Golden Age
Confessions, City of God & On the Trinity
Augustine of Hippo · c. 397 – 426
Historical Context
Bishop of Hippo Regius in Roman North Africa from 395, Augustine wrote in the wake of his own dramatic conversion and amid the crises of the late Western Empire — the Donatist schism, the Pelagian controversy, and the sack of Rome (410).
Summary
The Confessions is the first great Christian autobiography; the City of God reads world history as the intertwined story of two loves; On the Trinity develops the Latin theology of God in three persons and seeks vestiges of the Trinity in the human soul. Augustine's doctrine of grace shapes both later Catholic and Reformation theology.
Major Themes
- Grace and free will
- Original sin
- Trinity
- Two cities
- Inner life and conversion
Important Quotations
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”— Confessions 1.1
“Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you.”— Confessions 10.27
Related Timeline Events
Related Church Fathers
Related Doctrines
Primary Sources
Further Reading
- Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography
- Carol Harrison, Rethinking Augustine's Early Theology