Church Fathers · Latin · Roman North Africa

Augustine of Hippo

Bishop, biblical interpreter and writer whose account of Christian faith brings intellectual inquiry into conversation with conversion, prayer and ecclesial responsibility.

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Three complete works are readable here: the Enchiridion, On Grace and Free Will, and On Nature and Grace. Two further readings contain Book I of On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and Book I of On Baptism; the later books are not included. A sixth reading contains chapters 5–6 of Book X of The City of God.

These links open the texts held here; the further-reading references also point to works elsewhere.

Life and historical setting

Augustine was born in Tagaste in 354 and died at Hippo in 430. Benedict XVI’s audience of 9 January 2008 follows his education and search for truth from Roman North Africa into Italy. His African roots and Latin Christian setting help orient readers to a writer often encountered through later European theology. This modern biographical account provides that orientation while leaving individual historical questions open to further study. [1]

Benedict describes Augustine's encounter with Ambrose in Milan and his baptism at Easter in 387. The OCA life also places his baptism in 387. The two accounts narrate his earlier association with Manichaeism differently in duration; this profile does not combine those narratives into a precise interval. What matters for the present reading path is that conversion is presented as a change in intellectual and religious allegiance, not merely a career move. The witnesses have their own catechetical and hagiographical purposes, so agreement on a date does not authenticate every surrounding detail. [1] [3]

His return to Africa led to ecclesial responsibilities at Hippo. Benedict places his ordination as priest in 391 and episcopal consecration in 395. The same audience identifies disputes with Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism as major contexts for his writing. Naming these controversies is not a substitute for reading their participants: Augustine's representation of an opponent and the opponent's own surviving argument are distinct evidence. Nor should the controversies be reduced to one timeless argument. A question about the Church, a question about evil and a question about grace can overlap without being interchangeable.

Major writings and further reading

Confessions brings recollection and self-examination into prayer; The City of God develops an extended Christian interpretation of history. Benedict’s 20 February 2008 audience introduces their significance. Confessions is not hosted here; a separate reading offers chapters 5–6 of Book X of The City of God. [2]

The Enchiridion offers a connected introduction to faith, hope and love. This English edition divides it into 122 chapters and includes an introduction and notes. Other editions may organize the work differently, so compare chapter references with care.

Begin with the complete Enchiridion. For the controversies over grace, continue with the complete On Grace and Free Will and On Nature and Grace, linked above. The two Book I readings provide additional context on sin and baptism, but do not supply their works’ later books. Open the complete included Enchiridion

Catalogue and edition notes

Read the Enchiridion for Augustine’s connected account of faith, hope and love, then compare the grace treatises and the two Book I readings for arguments developed in controversy. The short City of God selection adds his account of sacrifice without supplying the rest of that work. Open the complete included Enchiridion

Reception and authority

Benedict XVI’s two audiences introduce Augustine’s life and writing through Catholic catechesis. They show a modern pope explaining an ancient teacher to a general audience. Read them as witnesses to Augustine’s reception, alongside his own writings, whose genre and argument deserve separate attention.

Edition notes

The audiences are not presented as infallible definitions, and their praise of Augustine does not give every sentence of his works papal authority.

The Orthodox Church in America’s June 15 life commemorates Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and praises his baptism and virtues. This named jurisdiction’s liturgical and hagiographical reception shows why Eastern responses cannot be reduced to rejection. Agreement with individual Augustinian formulations, especially on grace and predestination, needs comparison of particular texts and interpreters across the traditions; this commemoration cannot speak for every Orthodox church. [3]

Read Augustine’s argument with attention to both its influence and its form as an individual bishop’s theological writing. The English translation also brings the decisions of translators and editors into view. Introductions, the Argument, headings and notes have their own voices. Identify the passage and its context when quoting it, and distinguish Augustine’s reasoning from the authority of a council definition.

Reading landmark: spiritual bodies

Chapter 91 connects the saints’ freedom from corruption with their continuing bodily existence: a spiritual body remains a body. The short quotation below ends mid-sentence. Continue through the full chapter to follow Augustine’s analogy and scriptural reasoning.

Edition notes

The full passage occupies local lines 2860–2883. The quotation preserves the source’s punctuation and wrapping; its narrow range cannot represent the entire argument.

The bodies of the saints, then, shall rise again free from every defect, from every blemish, as from all corruption, weight, and impediment. For their ease of movement shall be as complete as their happiness. Whence their bodies have been called spiritual, though undoubtedly they shall be bodies and not spirits. For just as now the body is called animate, though it is a body, and not a soul [anima], so then the body shall be called spiritual, though it shall be a body, not

Open exact local lines 2860–2866.

The biblical references after this passage belong to the editor’s notes. Chapter 92 begins afterward. Keeping those voices separate helps a reader follow Augustine’s continuing argument without mistaking a reference note for a new chapter.

Edition notes

The references occupy local lines 2886–2894. Chapter 92’s heading is at line 2897 and its prose begins at 2899. These landmarks describe this English transcription and leave translation questions open.

Edition and sources

These readings follow the named historical editions. Translation, attribution and research qualifications remain available below.

Read edition and research notes

Professor J. F. Shaw is credited with the translation and Philip Schaff with editing the volume; the introduction is signed P.S. The reader follows the 1890 New York print basis transmitted through CCEL. The edition reports earlier publication and editorial alterations, whose individual changes have not all been identified. Historical wording is preserved for study.

Edition notes

This is a historical English witness. Comparison with Latin manuscripts, other translations and Denzinger/Hünermann has not been performed. The modern CCEL plain-text wrapper is a separate transmission layer.

Use the reader to examine this translation with its apparatus, and turn to critical editions when a question depends on other language witnesses. The linked Vatican and OCA accounts supply modern reception in brief attributed paraphrases. [4]

Edition notes

The volume header’s Public Domain assertion records its stated historical rights basis. It does not give global clearance or permission for every modern revision. The local translation cannot alone adjudicate later doctrinal disputes or replace every relevant primary witness.

Sources and further reading

Texts and editions

  1. CCEL historical NPNF1-3 plain-text volume. Shaw translation in the 1890 print basis; complete scoped local Enchiridion available above.

Life and reception

  1. Benedict XVI, General Audience, 9 January 2008: Saint Augustine. Catholic biographical and catechetical reception.
  2. Benedict XVI, General Audience, 20 February 2008. Reception and overview of writings, not manuscript authentication.
  3. Orthodox Church in America, Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, June 15. One jurisdiction's liturgical and hagiographical witness.

Back to Fathers & Saints

Read the Confessions with James J. O’Donnell’s Latin text and commentary, an electronic version of his Oxford 1992 edition. The commentary follows the work book by book and section by section, with links to biblical and classical sources.

For comparison with the baptism reading, the CSEL catalogue identifies Michael Petschenig’s 1908 Latin edition of De baptismo in volume 51, alongside other writings on the Donatist controversy.