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person386–430 AD

St. Augustine

Disciplines:
philosophy
theology
africa/north africa
christianity/church fathers

Summary

North African bishop who wrote Confessions, City of God, and On Christian Doctrine — the most influential theologian in Western Christianity — who converted from Manicheanism through Platonism to Christianity, synthesized Platonic philosophy with Christian theology, and formulated the doctrines of original sin and predestination.

Core Contribution

Created Western Christian theology as an intellectual system — Augustine's synthesis of Platonic philosophy with Pauline Christianity (time, memory, the will, original sin, divine grace) provided the theological framework that Catholic and Protestant Christianity have argued within for 1600 years.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • The Two Cities (Augustine's framework: human history is the interweaving of two cities — the City of God (those who love God to the contempt of self) and the City of Man (those who love self to the contempt of God) — these are not identical with church and state but cut through every institution; the Church contains both, and political life can at best maintain relative peace, never achieve justice)

Notable Works & Achievements

Confessions

City of God

On the Trinity

On Free Will

Historical Influences

Paul Plato and Plotinus Ambrose

Intellectual Lineage

Thagaste NumidiaCarthage Rome and MilanMilan Hippo North Africa

Contemporaries & Peers

Jerome Pelagius Ambrose

Minds Influenced

Medieval theologyCalvin Luther History 102

Intellectual Posterity

Confessions City of God Original sin doctrine Grace and predestinationAugustine as Western theology

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St. Augustine

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