Rating: 
Summary: History and Spirit
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.
Rating: 
Summary: I learned very little from this book.
Review: If you are trying to learn more about this famous figure in history, I do not think this book will serve your purpose. While it does contain a few facts that are worth noting, for instance, the religious differences that prevailed long before the Reformation, very little stirred my interest or imagination in this account. I cannot recommend it as a source for truly understanding this major church and world figure.
Rating: 
Summary: Straightforward recounting of Augustine's life & writings
Review: Penguin Lives presumes the reader has scant familiarity with the subject. Unfortunately, Mr. Wills assumes that the reader does know a great deal about Augustine and figures such as Mani, Origen, Pelagius, Jerome, et al. Mr. Wills needed to explain more about what these persons believed. As a reader who had some limited knowledge of these, I could not always see how their views conflicted with Augustine's. A minor complaint: there should have been a one page map showing Augustine's travels. The most serious problem with the book is that it does not show why this man, dead 1500 years, is still influential. Mr. Wills's work recounts Augustine's life and beliefs thoroughly. And his modern literary references do show that Augustine has some tangential influence. But nothing like Augustine actually exerts in Christian's views on sex, predestination, and the roles of secular v. religious leaders. Suggestion for Penguin Lives: biography of Mani.
Rating: 
Summary: Augustine the Human: A Quick and Thoughtful Overview
Review: Prior to reading this brief summary of the Life of Augustine, I had been quite prejudiced. I had not been given insights into the human behind the theology. Wills quickly dispelled my hostility by pointing out that the famous "Confessions" are not an inventory of the Bishop of Hippo's weaknesses, mistakes, and sins. Instead Wills makes clear that the "Confessions" are a Testimonial of this man's journey to know the unknowable, a monologue addressed to an unresponsive Yahweh. Wills makes clear that despite the breast-beating of the "Confessions" and the misogyny of the elder theologian, Augustine was no libertine, in fact Wills makes clear that Augustine was a serial monogomist prior to being baptized. Wills also points out that Augustine was physically abused during his childhood. {By coincidence, I read Alice Miller's "Drama of the Gifted Child" in parrallel with this oh too brief Life.} In my high school years, we used Classic Comics to avoid the lengthy readings assigned us in Eng & American Lit. In college we used Cliff Notes and "trots" to keep ahead of the Latin assignments. All of our that these abbreviations would stop us from viewing the total work. In that sense, some readers will regard this Life and the other Penuin Lives with distaste. To the contrary, Wills' short precise and cursory biography has led me to the longer Brown tome, as well as to the text of Augustine's writings with renewed interest. I seek further understanding as to Augustine's pagan stoicism regarding marital pleasure. Wills points out that Augustine's mother was a Donatist, a Christian heresey marked by a total lack of forgiveness. This insight alone makes this slender volume Augustine have only one unwanted child during fifteen years of a monogamous relationship? Did Augustine practice pagan methods of birth limitation such as coitus interruptus and/or anal intercourse? Wills offers no clear or convincing explanation of Augusitine's repulsion towards sexual marital pleasure, although Augustine's senior citizen writings which despise a "lack of control" in marital pleasures, might indicate priapism and/or premature ejaculations and/or nocturnal emissions. This short "trot" by Wills is a welcome first start. [Please do not confuse whereas uncurious George uses his dill pickle pacifier in his op ed pieces.] A good introduction to a complex individual. Like any hors d'oeuvre Wills' Augustine will lead one to a more filling repast. And, more important, it gives us the human behind the metaphysics.
Rating:
Summary: The philosophy of St. Augustine.
Review: St. Augustine's life was that of a writer on the relationship between God and his people. Much of the material he has written forms the backbone of the Christian religions. He is an important person in Western civilization. This book by Garry Wills is supposed to tell Augustine's biography. Instead Wills spends countless pages on philosophical arguments and one does not get a good view of this man nor the times he lived in.
A previous reviewer commented that one should read the writings of St. Augustine himself, rather than try to fathom what he stood for in the Wills book. I agree with this assessment.
I don't really care for Wills' politics and after this book not alot for his writing. This was a difficult book for me to get through. Even though it is short, the writing style has a lot to be desired. Perhaps Wills intended this book for his students at Northwestern. A real disappointing read!
Rating:
Summary: The philosophy of St. Augustine.
Review: St. Augustine's life was that of a writer on the relationship between God and his people. Much of the material he has written forms the backbone of the Christian religions. He is an important person in Western civilization. This book by Garry Wills is supposed to tell Augustine's biography. Instead Wills spends countless pages on philosophical arguments and one does not get a good view of this man nor the times he lived in.
A previous reviewer commented that one should read the writings of St. Augustine himself, rather than try to fathom what he stood for in the Wills book. I agree with this assessment.
I don't really care for Wills' politics and after this book not alot for his writing. This was a difficult book for me to get through. Even though it is short, the writing style has a lot to be desired. Perhaps Wills intended this book for his students at Northwestern. A real disappointing read!
Rating:
Summary: One Thing
Review: There's one thing here which really hit me hard, and I commend Wills for putting it forward. He gets into the relationship between Calvin and Augustine, which B.B. Warfield also explored. Wills says Calvin clamped down Augustine into a fixed setting of wrought doctrine, but that this effort was essentially Calvinistic--not Augustinian. Augustine, by contrast, according to Wills, was more willing to see God's word and guiding hand as a process with a relationship to our understanding--where our understanding can see more as time goes on, and as we go through life. That's about all Wills does with this, but it's a big idea, worth considering. To take it further, and to borrow a theme articulated by Jarrett Stevens, could it be that a lot of Calvinists are fixated on "Letters from John" to the point that they miss the inspiration of those letters which Calvin got from Augustine? Or push it furhter, and isn't it clear that Augustine was trying to be a Christ-follower, and not just a system-maker? But let's not dump too much on Calvin, since he also, as he said, "promptly and sincerely," sought to offer his life and his work to God--like Augustine. Corollary insight: This is a small book, but unlike "The Prayer of Jabez" it really does contain very big ideas. I'm neutral on whether you need a background on Augustine to get much out of it.
Rating:
Summary: Wills does it again -- an excellent work.
Review: This book is a brilliant introduction to a profound man. An intellectual biography of the best sort, Wills' _St. Augustine_ will deepen readers' appreciation of the Saint's life and writings, and send them to the libraries for more. The only way to improve this book would be to double or triple its length -- Wills clearly has more to share on the topic of Augustine and his works. Here's hoping the wait won't be too long.
Rating: 
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY! Buy
Review: This book is like weak tea ... to help grandmothers swallow their finger cookies. The writing is appallingly bad. The scholarship is pathetic. And the book offers not a single new insight into the Bishop of Hippo. Augstine must be turning in his grave!!!! If you want to learn of the nature and personality of this great saint, read Sr. Maria Boulding's marvelous translation of Augstine's "Confessions".
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting book
Review: This book is not an introduction to Augustine. So people who don't know anything about him should go to their local library, do some research and then buy this book. Wills knowledge of that period is amazing. He not only knows his political history, but also the cultural history of the time. Overall, a good read.
| 
