AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430):
the greatest of the Latin CHRISTIAN Fathers and
African theologians and one of the outstanding thinkers of all time. Augustine was of
Berber descent and almost certainly Black. His mother, Monica, was a Christian whose
virtues he praised. But at Carthage he was drawn into sexual excesses: later, while
studying RHETORIC and PHILOSOPHY, he came under the influence of MANICHAEISM followed by
NEOPLATONISM. In the spring of 387, after many sessions with AMBROSE, BISHOP of MILAN, and
the study of the BIBLE, Augustine was BAPTIZED. These events are recorded in his Confessions
which is a spiritual classic and the first real work of Christian autobiography. His
CHRISTIANITY remained strongly ASCETIC and his writings display a remarkably African
ethos. In 396 he was consecrated BISHOP of HIPPO and remained a PASTOR until his death.
For more than thirty years Augustine was the leading the theologian in African
Christianity. In 410 the Goths sacked Rome and the PAGANS blamed the Christians whose GOD
they said caused the disaster. Augustine put the capstone on his theological activity by
defending the Christians against this charge in his great work The City of God.
Augustine's THEOLOGY helped bring about the PROTESTANT REFORMATION and deeply influenced
early PROTESTANT theologians such as Martin LUTHER and John CALVIN who were strongly
Augustinian in their outlook.
