What Augustine Teaches Us Today - Dr. Carl R. Trueman

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Carl R. Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History and
Paul Woolley Chair of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Education

MA, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, 1988
PhD, University of Aberdeen, 1991

Teaching

Tutorial Assistant in Church History, University of Aberdeen, 1991--1993
Lecturer in Theology, University of Nottingham, 1993--1998
Senior Lecturer in Church History, University of Aberdeen, 1998--2001
Westminster, 2001--

St. Augustine - (354-430), Bishop of Hippo and "Doctor of the Church"

Accepted by most scholars to be the most important figure in the ancient Western church, St. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Numidia in North Africa. His mother was a Christian, but his father remained a pagan until late in life. After a rather unremarkable childhood, marred only by a case of stealing pears, Augustine drifted through several philosophical systems before converting to Christianity at the age of thirty-one. At the age of nineteen, Augustine read Cicero's Hortensius, an experience that led him into the fascination with philosophical questions and methods that would remain with him throughout his life. After a few years as a Manichean, he became attracted to the more skeptical positions of the Academic philosophers. Although tempted in the direction of Christianity upon his arrival at Milan in 383, he turned first to neoplatonism, During this time, Augustine fathered a child by a mistress. This period of exploration, including its youthful excesses (perhaps somewhat exaggerated) are recorded in Augustine's most widely read work, the Confessions.

During his youth, Augustine had studied rhetoric at Carthage, a discipline that