ABSTRACT
Among his first readers, Augustine seems to have been widely regarded as a respected Christian teacher and saint. Augustine’s popularity and authority was probably due to, among other things, his unusual combination of philosophical skill and his engagement with the concerns of everyday Church life. The reasons for Augustine’s popularity and authority after his death are fairly self-evident. Augustine’s education and his role as a Church leader prepared him to unite philosophy and everyday Church life in his teaching. In addition, more than anybody before him, Augustine wrote extensively in Latin, and he confronted questions and controversies that were important to the Church. Doing so established his reputation as a skilled and authoritative defender of Catholicism. As Augustine’s fame grew throughout the Roman Empire, his works were increasingly read and discussed among learned Christians. No recorded critiques of Confessions from the period following its publication have been discovered.
