ABSTRACT
Bishop, theologian, controversialist and author of a monastic rule, Augustine (AD 354-430) has cast a long shadow over the history of Christian thought and practice. The vast collection of his surviving writings, most significant among them Confessiones, De Civitate dei, De doctrina Christiana, and De Trinitate, as well as hundreds of sermons and letters, have exercised an influence in all areas of theology, from Christology and soteriology to ecclesiology, worship, mysticism, and beyond. Known by Bernard of Clairveaux as the “hammer of the heretics,” Augustine’s battles against Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism are well documented, and each spurred the further development of his ideas. In his struggle against the Manichees, Augustine would refine his understanding of the nature of one triune God and the origins of evil (with assistance from Neoplatonic philosophers). Against the Donatists, who claimed to be the true “church of the martyrs,” Augustine would become a staunch defender of the Catholic Christian community in North Africa, which enjoyed imperial support. And against the Pelagians, he would clarify his doctrines of original sin, grace and redemption.
