Customer Reviews

St. Augustine in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series)

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Strathern is a master at this kind of work, which mixes biography, critical analysis, historical context and humor all in a concise, informative & entertaining package. He lists a time line for the philosopher, his place in world/philosophic history & a selection of works for furthur reading. This series of books by Strathern is a wonderful course in Philosophy 101 without ever having to go to college, all presented in plain, easy to understand English without being bogged down with philosophy's often confusing vernacular. If you are expecting an in-depth review or complete analysis of the philosopher's life & work, read another book. This is meant to be a quick, concise overview & that's just what it provides.

Am I missing something here? Is the title of this book not 'St. Augustine in 90 min'?

I dont understand people that pick up a book with a title like this and then complain on Amazon because of 'too little information'(see below).

I knew very little of St Aug. when I started this book because most of the books out there read like volumous engineering manuals.

This book is informative and witty and now I cant wait to read more on St. Aug.

Thank you Mr. Strathern; Mission accomplished.

St. Augustine is a subject that cannot be covered in 90 minutes, particularly in under 100 pages with large font. Still, this book serves as a great introduction for those who have ABSOLUTELY NO knowledge of the great philosopher.

If you're only looking for a brief thumbnail sketch of Augustine, or want to know the basic reasons (without details) why he's considered important, then this book will serve you well. If you're looking for details on his life, his theology, or philosophy, you'll have to look elsewhere.

It's important to realize that this book comes at Augustine from a philosophical perspective, not a theological or religious one. It aims to outline why he's considered important to the field of philosophy. So, if you're interested in Augustine's theology or importance from the standpoint of the Catholic church, you'll find almost nothing useful here (in fact, some of it may offend you depending upon your religious bent).

What does this book teach about Augustine? It can be summed up quickly: Augustine brought together the thought of Neoplatonism and Christian scripture, thus preserving philosophy for about 800 years (until Thomas Aquinas took it further in the 13th century); he had troubles with lust; his mother was overbearing; he liked to flagellate himself in his books; he had some interesting ideas how procreation worked in the Garden of Eden. There are a few more facts, but those are the main ones. It is a fun read; it's humorous in places (again, depending upon your background) and you will leave the book with an appreciation of who he was. Other considerably more bulky books will have to flesh out the inevitable nagging questions that this one will leave you with.

Augustine is a towering figure in western philosophy. His work presages Descartes, Kant, and others. He deserves a higher stature than he currently enjoys, but this book will only give you a tiny eency weency snippet of the reasons why.

Paul Strathern's concise overview of St Augustine's life, thought, and influence upon the world will be an invaluable introduction for anyone seeking to begin a study of the man whose doctrines and aspirations changed the face of Christendom. Strathern sets the stage by discussing some of the various philosophies prevalent in the Roman world during St Augustine's time and constructs a quick run-over of Augustine's battle with sin, struggle with the problem of Evil, and final journey to truth. Augustine's epic and exhaustive conflicts with heresy in order to edify and preserve the tenets of Catholic doctrine will be found here as well. Finally, Strathern closes this sharp, to the point work, with a succinct survey of some of the later Christian philosophers up until St Thomas Aquinas and the downfall of the Platonist tradition. This work serves its purpose well; even average readers will be finished and find much useful information at their leisure in at the least thirty minutes.

Well, Strathern is certainly entertaining, if not informative. He gives us the dirt on each philosopher, tells us who was overweight, cheap, pushed people around, etc. This would be great if we were reading about movie stars or politicians but I bought these books in order to understand something about what these philosophers thought. He does reserve a few pages at the end of each volume to tells us one or two of their ideas and gives us a handful of quotes. A total waste of money unless you hate your philosophy classes so much that you want to hear how awful the personal lives of the philosophers were. A new low in publishing.

Having read about a dozen or so of the "Philosphers in 90 Minutes" series, I was interested in what Strathern would have to say about the philospher/theologian St. Augustine. What Strathern had to say was basically that he doesn't think much of St. Augustine.

Too much sympathy is as deadly to objectivity as too much antipathy, but a modicum of sympathy is conducive to objectivity. Any degree of antipathy, on the other hand, tends toward the detriment of objectivity. Strathern may not be rabidly anti-Augustine, but it's clear that Strathern doesn't like him. The book reads like an insult comic's routine aimed at its subject.

Strathern's antipathy may not just be against St. Augustine in particular, but saintly theologians in general, as he does a similar hatchet job in "Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes." Maybe Strathern should confine himself to writing about philosphers and let someone else write about theologians. The reader would probably be better served by reading "St. Augustine for Armchair Theologians."

I read this book at lunchtime at Barnes and Noble. Yes, it's that quick a read. The author covers Augustine's philosophy abd biography in about a short a summary as is possible. The reader gets the basic idea of how Augustine was influenced and how he influenced others via his writings and teachings, and what those writings and teachings were. In addition, we get glimpses of Augustine's predecessors, contemporaries and succesors - enough to whet the appetite for further reading. The problem with the book, the hard to swallow part, is that Strathern's use of sarcasm and humor is somewhat offensive. He takes gratuitous potshots at Augustine's mother, Monica. If Augustine were alive, he might settle this with Strathern in the schoolyard. In any case, the rest of the book gives you the pure basics about Augustine.

It is compelling to want to learn about a prominent figure like Augustine in ninety minutes. Certainly ninety minutes is doctoral level reading in a world where our spans of attention have been greatly diminished by thirty-minute television sitcoms, thirty-second commercials and thirty minute guaranteed pizza delivery. But the real problem with Strathern's work is not so much that it implies knowledge of a man's life and thoughts in a short period of time, but that it is so editorialized as to make it nearly worthless. A better solution, and one requiring LESS than ninety minutes (should that be the criteria for your education), would be to read several different encyclopedia articles about the man. Another excellent encyclopedia-like resource for a succinct overview of Augustine is found in the 'Oxford Companion to Christian Theology'. Better still, pick up a copy of Peter Brown's, 'Augustine of Hippo: A Biography', and spend a little more than ninety minutes to get a decent education.

In this book you will not find useful information that you would not find somewhere else. But you will find many unfounded and biased judgments that allegedly correspond to a "critical" appraisal, but that only reflect the author's own prejudgments. I do not recommend this book.