St. Augustine of Hippo
17 Articles & Excerpts
Sexual Offenses
 Saint Augustine's Sin
by Garry Wills
I am determined to bring back in memory the revolting things I did, and the way my soul was contaminated by my flesh - doing this not out of love for those deeds but as a step toward loving you. I move toward you this way because I would love to love you.
Organizing Principles, Part 2
Saint Augustine's Sin
by Garry Wills
Who might have brought within boundaries my misery, turned to some purpose the evanescent beauties of extreme experience, and set a clear limit to their deliciousness, that the stormy waters of my youth might have seethed up only to the shoreline
Book Two, Organizing Principles
Saint Augustine's Sin
by Garry Wills
The Testimony is built up on layers of theological symbols. The early books are organized around the six ages of man, which in turn call up their complements, the six ages of history and the six days of creation.
Adam's Sin, Part 2
Saint Augustine's Sin
by Garry Wills
Adam yielded to Eve in breaking God's law, not because he believed she was telling the truth, but out of a compulsion to solidarity [with her], as male to female, lone existing man to lone existing woman, human being to fellow human being, husband to wife
Adam's Sin
Saint Augustine's Sin
by Garry Wills
Just when, in The Testimony, Augustine has reached the age of sixteen and begun his active sexual life, he disappoints those who want the lurid details by devoting half of the book to a theft he and his fellow delinquents committed in a mangy orchard.
Introduction
Saint Augustine's Sin
by Garry Wills
Augustine + sin = 5 sex. That is the equation most people begin with when they first think of Augustine's Testimony. They are so obsessed with the idea that Augustine was obsessed with sex that they find it hard to read what he actually wrote about sin.
The Garden, Part 2, Notes
 Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
Why is this vivid scene included in the book? Various psychosexual explanations have been resorted to; but the norms of inclusion in this book are primarily theological.
The Garden
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
Just as the Damascus story is not told by Paul but only later by Luke, so the garden story is not told by Augustine in any of the discussions of his conversion written at the time, but only later in The Testimony.
The Myth of Suddenness: Augustine
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
Since Augustine tells us he already accepted the doctrines of the church, the only 'conversion' in the garden scene is the embrace of celibacy. But why did he think that was a precondition of baptism?
The Myth of Suddenness: Paul
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
Of course, James could always validate his view of conversion by invoking the least questioned examples of sudden change - the voice that came to Paul on the road to Damascus and the voice that came to Augustine in the garden of Milan.
The Myth of Suddenness: William James
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
If what Augustine is telling us is not so much a conversion story as a vocation story, then its use as a pattern of conversion may be misleading. Yet, as I said earlier, it is often taken, along with Paul's story, to establish the very essence
The Myth of Ambrose
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
It is a commonplace that Ambrose, presiding in Milan, played the key role in Augustine's conversion, mainly by showing him that the Jewish scripture, which had seemed crude, could be read symbolically.
The Myth of Monnica
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
It is often assumed or asserted that Augustine's conversion was the result of his mother's efforts and prayers. It is true that by the time Augustine wrote The Testimony, he attributed his conversion to God's grace, and attributed much of that grace
The Book of Conversions
Saint Augustine's Conversion
by Garry Wills
Book Eight of The Testimony tells the second most famous religious conversion story in Western literature, second only to that of Saint Paul, on which it is modeled.
Advent
It's December, my dear Charity in Christ. As I reminded you the last time we met, Christmas is fast approaching. And now that Christ has aroused our seasonal expectations, He'll soon fulfill them all! But before I begin, may I offer my usual disclaimer.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
 A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion
by Anthony C. Thiselton, M.Th., Ph.D., D.D.
Together with Plato, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, Augustine may be counted among the four most influential thinkers who shaped Western philosophy before the Renaissance. He is widely viewed as the first great Christian philosopher, and his theology
The Book of Memory
Here in private, Augustine seeks to fathom himself-to emerge later as a visionary for others on a large public stage. To him the 'vast treasure store of memory' is where identity is forged, the context of present and future in which we continually relive
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