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In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. Now modern listeners will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.

A story of spiritual awakening, St. Augustine's Confessions is a fascinating look at the life of an eminent Christian thinker. Widely seen as one of the first Western autobiographies ever written, it chronicles the life and religious struggles of Augustine of Hippo, from his days as a self-confessed sinner to his acceptance of Christianity as an older adult.

The Confessions by Saint Augustine is considered an all-time number one Christian classic. Augustine undertook his greatest piece of writing with the conviction that God wanted him to make this confession. The Confessions is, in fact, an extended poetic, passionate, intimate prayer.

Of all the autobiographies ever written by mere mortals, Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo is the greatest. In this masterpiece, you will find a doctor of the church longing for the true doctor of the soul, Christ. Taking us from Augustine’s roots in Africa to his encounters with his spiritual father Saint Ambrose in Milan, from his battle against his concupiscence to his famed conversion, Confessions is itself a veritable pilgrimage to the threshold of the new Jerusalem.

Confessions, St Augustine’s autobiographical work comprising 13 books, is not a complete autobiography as it was written during his early 40s. He states his regrets for having followed Manichaeism and believing in astrology, and tells of Saint Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. Besides giving an account of the author’s sinful youth and his conversion, Confessions is also an important theological work, featuring spiritual meditations and insights. The City of God is a book of Christian philosophy.

The City of God is the usual English translation of the most influential work written in the fifth century. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, wrote it between 413 and 426. Augustine argued that Christianity was not the cause of the empire’s collapse. He turned the gaze from the city of Rome to the City of God, in the spiritual life of true believers.

This book was written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430) to discuss the Trinity in relation to God the Word (logos). Even though it is not as well known as some of his other writings, it is considered by many to be his masterpiece and of more doctrinal importance than either the Confessions or the City of God. St. Augustine is considered a saint in the Catholic Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He is ranked among the doctors of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church.

Sermons from St. Augustine's Church, Wembley Park.

If anyone will piously and soberly consider the sermon which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke on the mount, as we read it in the Gospel according to Matthew, I think that he will find in it, so far as regards the highest morals, a perfect standard of the Christian life. And this, we do not rashly venture to promise, but gather it from the very words of the Lord himself. 

In this famous treatise, St. Augustine (AD 354 - 430) covers the question of the role of free will in our lives and how it contrasts with the role of God's grace. He gives scriptural arguments to show that we cannot earn the grace of God, yet this does not deny the role that free will plays in our own salvation.

The Enchiridion, or as it is sometimes titled, Faith, Hope, and Love, is a short treatise on Christian piety, written in response to a request soon after the death of St. Jerome in 420. The essay was meant to serve as a model for Christian instruction (catechesis). 

There are some persons who suppose that the freedom of the will is denied whenever God’s grace is maintained, and who on their side defend their liberty of will so peremptorily as to deny the grace of God. This grace, as they assert, is bestowed according to our own merits. It is in consequence of their opinions that I wrote the book entitled On Grace and Free Will. This work I addressed to the monks of Adrumetum, in whose monastery first arose the controversy on that subject, and that in such a manner that some of them were obliged to consult me thereon.

Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430 AD) was an early Christian theologian and philosopher from North Africa whose writings influenced all of Western Christianity. Augustine's Confessions is one of the most influential works of Latin literature. Written in the last years of the fourth century AD during his early years as a bishop, the work reflects on his life and on the acts of remembering and recounting a life.

In the first part of the book, he proves that the perseverance by which a man perseveres in Christ to the end is God’s gift; for that it is a mockery to ask of God that which is not believed to be given by God. Moreover, that in the Lord’s prayer scarcely anything is asked for but perseverance, according to the exposition of the martyr Cyprian, by whose exposition, the enemies to this grace were convicted before they were born.

Augustin has made no mention of this treatise in his book of Retractations; for the reason, no doubt, that it belonged to the collection of the Epistles, for which he designed a separate statement of Retractations. In all the mss., this work begins with his usual epistolary salutation: “Augustin, to his holy brethren and fellow-bishops Eutropius and Paulus.” And yet, by general consent, this epistle has been received as a treatise, not only in those volumes of his works which contain this work, but also in the writings of those ancient authors who quote it.

St. Augustine begins with a statement of what is to be investigated concerning nature and grace; he shows that nature, as propagated from the flesh of the sinful Adam, being no longer what God made it at first - faultless and sound - requires the aid of grace in order that it may be redeemed from the wrath of God and regulated for the perfection of righteousness.

The book, On Care to Be Had for the Dead, I wrote, having been asked by letter whether it profits any person after death that his body shall be buried at the memorial of any Saint. The book begins thus: "Long time unto your Holiness, my venerable fellow bishop Paulinus".

Containing a particular refutation of the doctrine of these heretics regarding the origin and nature of evil; an exposure of their pretended symbolical customs of the mouth, of the hands, and of the breast; and a condemnation of their superstitious abstinence and unholy mysteries. Lastly, some crimes brought to light among the Manichaeans are mentioned.

Erasmus infers from the style and language of this piece, that it is not S. Augustin’s, putting it in the same category with the treatises "On Continence", "On substance of Charity", "On Faith of Things Invisible". 

A Letter of Augustin to Boniface, who, as we learn from Epistle 220, was Tribune, and afterwards Count in Africa. In it, Augustin shows that the heresy of the Donatists has nothing in common with that of Arius; and points out the moderation with which it was possible to recall the heretics to the communion of the Church through awe of the imperial laws. He adds remarks concerning the savage conduct of the Donatists and Circumcelliones, concluding with a discussion of the unpardonable nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost.