Augustine of Hippo
Augustine was born in 354 A.D. in present-day Algeria. He was raised and educated 170 miles to the east in Carthage by a devout Christian mother and unbelieving father. As a young man, he studied philosophy and rhetoric.
Augustine was about 20-years-old when he read an essay by Cicero, the famous Roman orator, on the subject of “truth.” He spent the next 12 years as a prestigious scholar in Italy pursuing his illusive foe, jumping from philosophy to philosophy, theology to theology, trying to intellectually reconcile seemingly irreconcilable tradeoffs between doctrine and experience.
At the age of 32, Augustine wrote that he had a spiritual experience, “as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart.” It was then that “all the shadows of doubt were dispelled” and he accepted Jesus Christ as the ultimate truth in his life.
Augustine was baptized on Easter Day in 387 and, not long after, returned to his native North Africa. Four years later, he was ordained a priest in the city of Hippo, a coastal city in present-day Algeria, where he became widely known for his sermons, many of which still survive. Soon, Augustine was appointed the Bishop of Hippo, where he served until his death at the age of 75.
Augustine of Hippo was a towering figure in his day — and continues to be in ours. He stands as an intellectual pillar, not only in Christianity, but the broader history of Western civilization. Augustine was key to the carrying forward of the best aspects of Greek thought into the Christian era, and therefore, into the entire European intellectual tradition.
Augustine of Hippo
Randall acts as the lead writer for ColdWater’s Drive Thru History® TV series and Drive Thru History® “Adventures” curriculum.
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