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  • St. Augustine in 90 Minutes

  • Written by: Paul Strathern
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
  • 3.6 out of 5 stars (19 ratings)

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St. Augustine in 90 Minutes

Written by: Paul Strathern
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's Summary

Augustine's struggles with sex and a domineering mother, followed by his spiritual crisis and conversion to Christianity, detailed in his Confessions, ultimately led him to his major contribution to philosophy: the fusion of the two doctrines of Christianity and Neoplatonism. This not only provided Christianity with a strong intellectual backing but tied it to the Greek tradition of philosophy. In this way Christianity managed to keep the flame of philosophy burning, however dimly, through the Dark Ages. Augustine also produced important philosophic ideas of his own, including theories of time and subjective knowledge that anticipated by many centuries the work of Kant and Descartes.

In St. Augustine in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of St. Augustine's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from St. Augustine's work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place St. Augustine within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

©1997 Paul Strathern (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

What the critics say

"Well-written, clear, and informed, they have a breezy wit about them. I find them hard to stop reading." (The New York Times)

What listeners say about St. Augustine in 90 Minutes

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Not a fan

This is one of the best examples I’ve heard of someone who clearly has no understanding (or desire to understand) their subject. Complete waste of time

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A superficial polemic

Infused with far too much opinion and far too little fact. I was excited to spend 90 minutes learning about the philosophy and impact of the Latin west’s most influential thinker. Instead I listened to an “academic” superficially introduce concepts like Platonism and the Donatist Controversy and promptly mischaracterize them Augustine’s role and impact within them. Mine is a superficial knowledge of these things, and yet somehow I still know enough to recommend listeners go elsewhere.

This is an academic with an agenda, and very little(if any at all) love for truth.

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Augustine out of context!

Should be titled “Augustine as I think of him after only 90 minutes of study”!

At one point the author berates Plotinus as one who “claimed to know Plato’s philosophy better than Plato himself”. In this pithy, weak and entirely secular and near anti-Christian work the author seems to fall into the similar trap: claiming to know Augustine better than Augustine explains himself! The conclusion the author makes of his history, conversion, and philosophies are near baseless and taken from a pseudo-psycho-analytical approach rather than a textual-historical one. We see Augustine then not as he was, but as the author perceives him to be. The portrait of Augustine herein proposed is thus weak and riddled with modern sociological judgements rather than a true portrait of the man himself.
Thoroughly unsatisfactory and biased towards a modern view of the subject matter rather than the subject in its historical context and self-testament. A weak listen and I stopped before finishing. I’ll not give any more time to this author’s works.

A far better (albeit slightly more lengthy) audio book on Augustine exists on Audible that I enjoyed greatly prior to listening to this one. I’d recommend it for a better use of your time and brain-power.

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