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Portrait of Augustine

Christian Platonism

Augustine

The Confessor · Late Antiquity, 354-430

Augustine maps the restless human heart, torn between desire, memory, sin, and grace.

  • Restless desire
  • Sin and grace
  • Memory
  • Confession
  • The divided will

Start with Confessions

Life

Augustine was born in Roman North Africa, pursued education and ambition across the late Roman world, and converted to Christianity after years of intellectual and spiritual conflict. As bishop of Hippo, he became one of Christianity's most influential figures.

The question

“Why do I want what destroys me?”

Argued against

Pride, disordered love, moral self-mastery without grace, and superficial accounts of evil.

Why Augustine matters

Augustine helps invent the inner life as a battlefield of love, memory, guilt, and divine longing.

Where to start

Confessions A personal, philosophical, and theological classic about desire, conversion, and memory.

Works

  • Confessions Theology · Advanced A life examined through memory, desire, conversion, and grace.
  • On the Trinity Theology · Brutal

Quests with Augustine

  • Christian Thought A passage through conversion, disciplined reason, and the restless heart before faith. Christian Thought Quest