ABSTRACT
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is the author of the single most in uential body of religious writings in the West outside the Bible. As bishop of the city of Hippo in Roman North Africa, he wrote voluminously on theology and church affairs, becoming known for his formulations of the Christian doctrines of grace, original sin, the sacraments, the Church and the holy Trinity. As a philosopher of religion, his importance lies less in the speci c arguments found in his works than in a stock of themes, concepts, and images that become integral to western thought through him. Augustine is a Christian Platonist who incorporates classical philosophical ideas into Christian thought and thereby changes the history of both Christianity and philosophy. His most important philosophical debt is to the Neoplatonism of Plotinus (c.205-70), whose profound philosophical spirituality he appropriates and develops into a piety of the heart, intellect, and will, which becomes essential to what the word ‘religion’ ends up meaning in western thought.
