Augustine of Hippo
A North African bishop writes the first autobiography and shapes Western theology.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 76 years
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
Augustine's Confessions is unlike anything before it — an extended first-person account of his own inner life, doubts and desires addressed to God. The City of God, written after Rome's sack, separates the earthly from the heavenly city and effectively releases Christianity from dependence on any political order. His formulations of original sin, grace and just war set the terms for Western Christian thought, Catholic and Protestant alike, for 1,500 years.