Augustine of Hippo

Augustine (354- 430 CE), bishop, Doctor of the Church, and the most influential theologian of Latin Christianity, was born of a Christian mother and a heathen father. Early in his life he was inspired by the works of Cicero to devote his life to the pursuit of truth. He started this pursuit as a Rhetorician, then he became a Manichaean, and later a Skeptic. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and Augustine's mother, Monica, were instrumental in his conversion to Catholic Christianity in 386, though this was facilitated by Augustine's study of Plotinus' Neoplatonism, which gave him an intellectual access to mystical/spiritual experience. In 391, he was almost forcibly ordained presbyter at Hippo, and from 395 to 430, he served as bishop. He wrote many treatises among which we find the celebrated Confessions, The City of God and On the Trinity. Many of his writings were directed against heresies, particularly Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism. He is most noted for founding the Western theological tradition and establishing doctrines of the Trinity and Christology.

Elise M. Bender