This classic biography was first published thirty years ago and has since established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine's life and teaching. The remarkable discovery recently of a considerable number of letters and sermons by Augustine has thrown fresh light on the first and last decades of his experience as a bishop. These circumstantial texts have led Peter Brown to reconsider some of his judgments on Augustine, both as the author of the Confessions and as the elderly bishop preaching and writing in the last years of Roman rule in north Africa. Brown's reflections on the significance of these exciting new documents are contained in two chapters of a substantial Epilogue to his biography (the text of which is unaltered). He also reviews the changes in scholarship about Augustine since the 1960s. A personal as well as a scholarly fascination infuse the book-length epilogue and notes that Brown has added to his acclaimed portrait of the bishop of Hippo.
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"A great biography of the greatest father of the church, and an introduction to the intellectual world of late antiquity. A deeply engrossing work of scholarship, recently reissued."--"Washington Post Book World
About the Author
Peter Brown is Rollins Professor of History at Princeton University. Brown is the leading English-language authority on St. Augustine; his many books include Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (California, 1982), Body and Society (1988), Power and Persuasion (1992), Authority and the Sacred (1995), and The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000 (1996).
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102 of 103 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Peter Brown has accomplished what a scholarly biography should: make us feel that we have come to enter the life and mind of the subject of the biography. Brown's chapters are relatively short and thus make reading this long book pleasurable because you can make identifiable progress in your reading. Brown also has copious citations to the works of Augustine for those who wish to track down a quote. In addition, he has added an epilogue that actually corrects the flawed judgments he made in the first edition over thirty years ago (this is a humility rare in academic circles). The epilogue also has a chapter on new writings of Augustine that scholars have uncovered since the first edition of his work. My only wish would have been for more theological exploration of the theme of predestination which is presented in a superficial manner. As a Catholic, I would also have preferred more explicit exploration of Augustine's relations with the popes of his time. But, all in all, Brown has written and updated a great biography that deserves its stature as the definitive biography of Augustine. I heartily recommend it.
136 of 144 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can only agree with other reviewers that this is an excellent biography... A suggestion to readers: Peter Brown, in this new (2000) edition, has added two chapters - as an Epilogue: 1.New Evidence, and 2.New Directions. Since his original work dates back to 1967, I would strongly suggest one FIRST read these two chapters, then move through the body of the biography, and finally reread the two "Epilogue chapters". (Don't ignore the footnotes; they're annotated!). Some of Brown's conclusions have changed in the past 33 years! --- Take advantage of the index; it is very well done. Some illustrations: "Jerome, acrimonious correspondence with Augustine," "Baptism, of infants," "Africans, love of puns and acrostics," "Pelagius, annoyed by the Confessions," etc. Skimming the index provoked me into re-reading several different bits. --- Brown's gift for expression (and his willingness to make judgments!) shine out everywhere. Here's a single paragraph to demonstrate: "The congregations who heard Augustine preach were not exceptionally sinful. Rather, they were firmly rooted in long-established attitudes, in ways of life and ideas, to which Christianity was peripheral. Among such men, the all-demanding message of Augustine merely suffered the fate of a river flowing into a complex system of irrigation: it lost its power, in the minds of its hearers, by meeting innumerable little ditches, by being broken up into a network of neat little compartments." --- An extremely helpful tool is Brown's inclusion of a "Chronological Table" at the beginning of each of the five sections of this work. Each is a multicolumn, vertical, two-page wide timeline that cross-references the events of each year (1) in the Roman Empire, (2) in Augustine's life, (3) in his writings of the year, and also provides (4) modern translations when available. [I have already tracked down and ordered a Catholic University Press reprint of Wilcox's 1955 translation of Augustine's Tractatus adversus Judaeos - which I had never even heard of until I read this biography! I look forward to reading Augustine's own words in 429 A.D. regarding Judaism!] --- This life history chronicles the development of one of the seminal personalities in the development of modern Christianity in such a way that you feel you know the man. That alone makes it an impressive accomplishment.
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful
By mp
Format:Paperback
Peter Brown's biography of Saint Augustine, written over 30 years ago, is still as fresh and inviting to-day, finding excited and interesting readers in whoever picks it up. Augustine lived from 354-430 AD. While this may seem remote, Brown has a special gift for making Augustine live through his writing style, which both provides clever and welcome points of modern comparison to Augustine's contemporary events. Another wonderful technique of Brown's biography is to let Augustine, for the most part, speak for himself - it is almost like a mediated autobiography, an expanded "Confessions," if you will.
This manifests itself in the lengthy, but always extremely applicable excerpts that Brown draws for every occasion from Augustine's "Confessions," as well as his other major works, correspondence, religious tracts, and sermons. Brown is as little intrusive as possible, setting Augustine's writings, actions, and speeches in their immediate context. At the same time, Brown's exhaustive research is readily apparent, as he constantly refers to or makes note of the wide range of historical, biographical, and critical scholarship available to him as he wrote.
A key element in Brown's biography is the importance of asserting Augustine's heritage as a particularly African one. Brown recovers and reminds us that for his massive impact on the course of Christian thought, Augustine was tied in remembrance to his native Thagaste, and through his ministry, to the seaside city of Hippo in Northern Africa. The African element asserts itself in Brown's emphasis on the African impact of many of Augustine's most definitive struggles - against the Manichees (who insist on static dualism and absolute wisdom), the Donatists (schismatics who insist on the primacy of their version of Catholicism), and the Pelagians (who insist on a form of radical free will).
What is most important and most impressive about Brown's biography is that he renders a portrait of Augustine, the man. While other, now legendary figures are referred to as Saint Ambrose or Saint Jerome, Brown carefully calls the subject of his biography, in the spirit of Augustine's writings, simply Augustine. We see straight through the book Augustine's own pervasive preoccupation with the limitations and possibilities of the individual human being and his struggles with his faith and his responsibilities. In light of this, Brown consistently brings the reader back to Augustine's notion of the 'progress' of the person of faith. For Augustine, faith and belief were not matters of complacency. God and Heaven are to be always 'yearned' for, and actively sought, no matter how Augustine's thought shifts over the course of his life.
There is a great hope in Augustine characterized by this idea that, although God's will may be fundamentally inaccessible, people must actively pursue and hopefully enrich their faith. In this context, Augustine is also very inclusive - his ideas for a church on earth that welcomes all people in all stages of faith who are willing to join is remarkable. So, yes, I heartily recommend Brown's biography of Augustine. That it is still in print and in revision is a testament to its own timelessness as a glimpse into the life of a quintessential thinker.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Promises to be Compelling:
It promises to be a block buster when read. Currently it is second on the runway. An evergreen biography by a noted Princeton historian, the only thing better than reading the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kenneth A. TorgersonK
5.0 out of 5 stars
The End of The World
I can't really say I "enjoyed" reading Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown. But I'm glad I did. It is one of the more challenging books I have read, with words to look up, ancient... Read more
Published 3 months ago by JimtheBaptist
5.0 out of 5 stars
Augustine of Hippo
This book was better than my expectations, excellent in giving a description of the late Roman Empire. Also very good in its descriptiAon of 4th century christianity.
Published 3 months ago by R. Kroes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quality Work
Excellent book. Peter Brown is clearly an amazing scholar who has done his work. He seems familiar with every square inch of Augustine's massive body of work and has an incredible... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mike
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ag reat book about a great man
I first read Peter Brown's magnificent Augustine of Hippo: A Biography in 1974, while preparing to write my dissertation on Augustine's sermons on John's Gospel. Read more
Published 15 months ago by G. W. Doyle
4.0 out of 5 stars
St. Augustine: The Giant and The Jewel of Africa
One effect of an in-depth study of St. Augustine using a quality biography such as the one written by Peter Brown is to understand what it means to stand on the shoulder of a... Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. Sutono, a.k.a., Birdey The Observer
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Start to a Study of Augustine
Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown, originally published in 1967 and updated in 2000, is a comprehensive look at the life of the Bishop of Hippo, Saint Augustine, and perhaps even... Read more
Published on March 23, 2011 by Scott Fillmer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Has Become the "Canonical" Biography of Augustine in English
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in late antique Roman Africa, is perhaps a favorable subject for a modern biography. Read more
Published on February 24, 2011 by Peter Ramming
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
I only needed to know two things; the author is the top scholar on "Late Antiquity", and he writes very well. I was not disappointed. Read more
Published on January 23, 2011 by A Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars
Making Augustine a Human Being
I read Brown's book as part of a raft of books on theology and Christian history during my studies. Most of the books are dreadful, or just mildly interesting. Read more
Published on January 11, 2011 by Stephen Graber
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