Rating: 
Summary: Greatest of the Greats
Review: Anyone who is familiar with Garry Wills over the past 30 years is familiar with his interest in Saint Augustine. As he put it when he was in college and the seminary he learned much about Saint Thomas Aquinas, but relatively little about Saint Augustine. Once he had been out in the world for bit he realized that he was returning over and over where Saint Augustine while Saint Thomas Aquinas stayed on as bookshelf.Wills does two corrections right off the bat that helped to avoid a lot of confusion and made the human drama in Africa more alive. First, he renamed the Confessions the Testimony, since "confessions" in this case doesn't mean going into a box or getting the third degree. "Confessions" means this is what Saint Augustine believed, pure and simple. Second, he names Saint Augustine's mistress, because Augustine never does. Wills gives her the name Una, meaning one, for she was the one. Wills makes the good point that Saint Augustine may have had a love life that was torrid, but compared to our century, he and Una were like the college couple next door. Saint Augustine, all through his life, was never promiscuous. Augustine and Una had one son from their association, whose name Wills translates as Godsend (from Adeodatus). Augustine was not pleased with the birth, though Godsend became a constant companion until his birth after Augustine returned to Africa. Augustine founded a monastic order that exists to this day. Two American colleges (Villanova and Merrimack) are Augustinian schools. He wrote and expounded on a wide range of topics. His meditation on the Trinity is still compelling: The Father created the Son, and the love between the two formed the Holy Spirit. In an earlier work, Wills said that the first two verses of St. John's Gospel have a sense of turning, as the Father beheld (and turned) on the Concept (logos). Still another idea was that of original sin, the sin of Adam or the shortcomings we all have for being human. St. Augustine worked that out, and many give their assent to the notion. Wills, in another work, said that he thought original sin said that the human race had a past, as people once talked of women having pasts. Thomas Merton rings in by saying original sin was self-centeredness, and few would deny that an infant is totally self-centered. And G. K. Chesterton wrote that original sin explained why, on a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon, two young children would decide to torture the cat. For a book so short, it contains a mine of ideas and information. I'm a fan of Wills, and I've read many of his books. I've been waiting for this book for some years now, and this book did not disappoint me.
Rating: 
Summary: Small book - small story
Review: As a non-Catholic I had heard St Augustine's name nevertheless on countless occasions, usually uttered with a suggestion of awe. I wanted to know more, but did not fancy a specialist's tome; yet I wished for more than an encyclopaedia entry. Unfortunately the book is not for the beginner, but supposes much prior knowledge. While the author's view that the saint was not a reprehensible debauchee who made good when his hormones had subsided with age seems somewhat unorthodox (and quite plausible) there is little to put the reader clearly in the historical or geographic or, even, political background. No index, poor bibliography, not a single map. Thus it seems too slight as an introduction to the life of the saint, and is, of course, not a definitive study. It did not inspire me to seek other studies of Augustine. If it could not inspire the author to write in a more inviting manner, perhaps the inspiring days of the saint are long past.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs prior knowledge of Augustine; some history invented
Review: As some reviewers have mentioned, this book presupposes you know a lot about Augustine before you read this. This assessment is correct--you do. Wills freqently stops in mid-discusssion to get into arguing with other translaters about whether a given word should be translated one way or the other. And if you don't know about Augustine's life (presumably true, if you're reading a biography), you have no idea why the author is making a big deal about each translation point. And they are numerous. In addition, key facts that most biographers would introduce for the reader are skipped. For example, he refers to the Maximus the Usurper in his pages as if you should know who he is. Who Maximus is or why he is important is never explained. Other references to key players are left similarly unexplained. Other parts that are suspicious. After a long explanation of the origins of the word 'confession' and its use in Augustine's time, Wills decides to call Augustine's most famous work not by its universal title "The Confessions" but "The Testimony." What is the point of renaming a book that is known by everyone under one name? Everytime he refers to the Testimony, you mentally correct it to the Confessions. This is a pointless distraction and it makes you suspicious of what other titles have been intenetionally retranslated to something no one would recognize. Likewise, he gives the name Una to Augustine's mistress, even though there is no record this was her name. Personally, I don't like this kind of self-created biography. I was expecting a book that would lay out Augustine's life, and at various points dip deeply into the theological debates and explain Augustine's views in the context of his times and also detail how they affected Catholic/Christian thinking after him. This is not that book. This is a treatise arguing for a different translation of Augustine; it's not a biography.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: I know Mr. Wills is a scholar's scholar and would clobber me in a game of Jeopardy,but this book wasn't very good. I now find myself really wanting to read the Brown bio on Augustine - as those quotes used were points to look forward to in Wills' book. I don't know why Wills waited until the last 25 pages to write in a concise manner (the way Brown must) and truly explore what made Augustine's unique life so fascinating. I just wish the first 100 pages would have been as interesting. Instead they read like an intellectual 'mailing one in'. Heres betting this was a blip on the screen, and Mr. Wills next effort will live up to the justified high praise he has earned over the years.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating interpretation, but not for the Augustine novice
Review: I really loved this book for Wills' powerful refutations of the Augustine I learned about in college-- an intolerant, negative person totally obsessed with sex. Wills presents a much more humane and spritually uplifting view of Augustine. Wills thus spends much of the book refuting earlier, seemingly erroneous interpretations of Augustine. For this reason, it seems important that one have at least a rudimentary knowledge of Augustine to fully appreciate Wills' approach. Though primarily focused on Augustine's theological development, Wills does a fairly good job of helping us to understand Augustine the person. It is in this area that I which Wills had delved deeper, for the information and insights here were most interesting. All in all, an inspiring and thought-provoking read.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating interpretation, but not for the Augustine novice
Review: I really loved this book for Wills' powerful refutations of the Augustine I learned about in college-- an intolerant, negative person totally obsessed with sex. Wills presents a much more humane and spritually uplifting view of Augustine. Wills thus spends much of the book refuting earlier, seemingly erroneous interpretations of Augustine. For this reason, it seems important that one have at least a rudimentary knowledge of Augustine to fully appreciate Wills' approach. Though primarily focused on Augustine's theological development, Wills does a fairly good job of helping us to understand Augustine the person. It is in this area that I which Wills had delved deeper, for the information and insights here were most interesting. All in all, an inspiring and thought-provoking read.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: I think that the reviewer who said this is not for the beginner is probably correct. While the book is well done, the greatness of Augustine may be missed by those unfamiliar with him, especially his Confessions. But I did enjoy reading Wills' views of what Augustine meant to philosophy and would recommend it on that basis.
Rating:
Summary: A relatively pain-free introduction to Augustine
Review: I wanted very much to like this book, and I did by the time I finished and reflected on it. Publication of a short biography of Augustine, an influential but little-known (to modern Americans) figure in Western history, was a great idea, and I'm pleased that Penguin took on the project. Writing a biography of someone like Augustine is difficult -- little information is available other than Augustine's surviving writings. The successful biographer needs to ground the available information, and a critical rereading of previous biographies, in our current understanding of the state of society at that time. Garry Wills has pulled that off nicely. Augustine lived in interesting times: Church doctrine was evolving while identifying heretical docrines (e.g., Donatists); the Roman Empire was effectively split in two, with the Western capital moved from Rome to Ravenna; and (mainly) Christianized "barbarian" groups were taking over large sections of the Western Empire (Alaric's Goths captured Rome during Augustine's lifetime, and Augustine died near the end of the Vandal conquest of Roman Africa). Wills successfully places Augustine's life in context of these important events. Other Amazon reviewers have noted that this is not a good introductory volume. I disagree, as long as the reader has some knowledge of the historical period. Even in that case, however, the early sections of the book can drag -- e.g., with lengthy reinterpretations of specific Augustinian phrases. But how can one complain about an Augustine biography that (in the final pages, anyhow) manages to incorporate discussions of both Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and Chesterton's "Secrets of Father Brown"?
Rating:
Summary: A fine job on a difficult subject
Review: I wanted very much to like this book, and I did by the time Ifinished and reflected on it. A short biography of Augustine, aninfluential but little-known (to modern Americans) figure in Western history, was a great idea. Writing a biography of someone like Augustine is difficult -- little information is available other than Augustine's surviving writings. The successful biographer needs to ground the available information, and a critical rereading of previous biographies, in our current understanding of the state of society at that time. Garry Wills has pulled that off nicely. Augustine lived in interesting times: Church doctrine was evolving and identifying heretical docrines (e.g., Donatists); the Roman Empire was effectively split in two, with the Western capital moved from Rome to Ravenna; and (mainly) Christianized "barbarian" groups were taking over large sections of the Western Empire (Alaric's Goths captured Rome during Augustine's lifetime, and Augustine died near the end of the Vandal conquest of Roman Africa). Wills successfully places Augustine's life in context of these important events. Other Amazon reviewers have noted that this is not a good introductory volume. I disagree, as long as the reader has some knowledge of the historical period. Even in that case, however, the early sections of the book can drag -- e.g., with lengthy reinterpretations of specific Augustinian phrases. But how can one complain about an Augustine biography that (in the final pages, anyhow) manages to incorporate discussions of both Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and Chesterton's "Secrets of Father Brown"?
Rating:
Summary: One Thing
Review: I was prompted to read this book after reading E.L. Doctorow's novel, City of God. I wanted to learn more about Augustine to think further about the obvious allusion in Doctorow's title, and throughout his book. I had read Augustine before, and was not a total newcomer to his thought. But I need a refresher and something that would expand my limited understanding. Wills's book is short, clearly written, and presents in an accessible form something of the nature of this complex person, thinker, and theologian. But the book is no mere introduction. It in many ways takes issue with other accounts of Augustine and presents him in a manner that shows why he is worthy of the attention of the modern reader, as he has been of readers throughout the ages. Wills spends a lot of time arguing that the title "Confessions" for Augustine's most famous work is inappropriate and retitles it "Testimony". This point has been made many times before, but in the process Wills does teach us something about the book. The process is not merely a pedantic exercise. Wills also argues that Augustine was not a sexual libertine in his youth and, actually more importantly for the modern reader, that he was not anti-sexual in his old age. He presents a Christianity that does not despise the body (making the simple point that in Christianity God came to the earth in a body) and that seeks to use the body for God's purpose in humility and love. In fact, Wills presents Augustine as correcting the anti-physical bias of pagan ascetics of his day. The texts I was interested in for my purposes were the Confessions("Testimony") and City of God. The first text is referred to repeatedly in the first half or so of the book and forms the basis for Wills' discussion of Augustine's life, conversion, and theology. The second book is summarized briefly late in the book, and I found it useful. Again, Wills argues agains an other-worldy interpretation of the City of God and finds Augustine willing to bring the City to earth in a world believers share with nonbelievers through an early form of toleration, through love, and through common purpose. There is a good, if necesarily brief, description in the book of the closing days of the Roman Empire. This is in itself worth reading and I had known little about it. I think somebody coming to Augustine for the first time could benefit from the book and be encouraged to think and learn more. I found it useful. I think Penguin is to be commended for its biographical series, making important lives accessible to modern readers in brief, but not superficial texts.
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