

[[Thomas Aquinas]] was influenced heavily by Augustine. On the topic of original sin, Aquinas proposed a more optimistic view of man than that of Augustine in that his conception leaves to the reason, will, and passions of fallen man their natural powers even after the Fall, without "supernatural gifts".{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=1203}} While in his pre-Pelagian writings Augustine taught that Adam's guilt as transmitted to his descendants much enfeebles, though does not destroy, the freedom of their will, Protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin affirmed that Original Sin completely destroyed liberty (see [[total depravity]]).{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|pp=1200–1204}}

According to [[Leo Ruickbie]], Augustine's arguments against [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]], differentiating it from a miracle, were crucial in the early Church's fight against [[paganism]] and became a central thesis in the later denunciation of witches and [[witchcraft]]. According to Professor Deepak Lal, Augustine's vision of the heavenly city has influenced the secular projects and traditions of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], [[Marxism]], [[Freudianism]] and eco-fundamentalism.{{sfn|Lal|2002}} Post-Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt rely heavily on Augustine's thoughts, particularly ''The City of God'', in their book of political philosophy ''Empire''.

Augustine has influenced many modern-day theologians and authors such as [[John Piper (theologian)|John Piper]]. [[Hannah Arendt]], an influential 20th-century political theorist, wrote her doctoral dissertation in philosophy on Augustine, and continued to rely on his thought throughout her career. [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] extensively quotes Augustine in ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'' for his approach to language, both admiringly, and as a sparring partner to develop his own ideas, including an extensive opening passage from the ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} Contemporary linguists have argued that Augustine has significantly influenced the thought of [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], who did not 'invent' the modern discipline of [[semiotics]], but rather built upon [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] and Neoplatonic knowledge from the Middle Ages, via an Augustinian connection: "as for the constitution of Saussurian semiotic theory, the importance of the Augustinian thought contribution (correlated to the Stoic one) has also been recognized. Saussure did not do anything but reform an ancient theory in Europe, according to the modern conceptual exigencies."{{sfn|Munteanu|1996|p=65}}

[[Pope Francis]] suggests that Augustine's reflections on the relationship between the "[[beloved disciple]]" and Jesus ([[John 13#Verse 23|John 13:23]]: "reclining next to him") contributed to the development of devotion to the [[Sacred Heart]] in the following centuries.<ref>Pope Francis, [https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.pdf Dilexit nos], paragraph 87, published on 24 October 2024, accessed on 23 January 2025</ref> In his autobiographical book ''Milestones'', [[Pope Benedict XVI]] notes that Augustine was one of the deepest influences in his thought.{{page needed|date=January 2025}}

=== Oratorio, music ===
[[Marc-Antoine Charpentier]], Motet "''Pour St Augustin mourant"'', H.419, for 2 voices and continuo (1687), and "''Pour St Augustin"'', H.307, for 2 voices and continuo (1670s).
[[File:Jaume Huguet - Consecration of Saint Augustine - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Consecration of Saint Augustine]]'' by [[Jaume Huguet]]]]
Much of Augustine's conversion is dramatized in the oratorio ''La conversione di Sant'Agostino'' (1750) composed by [[Johann Adolph Hasse]]. The libretto for this oratorio, written by [[Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria]], draws upon the influence of [[Pietro Metastasio|Metastasio]] (the finished libretto having been edited by him) and is based on an earlier five-act play ''Idea perfectae conversionis dive Augustinus'' written by the Jesuit priest [[Franz Neumayr]].{{sfn|Smither|1977|pp=97–98}} In the libretto Augustine's mother Monica is presented as a prominent character that is worried that Augustine might not convert to Christianity. As Dr. Andrea Palent<ref>{{Cite AV media notes |title=La conversione Di Sant' Agostino |last=Hasse |first=Johann Adolf |publisher=Capriccio Digital |year=1993 <!-- |title=Marcus Creed's recording of La conversion di Sant' Agostino with the RIAS Kammerchor; 10 389/90.--> |page=13}}</ref> says: {{Blockquote|text=Maria Antonia Walpurgis revised the five-part Jesuit drama into a two-part oratorio liberty in which she limits the subject to the conversion of Augustine and his submission to the will of God. To this was added the figure of the mother, Monica, so as to let the transformation appear by experience rather than the dramatic artifice of deus ex machina.|sign=|source=}} Throughout the oratorio Augustine shows his willingness to turn to God, but the burden of the act of conversion weighs heavily on him. This is displayed by Hasse through extended recitative passages.

=== In popular art ===

In his poem "Confessional", [[Frank Bidart]] compares the relationship between Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica, to the relationship between the poem's speaker and his mother.<ref name="Bidart1983">{{Cite magazine|last=Bidart|first= Frank |date=1983|magazine= [[The Paris Review]]|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/3046/confessional-frank-bidart|author-link=Frank Bidart|access-date=19 July 2020|title=Confessional}}</ref>

In the 2010 TV miniseries ''[[Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine]]'', Augustine is played by [[Matteo Urzia]] (aged 15), [[Alessandro Preziosi]] (aged 25) and [[Franco Nero]] (aged 76).<ref name="Dipollina">{{Cite news |last1=Dipollina |first1=Antonio |title=Sant'Agostino (2009) |url=https://www.mymovies.it/film/2009/santagostino/rassegnastampa/514822/ |access-date=5 March 2021 |work=La Repubblica |publisher=MYmovies |date=28 January 2010 |language=it |quote=Quello giovanissimo è interpretato da Matteo Urzia – bellissimo, già una stellina del panorama nazionale – l' Agostino maturo è il divo-in-fiction Alessandro Preziosi. Quello anziano, ma attivissimo sotto l' assedio dei Vandali, è addirittura un Franco Nero smagliante.}}</ref>

In 1967, American singer-songwriter [[Bob Dylan]] released a song entitled "[[I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine]]" as part of his album ''[[John Wesley Harding]]''. The song has been covered by several artists including [[Joan Baez]], [[Vic Chesnutt]], [[Eric Clapton]], [[John Doe (musician)|John Doe]], [[Thea Gilmore]], [[Adam Selzer]] and [[Dirty Projectors]].<ref>{{cite web |title=I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine – Bob Dylan |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/i-dreamed-i-saw-st-augustine-mt0002990220 |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=17 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220801054737/https://www.allmusic.com/song/i-dreamed-i-saw-st-augustine-mt0002990220 |archive-date=1 August 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2016, the band The Chairman Dances released "Augustine", a [[Answer song|response song]] to [[Bob Dylan]]'s "[[I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine]]". In it, Augustine says he's not sure why Dylan dreams about him.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Snyder |first1=Chad |title=The Chairman Dances ponders its influence's influences on "Augustine" |url=https://xpn.org/2016/09/25/the-chairman-dances/ |website=WXPN |access-date=14 February 2025}}</ref>

English pop/rock musician, singer and songwriter [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] wrote a song related to Saint Augustine entitled "Saint Augustine in Hell" which was part of his fourth solo studio album ''[[Ten Summoner's Tales]]'' released in March 1993.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/10455/|title=Sting – Saint Augustine In Hell Lyrics|website=SongMeanings|date=21 March 2006 }}</ref>

== See also ==
* ''[[Cogito, ergo sum]]''
* [[Rule of Saint Augustine]]
* ''[[Augustinus-Lexikon]]''

{{Clear}}

== Notes and references ==
=== Notes ===
{{Notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Cited sources ===
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite CE1913| last=A'Becket| first=John| wstitle=Adeodatus| volume=1}}
* {{Cite book|author=Ambrose|author-link=Ambrose|editor=James Herbert Strawley|title=St. Ambrose. on the Mysteries and the Treatise, on the Sacraments, by an Unknown Author – Scholar's Choice Edition|url=https://archive.org/details/StAmbroseOnTheMysteries/page/n39/mode/2up|year=1919|publisher=[[Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge]]|translator=Tom Thompson}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/divine-c/#H2 | title=Divine Command Theory | encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=2006 | access-date=15 August 2012 | last=Austin | first=Michael W. }}
* {{Cite encyclopedia | publisher = Wm B Eerdmans | isbn = 978-0-8028-3843-8 | editor-first = Allan D | editor-last = Fitzgerald | last = Bauerschmidt | first = John C | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GcVhAGpvTQ0C&pg=PA1 | title = Abortion | encyclopedia = Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia | year = 1999 }}
* {{Cite book|last=BeDuhn|first=Jason|series=Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mEmZaq1Gg3wC&pg=PA163|title=Conversion and Apostasy, 373–388 C.E.|year=2010|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-4210-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Blomberg|first=Craig L.|title=From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts Through Revelation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwGyU5DSwxYC|year=2006|publisher=B&H|isbn=978-0-8054-3248-0}}
* {{Cite book |title=St. Augustine of Hippo. Life and Controversies |last=Bonner |first=G | publisher = The Canterbury Press | location=Norwich |year=1986 | isbn = 978-0-86078-203-2}}
* {{Cite book |last= Bonner |first= Gerald |chapter= Rufinus of Syria and African Pelagianism |title= God's Decree and Man's Destiny |location= London |year= 1987 |pages= 31–47 |isbn= 978-0-86078-203-2 |publisher= Variorum Reprints}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Brachtendorf |first=J. |year=1997 |title=Cicero and Augustine on the Passions |journal=REAug |number=2 |hdl=2042/23075 |url=http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/23075 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223054618/http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/23075 |archive-date=23 February 2012 }}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Burke|first1=Cormac|title=A Postscript to the "Remedium Concupiscentiae"|journal=The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review|volume=70|issue=4|year=2006|pages=481–536|issn=2473-3725|doi=10.1353/tho.2006.0000|s2cid=171345213}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Brett|first1=Michael|last2=Fentress|first2=Elizabeth W.B.|title=The Berbers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=exgzxgEACAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=978-0-631-16852-2}}
* {{Cite book| last=Brown| first=Peter| title=Augustine of Hippo: A Biography| url=https://archive.org/details/augustineofhippo00brow_0| url-access=registration| year=2000| publisher=University of California Press| location=Berkeley| isbn=978-0-520-22757-6}}
* {{Cite journal| last = Burrus| first=Virginia| year=2011| title='Fleeing the Uxorious Kingdom': Augustine's Queer Theology of Marriage | journal =Journal of Early Christian Studies|volume=19| issue=1| pages = 1–20| doi=10.1353/earl.2011.0002| s2cid=144407492}}
* {{Cite book|last=Carroll|first=James|author-link=James Carroll (author)|title=Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FewzTELynqUC|year=2002|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=0-618-21908-0}}
* {{Cite book|last=Chadwick|first=Henry|title=Augustine: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HuxXNesm9dYC&pg=PT26|year=2001|publisher=University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-160663-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Chadwick|first=Henry|title=Augustine of Hippo: A Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grTukN3p7bYC|year=2010|publisher=University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-161533-7}}
* {{Cite journal| last=Chiba|first= Shin| title= Hannah Arendt on Love and the Political: Love, Friendship, and Citizenship| journal=The Review of Politics| volume= 57| issue= 3 | year=1995| pages= 505–535 | jstor=1408599| doi=10.1017/S0034670500019720|s2cid= 146790136}}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Clark|first1=Elizabeth A.|title='Adam's Only Companion': Augustine and the Early Christian Debate on Marriage|journal=Recherches Augustiniennes et Patristiques|volume=21|year=1986|pages=139–162|issn=0484-0887|doi=10.1484/J.RA.5.102318|doi-access=free}}
* {{Cite book|editor-first=Elizabeth|editor-last=Clark|title=St. Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FttsYc-EaPYC|year=1996|publisher=CUA Press|isbn=978-0-8132-0867-1}}
* {{Cite journal |last= Clarke|first= T.E. |title=St. Augustine and Cosmic Redemption |journal= Theological Studies |volume=19 |year= 1958 |issue= 2 |page= 151|doi= 10.1177/004056395801900201 |s2cid= 170987704 }}
* {{Cite book|last1=Cross|first1=Frank Leslie|last2=Livingstone|first2=Elizabeth A.|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ|year=2005|publisher=University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-280290-3}}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Dale|first1=Sharon|title=A house divided: San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia and the politics of Pope John XXII|journal=Journal of Medieval History|volume=27|issue=1|year=2001|pages=55–77|issn=0304-4181|doi=10.1016/S0304-4181(00)00016-6|s2cid=153446043}}
* {{Cite book|last=De Paulo|first=Craig J. N.|title=The Influence of Augustine on Heidegger: The Emergence of an Augustinian Phenomenology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bg1-AAAAMAAJ|year=2006|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]]|isbn=978-0-7734-5689-1}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last1=Demacopoulos|editor-first1=George E.|editor-last2=Papanikolaou|editor-first2=Aristotle|title=Orthodox Readings of Augustine|year=2008|location=Crestwood, NY|publisher=St. Vladimirs Seminary Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGxG8wTFymEC|isbn=978-0-88141-327-4}}
* {{Cite book|last=Dihle|first=Albrecht|title=The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OoFVMjknjcC|year=1982|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04059-5}}
* {{Cite book|editor-first=Wendy|editor-last=Doniger|title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZP_f9icf2roC|year=1999|publisher=Merriam-Webster|isbn=978-0-87779-044-0|chapter=Manichaeanism}}
* {{Cite book|last=Durant|first=Will|title=Caesar and Christ: A History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from Their Beginnings to A.D. 325|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boYHAAAACAAJ|year=1992|publisher=MJF Books|isbn=978-1-56731-014-6|author-link=Will Durant}}
* {{Cite book|last=Edwards|first=John|title=The Spanish Inquisition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNdAAQAAIAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Tempus|isbn=978-0-7524-1770-7}}
* {{Cite web |title=Augustinian Values |first=Alberto |last=Esmeralda |url=http://www.merrimack.edu/uploads/Dean_of_the_College/files/esmeralda.pdf |access-date=23 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901144844/http://www.merrimack.edu/uploads/Dean_of_the_College/files/esmeralda.pdf |archive-date=1 September 2006 |date=n.d. }}
* {{Cite book|last=Ferguson|first=Everett|title=Christianity in Relation to Jews, Greeks, and Romans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gB7NgObOBE0C|year=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8153-3069-1}}
* {{Cite book|last=Flinn|first=Frank K.|title=Encyclopedia of Catholicism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxEONS0FFlsC&pg=PA4|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-7565-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Franklin-Brown|first=Mary|title=Reading the World: Encyclopedic Writing in the Scholastic Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oG8ttUuJrgUC|year=2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-26070-9}}
* {{Cite book|last=Gerson|first=Lloyd P.|title=Plotinus : Arguments of the philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=359nRoAU4iEC|year=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-20352-4}}
* {{Cite book|last=González|first=Justo L.|series=A History of Christian Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VMeQcNyDjYC|title=From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|year=1987|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-0-687-17183-5}}
* {{Cite book|last=Gonzalez|first=Justo L.|series=The Story of Christianity|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofchristian01gonz|title=Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation|year=2010|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-185588-7}}
* {{Cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/how-st-augustine-invented-sex |title=How St. Augustine Invented Sex |first=Stephen |last=Greenblatt |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=19 June 2017 }}
* {{Cite book| last=Hägglund| first=Bengt| title=Teologins historia| language=de|trans-title=History of Theology| translator= Gene J. Lund| edition= 4th revised| year=2007| publisher=Concordia Publishing House| location=St. Louis, Missouri| orig-year=1968| author-link=Bengt Hägglund| isbn=978-0-7586-1348-6}}
* {{Cite journal |jstor = 43705747|title = St Augustine on the Trinity – I|journal = Life of the Spirit |volume = 15|issue = 180|pages = 540–548|last1 = Hill|first1 = Edmund|year = 1961| doi=10.1017/S0269359300011873 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Hollingworth|first=Miles|title=Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0q3W7jYz7ZsC&pg=PA51|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-986159-0}}
* {{Cite book|last=Howie|first=George|title=Educational theory and practice in St. Augustine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yo8AAAAIAAJ|year=1969|publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul|location=London}}
* {{Cite web |title=Solution to many a problem: Take a walk |last=Huffington |first=Arianna |work=baltimoresun.com |date=3 September 2013 |access-date=11 March 2020 |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/bs-xpm-2013-09-03-bal-solution-to-many-a-problem-take-a-walk-20130830-story.html }}
* {{Cite book|last=Husserl|first=Edmund|title=The Phenomenology of Internal Time-Consciousness|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PLKYDwAAQBAJ|year=2019|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-04199-9}}
* {{Cite book|last=James|first=Frank A.|title=Peter Martyr Vermigli and Predestination: The Augustinian Inheritance of an Italian Reformer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsXM9vKcSg0C&pg=PR12|year=1998|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-826969-4}}
* {{Cite book|last=Jayapalan|first=N.|title=Comprehensive History of Political Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n77z4tabLXcC&pg=PA51|year=2001|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0073-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Jenson|first=Matt|title=The Gravity of Sin: Augustine, Luther and Barth on 'homo Incurvatus in Se'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uwsRAQAAIAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-0-567-03137-2}}
* {{Cite book|first=Barry|last=Jones|title=Dictionary of World Biography|edition=4th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIopDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|date=2017|publisher=ANU Press|isbn=978-1-76046-126-3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Jurgens|first=William|title=The Faith of the Early Fathers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkvLsueY_DwC&pg=PA20|volume=3|year=1970|publisher=Liturgical Press|location=Collegeville, MN|isbn=978-0-8146-1021-3}}
* {{Cite journal| last1=King| first1=Peter| first2=Nathan| last2=Ballantyne| title=Augustine on Testimony| journal=[[Canadian Journal of Philosophy]]| year=2009| volume=39| issue=2| doi=10.1353/cjp.0.0045| url=http://www.canadianjournalofphilosophy.com/PDFs/cjp39-2--195-214--Ballantyne-King.pdf| page=195| s2cid=660491| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911164130/http://www.canadianjournalofphilosophy.com/PDFs/cjp39-2--195-214--Ballantyne-King.pdf| archive-date=11 September 2011}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Kishlansky|first1=Mark A.|last2=Geary|first2=Patrick J.|last3=O'Brien|first3=Patricia|series=Civilization in the West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xKUDDmbp18C|title=To 1715|year=2005|publisher=Pearson Longman|isbn=978-0-321-23621-0|ol=27691066M}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Knowles|first1=Andrew|last2=Penkett|first2=Pachomios|title=Augustine and His World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzuZPwAACAAJ|year=2004|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-2356-7}}
* {{Cite web <!-- or other cite template --> |title=Morality and Capitalism: Learning from the Past |last=Lal |first=Deepak |work=No 812, UCLA Economics Working Papers from UCLA Department of Economics |date=1 March 2002 |access-date=21 March 2020 |url= https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:cla:uclawp:812 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Lancel|first=Serge|title=Saint Augustine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8gMywEACAAJ|year=2002|publisher=SCM Press|isbn=978-0-334-02866-6}}
* {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/fromgenerationto0000leit|url-access=registration|title=From Generation to Generation: The Renewal of the Church According to Its Own Theology and Practice|last=Leith|first=John H.|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-664-25122-2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Levering |first=Matthew |title=Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-960452-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLBS6Dl1OYgC }}
* {{Cite book|last=Luker|first=Kristin|title=Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SZnZTSQV9EC&pg=PA12|year=1985|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-90792-8}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Lysaught|first1=M. Therese|last2=Kotva|first2=Joseph|last3=Lammers|first3=Stephen E.|first4=Allen|last4=Verhey|title=On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives on Medical Ethics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4__yBKLGRngC|year=2012|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans|isbn=978-0-8028-6601-1}}
* {{Cite book|author-link=Diarmaid MacCulloch|first=Diarmaid M|last=MacCulloch|title=A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u1eTZKpJVS4C&pg=PT319|year=2010|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-102189-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Magill|first=Frank N.|title=The Ancient World: Dictionary of World Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7NVFUi7G6TEC&pg=PA172|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-45740-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Mann|first=WE|editor=Gareth B. Matthews|title=The Augustinian Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ouXatAEACAAJ|year=1999|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-20999-2|chapter=Inner-Life Ethics}}
* {{Cite book|last=Matthews|first=Gareth B.|title=Thought's Ego in Augustine and Descartes|url=https://archive.org/details/thoughtsegoinaug00matt|year=1992|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-2775-4}}
* {{Cite web|last=McCloskey|first=Gary N.|date=April 2008|url=http://www.merrimack.edu/academics/augustinian_pedagogy/documents/encountering_0408.pdf|title=Encounters of Learning: Saint Augustine on Education|publisher=Saint Augustine Institute for Learning and Teaching, [[Merrimack College]]|access-date=1 January 2013|archive-date=19 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119161450/https://www.merrimack.edu/academics/augustinian_pedagogy/documents/encountering_0408.pdf|url-status=dead}}
* {{Cite book |last=McIntire|first= C.T. |editor1-last=Jones |editor1-first=Lindsay |title=The Encyclopedia of Religion |volume=5 |date=2005 |publisher=Macmillan Reference |location=Farmington Hills, MI |edition=2nd |article=Free Will and Predestination: Christian Concepts}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Meister|first1=Chad V.|last2=Copan|first2=Paul|title=The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5KrAa6e_VN4C|edition=2nd|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-78294-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Munteanu |first=E. |date=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWtCAAAAQBAJ |chapter=On the Object-Language / Metalanguage Distinction in Saint Augustine's Works. De Dialectica and de Magistro |editor1-last=Cram |editor1-first=D. |editor2-last=Linn |editor2-first=A.R. |editor3-last=Nowak |editor3-first=E. |series=History of Linguistics |title=Volume 2: From Classical to Contemporary Linguistics |publisher=[[John Benjamins Publishing Company|John Benjamins]] |isbn=978-9027283818 }}
* {{Cite book| last1=Nguyen| first1=vanThanh| last2=Prior| first2=John M.| title=God's People on the Move: Biblical and Global Perspectives on Migration and Mission| date=2014| publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdF2BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA66| quote=Paul Orosius was a fifth century CE historian and theologian and a student of St. Augustine of Hippo| isbn=978-1-63087-751-4}}
* {{Cite book|last=O'Donnell|first=James Joseph|title=Augustine: A New Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQqB_hiupPgC|year=2005|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-053537-7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Oakes|first=Jonathan|title=Algeria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vyg7ViBs4JAC&pg=PA183|year=2008|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=978-1-84162-232-3}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Park |first=Jae-Eun |title=Lacking love or conveying love?: The fundamental roots of the Donatists and Augustine's nuanced treatment of them |journal=The Reformed Theological Review |volume=72 |issue=2 |date=August 2013 |pages=103–121 |url=https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=646939318099580;res=IELHSS |access-date=22 April 2020 }}
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle= Pope Boniface VIII| first=Thomas |last=Oestreich|volume=2}}
* {{Cite CE1913| last= Pope | first = Hugh | wstitle = St. Monica| volume=10}}
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Life of St. Augustine of Hippo|volume=2|last=Portalié|first=Eugène|year=1907a}}
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo|volume=2|last=Portalié|first=Eugène|year=1907b}}
* {{Cite book|author=Possidius|author-link=Possidius|title=The Life of Saint Augustine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFt_6GNlsjkC|year=2008|publisher=Arx|isbn=978-1-889758-90-9|translator=Herbert T. Weiskotten}}
* {{Cite book|last=Power|first=Kim|date=1999|chapter=Family, Relatives|title=Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia|editor=Allan D. Fitzgerald|location=Grand Rapids|publisher=[[Wm. B. Eerdmans]]|isbn=978-0-8028-3843-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcVhAGpvTQ0C}}
* {{Cite book|author=Quintilian|title=Institutio Oratoria|location=London|publisher=W. Heinemann|date=1939|url=https://archive.org/details/institutioorato01butlgoog/page/n84/mode/2up|translator=H.E. Butler}}
* {{Cite book|last=Ranke-Heinemann|first=Uta|title=Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven: women, sexuality and the Catholic Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svclAQAAIAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-26527-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Riggs |first=John |year=2015 |title=The Lord's Supper in the Reformed Tradition |location=Louisville, Kentucky |publisher=Westminster John Knox |isbn=978-0-664-26019-4 }}
* {{Cite book|author-link=Bertrand Russell|last=Russell|first= Bertrand|year=1945|title=A History of Western Philosophy|publisher = Simon & Schuster|title-link = A History of Western Philosophy}}
* {{Cite CE1913|last=Ryan|first= M.J|wstitle= Character (in Catholic Theology)|volume=3}}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Salway|first1=Benet|title=What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700|journal=Journal of Roman Studies|volume=84|year=1994|pages=124–145|issn=0075-4358|doi=10.2307/300873| jstor= 300873|s2cid=162435434 }}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Schaff |editor-first=Philip |date=1887 |series=A Select library of the Nicene and post-Nicene fathers of the Christian church |title=Volume II: St Augustine's ''City of God'' and ''Christian Doctrine'' |url=https://archive.org/details/selectlibraryofn02auguuoft/page/n7/mode/2up/search/concerning+plato |publisher=The Christian Literature Company |location=Buffalo }}
* {{Cite book |title=Enkrateia e Antropologia. Le motivazioni protologiche della continenza e della verginità nel christianesimo del primi secoli e nello gnosticismo |last=Sfameni Gasparro |first=G. |year=2001 |series= Studia Ephemeridis «Augustinianum» 20| location=Rome }}
* {{Cite book|last1=Schnaubelt|first1=Joseph C.|last2=Van Fleteren|first2=Frederick|title=Augustine in Iconography: History and Legend|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhTqAAAAMAAJ|year=1999|publisher=P. Lang|isbn=978-0-8204-2291-6}}
* {{Cite book|last=Siecienski|first=A. Edward|title=The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auT8VbgOe48C|date=2010|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-537204-5}}
* {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7vpR97_-VIC&pg=PA98|title=A History of the Oratorio|last=Smither|first=Howard E.|date=1977|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-0-8078-1274-7}}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Somers|first1=H.|title=S.J. : Image de Dieu. Les sources de l'exégèse augustinienne|journal=Revue d'Études Augustiniennes et Patristiques|volume=7|issue=2|year=1961|pages=105–125|issn=1768-9260|doi=10.1484/J.REA.5.104017}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Making of the Middle Ages |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddleag00sout |url-access=registration |last=Southern |first=R.W. |year=1953 |publisher=New Haven, Yale University Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-300-00967-5 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Stone|first=Harold Samuel|title=St. Augustine's Bones: A Microhistory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sr_YAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-387-2}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Stroumsa |first1=Gediliahu |chapter=Titus of Bostra and Alexander of Lycopolis: A Christian and a Platonic Refutation of Manichaean Dualism |date=1992 |editor1=Richard T. Wallis |editor2=Jay Bregman |title=Neoplatonism and Gnosticism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0gibdkdPp0IC |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2313-5 }}
* {{Cite book|last=TeSelle|first=Eugene|title=Augustine the Theologian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4sRKAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA343|year=2002|publisher=Wipf and Stock|isbn=978-1-57910-918-9}}
* {{Cite book | title= Saint Augustin et Cicéron, I. Cicéron dans la formation et l'oeuvre de saint Augustin | last = Testard| first= M |year= 1958| publisher= Études Augustiniennes | location= Paris | language = fr}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |publisher=Wm B Eerdmans |isbn=978-0-8028-3843-8 |editor-first=Allan D. |editor-last=Fitzgerald |last=Teske |first=Roland J. |title=Genesi ad litteram liber imperfectus, De |encyclopedia=Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia |year=1999}}
* {{Cite journal| last=Tinder|first= Glenn| journal=[[American Political Science Review]]| volume= 91| issue= 2| year=1997| title=Review of Augustine and the Limits of Politics, by Jean Bethke Elshtain| pages= 432–433| doi=10.2307/2952372|jstor=2952372|s2cid= 151790345}}
* {{Cite book|last=Trapè|first=Agostino|title=S. Agostino, introduzione alla dottrina della grazia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bqc2fEu2IxAC|volume=1|year=1987|publisher=Città Nuova|isbn=978-88-311-3402-6|trans-title=St. Augustine, introduction to the doctrine of grace|language=it}}
* {{Cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1864878,00.html|first=David|last=Van Biema|title=Paula Fredriksen Was Saint Augustine Good for the Jews?|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine]]|date=7 December 2008}}
* {{Cite book| title = Augustine the Bishop. The Life and Work of the Father of the Church| url = https://archive.org/details/augustinebishopl0000meer/page/60| url-access = registration| last = Van Der Meer| first = F| year = 1961| location = London & New York}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=van Oort |first1=Johannes |title=Manichaean Christians in Augustine's Life and Work |journal=History and Religious Culture |date=2010 |volume=90 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Wells |first=J. |author-link=John C. Wells |title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary |publisher=[[Longman]] |location=New York |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-582-36467-7 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/longmanpronuncia00jcwe/page/54/mode/2up/ }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Widengren |first1=Geo |title=Der Manichäismus |date=1977 |publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft |location=Darmstadt }}
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Heroic virtue|last=Wilhelm|first=Joseph|volume=7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wilken |first=Robert L. |title=The Spirit of Early Christian Thought |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-300-10598-8 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=Kenneth M.|title=Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxhdDwAAQBAJ|year=2018|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|location=Tübingen|isbn=978-3-16-155753-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=Ken|title=The Foundation of Augustinian-Calvinism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0VMyAEACAAJ|year=2019|publisher=Independently Published|isbn=978-1-08-280035-1}}
* {{Cite journal |last= Woo |first= B. Hoon |journal= Political Theology |volume= 16 |issue= 5 |year= 2015 |title= Pilgrim's Progress in Society{{snd}}Augustine's Political Thought in ''The City of God'' |pages= 421–441 |url= https://www.academia.edu/16870779 |doi= 10.1179/1462317X14Z.000000000113 |s2cid= 218691369 }}
* {{Cite book|last1=Wright|first1=Frederick Adam|last2=Sinclair|first2=Thomas Alan|title=A History of Later Latin Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmxUxwEACAAJ|year=1931|publisher=Routledge}}
{{refend}}

=== Further reading ===
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite book |title=Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation |year=1978 |publisher=Newman Press |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Augustine |first=Saint |title=The Essential Augustine |year=1974 |publisher=Hackett |location=Indianapolis |edition=2nd |editor=Vernon Joseph Bourke}}
* {{Cite book |title=Augustine and the Trinity |author-link=Lewis Ayres |author=Ayres, Lewis |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-83886-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Beierwaltes |first=Werner |author-link=Werner Beierwaltes|date=1980 |editor-last= |editor-first= |title=Regio Beatitudinis: Augustine's Concept of Happiness |publisher=[[Villanova University|Villanova University Institute for the Study of Augustine and Augustinian Tradition]]|url=https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/provost/institutes/augustinianinstitute/lectures/staugustine/_jcr_content/widgetiparsys/download_8/file.res/as_1980.pdf |orig-date=  |chapter=}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bourke |first=Vernon Joseph |title=Augustine's Quest of Wisdom |year=1945 |publisher=Bruce |location=Milwaukee}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bourke |first=Vernon Joseph |title=Wisdom From St. Augustine |year=1984 |publisher=Center for Thomistic Studies |location=Houston}}
* {{Cite journal |author=Brachtendorf J |issue=1997 |title=Cicero and Augustine on the Passions |journal=Revue des Études Augustiniennes |volume=43 |pages=289–308 |hdl=2042/23075 |doi=10.1484/J.REA.5.104767 |year=1997}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Burke |first=Cormac |author-link=Cormac Burke (priest) |title=St. Augustine and Conjugal Sexuality |journal=[[Communio]] |year=1990 |volume=IV |issue=17 |url=http://www.cormacburke.or.ke/node/355 |pages=545–565}}
* {{Cite book |last=Burnaby |first=John |title=Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine |year=1938 |publisher=The Canterbury Press Norwich |isbn=978-1-85311-022-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Conybeare |first=Catherine |author-link=Catherine Conybeare |title=The Irrational Augustine |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-926208-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Mary T. |author-link=Mary T. Clark |title=Augustine |year=1994 |publisher=Geoffrey Chapman |isbn=978-0-225-66681-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Deane |first=Herbert A. |title=The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine |year=1963 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |author-link=Herbert A. Deane}}
* {{Cite book |last=de Paulo |first=Craig J.N. |title=Augustinian Just War Theory and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: Confessions, Contentions and the Lust for Power |year=2011 |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |isbn=978-1-4331-1232-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dodaro |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Dodaro |title=Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine |year=2004 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/religion/theology/christ-and-just-society-thought-augustine   |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9780521069649}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Doull |first=James A. |author-link=James Doull |title=Augustinian Trinitarianism and Existential Theology |journal=[[Dionysius (journal)|Dionysius]] |year=1979 |volume=III |pages=111–159}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Doull |first=James A. |author-link=James Doull |title=What is Augustinian 'Sapientia' of? |journal=Dionysius |year=1988 |volume=XII |pages=61–67}}
* {{cite book |last=Fairweather |first=E.R. |author-link=E.R. Fairweather|date=1954 |editor-last= |editor-first= |title=Augustinus Magister: Congrès International Augustinien, 1954 |publisher=Études Augustiniennes |orig-date= |pages=897–903 |chapter=St. Augustine's Interpretation of Infant Baptism |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/augustinusmagist0002cong/page/n3/mode/2up |asin=B000R97CFU|name-list-style=amp}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fox |first=Robin Lane |author-link=Robin Lane Fox |title=Augustine: Conversions to Confessions |year=2015 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gilson |first=Etienne |author-link=Étienne Gilson |title=The Christian Philosophy of St. Augustine |url=https://archive.org/details/christianphiloso00gilsrich |url-access=registration |year=1960 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |others=L.E.M. Lynch, trans}}
* Green, Bradley G. [http://www.jamesclarke.co/product_info.php/products_id/1675?osCsid=1673ba77f80a4a6cf663eb311d2556b6 ''Colin Gunton and the Failure of Augustine: The Theology of Colin Gunton in the Light of Augustine''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518162919/https://www.jamesclarke.co/product_info.php/products_id/1675?osCsid=1673ba77f80a4a6cf663eb311d2556b6 |date=18 May 2019 }}, James Clarke and Co. (2012), {{ISBN|978-0227680056}}
* {{Cite book |title=Augustine and Tradition: Influences, Contexts, Legacy |year=2021 |publisher=Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids, MI |editor-last=Hunter |editor-first=David G. |editor2-last=Yates |editor2-first=Jonathan P. |isbn=978-0-8028-7699-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kolbet |first=Paul R. |title=Augustine and the Cure of Souls: Revising a Classical Ideal |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |location=Notre Dame, Indiana |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-268-03321-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lawless |first=George P. |title=Augustine of Hippo and His Monastic Rule |year=1987 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=LeMoine |editor1-first=Fannie |editor2-first=Christopher |editor2-last=Kleinhenz |series=Garland Medieval Casebooks |volume=9 |title=Saint Augustine the Bishop: A Book of Essays |location=New York |publisher=Garland |year=1994}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lubin |first=Augustino |title=Orbis Augustinianus sive conventuum ordinis eremitarum Sancti Augustini – chorographica et topographica descriptio |location=Paris |year=1659 |url=http://www.cassiciaco.it/ita/001ago/Agostiniani/lubin_conventi/lubin_600.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050321185503/http://www.cassiciaco.it/ita/001ago/Agostiniani/lubin_conventi/lubin_600.htm |archive-date=21 March 2005}}
* {{Cite book |last=Mackey |first=Louis |author-link=Louis H. Mackey |title=Faith Order Understanding: Natural Theology in the Augustinian Tradition |publisher=PIMS |location=Totonto |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-88844-421-9}}
* {{Cite book |title=Augustine: A Collection of Critical Essays |url=https://archive.org/details/augustinecollect00mark |url-access=registration |year=1972 |publisher=Anchor |location=Garden City, NY |editor=Markus, R.A.}}
* {{Cite book |title=Augustine |author=Matthews, Gareth B. |publisher=Blackwell |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-631-23348-0}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Mayer |editor1-first=Cornelius P. |title=Augustinus-Lexikon |title-link=Augustinus-Lexikon |publisher=Schwabe AG |location=[[Basel]]}}
* Miles, Margaret R. (2012). ''[http://www.lutterworth.com/product_info.php/products_id/1674?osCsid=1673ba77f80a4a6cf663eb311d2556b6 Augustine and the Fundamentalist's Daughter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190516211705/https://www.lutterworth.com/product_info.php/products_id/1674?osCsid=1673ba77f80a4a6cf663eb311d2556b6 |date=16 May 2019 }}'', [[Lutterworth Press]], {{ISBN|978-0718892623}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Nash |first=Ronald H |title=The Light of the Mind: St Augustine's Theory of Knowledge |year=1969 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Wiener |editor-first=Philip |title=Dictionary of the History of Ideas |publisher=Scribner |location=New York |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-684-13293-8 |volume=3 |chapter=Platonism in the Renaissance |chapter-url=http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=DicHist/uvaBook/tei/DicHist3.xml;chunk.id=dv3-64 |last=Nelson |first=John Charles |pages=510–515 (vol. 3) |quote=(...) Saint Augustine asserted that Neo-Platonism possessed all spiritual truths except that of the Incarnation. (...)}}
* {{Cite book |last=O'Daly |first=Gerard |title=Augustine's Philosophy of the Mind |year=1987 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley}}
* {{Cite book |last=O'Donnell |first=James |author-link=James J. O'Donnell |title=Augustine: A New Biography |publisher=ECCO |location=New York |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-06-053537-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/augustine00jame_qqt |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pagels |first=Elaine |author-link=Elaine Pagels |title=Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-679-72232-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/adameveserpent00elai}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Park |first=Jae-Eun |url=https://www.academia.edu/4811679 |title=Lacking Love or Conveying Love? The Fundamental Roots of the Donatists and Augustine's Nuanced Treatment of Them |journal=The Reformed Theological Review |volume=72 |issue=2 |year=2013 |pages=103–121}}.
* {{Cite book |author=Plumer, Eric Antone |title=Augustine's Commentary on Galatians |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-924439-3}}
* {{Cite book |title=Saint Augustine the Algerian |author=Pollman, Karla |publisher=Edition Ruprecht |location=Göttingen |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-89744-209-2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pottier |first=René |title=Saint Augustin le Berbère |publisher=Fernand Lanore |year=2006 |isbn=978-2-85157-282-0 |language=fr}}
* ''Règle de St. Augustin pour les religieuses de son ordre; et Constitutions de la Congrégation des Religieuses du Verbe-Incarné et du Saint-Sacrament'' (Lyon: Chez Pierre Guillimin, 1662), pp.&nbsp;28–29. Cf. later edition published at Lyon (Chez Briday, Libraire,1962), pp.&nbsp;22–24. English edition, (New York: Schwartz, Kirwin, and Fauss, 1893), pp.&nbsp;33–35.
* {{Cite book |last=Starnes |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Starnes |title=Augustine's Conversion: A Guide to the Arguments of Confessions I–IX |year=1990 |publisher=[[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]] |location=Waterloo, Ontario}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tanquerey |first=Adolphe |title=The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology |publisher=Tan Books & Publishers |location=Rockford, Illinois |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-89555-659-2 |page=37 |title-link=Ascetical theology}}
* {{Cite book |chapter=S. Agostino: Introduzione alla Dottrina della Grazia |last=Trapè |first=A. |location=Rome |publisher=Città Nuova |year=1990 |series=Collana di Studi Agostiniani 4 |title=I – Natura e Grazia |page=422 |isbn=978-88-311-3402-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=von Heyking |first=John |title=Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World |publisher=University of Missouri Press |location=Columbia |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8262-1349-5}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Gerard |author-link1=Gerard Watson | collaboration= |year=1982 |orig-date= |orig-year= |title=St. Augustine's Theory of Language |script-title= |title-link= |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20556950 |url-access= |trans-title= |format= |department= |journal=[[Maynooth University|The Maynooth Review / Revieú Mhá Nuad]] |script-journal= |trans-journal= |type= |series= |language= |volume=6 |issue=2 |name-list-style= |edition= |publication-place=[[Maynooth]] |publisher=[[Maynooth University|Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies & Philosophy NUIM]] |minutes= |time-caption= |time= |pages=4–20 |no-pp= |arxiv= |asin= |asin-tld= |bibcode= |bibcode-access= |biorxiv= |citeseerx= |doi= |doi-access= |eissn= |hdl= |hdl-access= |ismn= |issn=0332-4869 |jfm= |jstor=20556950 |jstor-access= |access-date=3 March 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Gerard |author-link1=Gerard Watson |collaboration= |year=1985 |orig-date= |orig-year= |title="I Doubt, Therefore I Am": St. Augustine and Scepticism |script-title= |title-link= |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20556991 |url-access= |trans-title= |format= |department= |journal=[[Maynooth University|The Maynooth Review / Revieú Mhá Nuad]] |script-journal= |trans-journal= |type= |series= |language= |volume=12 |issue= |name-list-style= |edition= |publication-place=[[Maynooth]] |publisher=[[Maynooth University|Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies & Philosophy NUIM]] |minutes= |time-caption= |time= |pages=42–50 |no-pp= |arxiv= |asin= |asin-tld= |bibcode= |bibcode-access= |biorxiv= |citeseerx= |doi= |doi-access= |eissn= |hdl= |hdl-access= |ismn= |issn=0332-4869 |jfm= |jstor=20556991 |jstor-access= |access-date=3 March 2025}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Woo |first=B. Hoon |title=Augustine's Hermeneutics and Homiletics in ''De doctrina christiana'' |journal=Journal of Christian Philosophy |year=2013 |volume=17 |url=https://www.academia.edu/5228314 |pages=97–117}}
* {{Cite book |last=Zumkeller O.S.A. |first=Adolar |title=Augustine's Ideal of the Religious Life |publisher=Fordham University Press |location=New York |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-8232-1105-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/augustinesidealo00zumk}}
* {{Cite book |last=Zumkeller O.S.A. |first=Adolar |title=Augustine's Rule |publisher=Augustinian Press |location=Villanova |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-941491-06-8}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Augustine of Hippo
 |viaf= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}

=== General ===
* [http://www.augustinus.it/links/inglese/opere.htm "Complete Works of Saint Augustine (in English)"] from Augustinus.it
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180316095930/http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/augustin/ "Complete Works of Saint Augustine (in French)"] from Abbey Saint Benoît de Port-Valais
* [http://www.mercaba.org/Filosofia/Medieval/agustin_de_hipona_00.htm "Complete Works of Saint Augustine (in Spanish)"] from Mercaba, Catholic leaders' website
* [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine?show=worksBy "Works by Saint Augustine"] from CCEL.org
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Augustine&redirect=true Works by Augustine at Perseus Digital Library]
* {{Cite SEP |url-id=augustine|title=Saint Augustine|last=Mendelson|first=Michael}}
* {{Cite IEP|augustin|Augustine}}
* {{Cite IEP|aug-poso|Augustine's Political and Social Philosophy}}
* [http://www.bartleby.com/210/8/281.html "St. Augustine, Bishop and Confessor, Doctor of the Church"], ''Butler's Lives of the Saints''
* [http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/augustine/ Augustine of Hippo] edited by [[James J. O'Donnell]] – texts, translations, introductions, commentaries, etc.
* [[v:Augustine of Hippo/Augustine's Theory of Knowledge|Augustine's Theory of Knowledge]]
* [http://www.christianiconography.info/augustine.html "Saint Augustine of Hippo"] at the [http://www.christianiconography.info/ Christian Iconography] website
* [http://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/augustine.htm "The Life of St. Austin, or Augustine, Doctor"] from the Caxton translation of the ''Golden Legend''
* [http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.com/2009/08/doctor-gratiae.html David Lindsay: Saint Augustine – Doctor Gratiae]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120409175403/http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/women-cp/augustin.html St. Augustine – A Male Chauvinist?] [http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/MALECHAU.HTM] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190610220015/http://www.ewtn.com/library/theology/malechau.htm |date=10 June 2019 }}, Fr. Edmund Hill, [[Dominican Order|OP]]. Talk given to the [[Robert Hugh Benson]] Graduate Society at [[Cambridge University Catholic Chaplaincy|Fisher House, Cambridge]], on 22 November 1994.
* [http://www.churchhistorytimelines.com/pages/st-augustine St. Augustine Timeline – Church History Timelines] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307232543/http://churchhistorytimelines.com/pages/st-augustine |date=7 March 2016 }}
* Giovanni Domenico Giulio: ''Nachtgedanken des heiligen Augustinus.'' Trier 1843 {{ULBDD|urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:1-481434}}

=== Bibliography ===
* [https://earlychurch.org.uk/augustine.php Augustine of Hippo] at EarlyChurch.org.uk – extensive bibliography and on-line articles
* [http://www.findingaugustine.org/ Bibliography on St. Augustine] – Started by T.J. van Bavel O.S.A., continued at the Augustinian historical Institute in Louvain, Belgium

=== Works by Augustine ===
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Augustine,+Aurelius|name=Aurelius Augustine}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1156|name=Saint Augustine}}<!--Same person has multiple IDs at PG-->
* {{Internet Archive author |dname=Saint Augustine|search=("Bishop of Hippo" OR "Saint Augustine" OR "Augustine, Saint" OR "Aurelius Augustine" OR "Aurelius, Augustine" OR "Saint Austin" OR "Austin, Saint")}}
* {{Librivox author |id=79}}
* [http://www.ccel.org/a/augustine/ St. Augustine] at the [[Christian Classics Ethereal Library]]
* [http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/augustine-against-secundinus-the-manichaean-in-english/ Augustine against Secundinus] in English.
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/AUT31.HTM Aurelius Augustinus] at "IntraText Digital Library" – texts in several languages, with concordance and frequency list
* [http://www.augustinus.it/ Augustinus.it] – Latin, Spanish and Italian texts
* [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/20_40_0354-0430-_Augustinus,_Sanctus.html Sanctus Augustinus] at Documenta Catholica Omnia – Latin
* [http://www.doxologypress.org/theaudio/index.html City of God, Confessions, Enchiridion, Doctrine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309192235/http://www.doxologypress.org/theaudio/index.html |date=9 March 2021 }} audio books
* {{Cite book|author=Saint Augustine|title=The Happy Life; Answer to Sceptics; Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil; Soliloquies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4EJZWrmqgkC|publisher=CUA Press|location=US|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8132-1551-8}}
* [http://roderic.uv.es/uv_ms_0580 Digitized manuscript] created in France between 1275 and 1325 with extract of Augustine of Hippo works at [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/43 SOMNI]
* [http://roderic.uv.es/uv_ms_0895 Expositio Psalmorum beati Augustini] – digitized codex created between 1150 and 1175, also known as "Enarrationes in Psalmos. 1–83", at [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/43 SOMNI]
* [http://roderic.uv.es/uv_ms_0892 Aurelii Agustini Hipponae episcopi super loannem librum] – digitized codex created in 1481; his sermons about John's Gospel at [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/43 SOMNI]
* [http://real-r.mtak.hu/104/ ''Sententiae ex omnibus operibus Divi Augustini decerptae''] – digitized codex created in 1539; at [http://konyvtar.mta.hu/index_en.php Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_019.html Lewis E 19 In epistolam Johannis ad Parthos (Sermons on the first epistle of Saint John) at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_021.html Lewis E 21 De sermone domini in monte habito (On the sermon on the mount) and other treatises; De superbia (On pride) and other treatises; Expositio dominice orationis (Exposition on the lord's prayer) at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_022.html Lewis E 22 Enarrationes in psalmos (Expositions on the psalms); Initials (ABC); Prayer at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_023.html Lewis E 23 Sermons at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_213.html Lewis E 213 Rule of Saint Augustine; Sermon on Matthew 25:6 at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0007/html/lehigh_003.html Lehigh Codex 3 Bifolium from De civitate Dei, Book 22 at OPenn]

=== Biography and criticism ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060610111127/http://augnet.org/ Order of St Augustine]
* [http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/bless_aug.aspx Blessed Augustine of Hippo: His Place in the Orthodox Church]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100528110934/http://www.villanova.edu/mission/spirituality/about/ Augustine's World: An Introduction to His Speculative Philosophy] by Donald Burt, OSA, member of the [[Augustinians|Augustinian Order]], [[Villanova University]]
* [http://roderic.uv.es/uv_ms_0049 Tabula in librum Sancti Augustini De civitate Dei] by [[Robert Kilwardby]], digitized manuscript of 1464 at [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/43 SOMNI]

{{Navboxes
|list=
{{Christianity footer}}
{{Ethics}}
{{Epistemology}}
{{Philosophy of religion}}
{{Social philosophy}}
{{Medieval Philosophy}}
{{Platonists}}
{{Catholic saints}}
{{Catholic virtue ethics}}
{{Catholic philosophy footer}}
{{History of Catholic theology}}
{{Latin Church footer}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Augustine of Hippo}}
[[Category:Augustine of Hippo| ]]
[[Category:354 births]]
[[Category:430 deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century Berber people]]
[[Category:4th-century bishops in Roman North Africa]]
[[Category:4th-century Christian theologians]]
[[Category:4th-century philosophers]]
[[Category:4th-century Romans]]
[[Category:4th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:5th-century Berber people]]
[[Category:5th-century bishops in Roman North Africa]]
[[Category:5th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:5th-century Christian theologians]]
[[Category:5th-century philosophers]]
[[Category:5th-century Western Romans]]
[[Category:5th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:African philosophers]]
[[Category:Amillennialism]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman Christian mystics]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman philosophers]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:Augustinian Order| ]]
[[Category:Augustinian philosophers]]
[[Category:Aurelii|Augustinus]]
[[Category:Autobiographers]]
[[Category:Berber Christians]]
[[Category:Burials at San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro]]
[[Category:Catholic philosophers]]
[[Category:Catholic saints]]
[[Category:Christian anthropologists]]
[[Category:Christian anti-Gnosticism]]
[[Category:Christian apologists]]
[[Category:Christian ethicists]]
[[Category:Church Fathers]]
[[Category:Doctors of the Church]]
[[Category:Eastern Catholic saints]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox saints]]
[[Category:Epistemologists]]
[[Category:Former Manichaeans]]
[[Category:History of magic]]
[[Category:Letter writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Mariology]]
[[Category:Natural law ethicists]]
[[Category:Neoplatonists]]
[[Category:Numidian saints]]
[[Category:Philosophers of war]]
[[Category:Rationalists]]
[[Category:Rhetoric theorists]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic bishops in the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:Saints from Roman Africa]]
[[Category:Sermon writers]]
[[Category:Systematic theologians]]
[[Category:Translation theorists]]