Rating: 
Summary: A classic biography of a master theologian
Review: Peter Brown melds the diverging factors to cover the history of a very complex man. By setting Augustine in his time and place he effecively traces the impacts on Augustine's life, which profoundly affect his doctrines. Make no mistake, Brown is writing an acedemic history, not hagiography. The reader should expect a thorough discussion of history, philosophy and or course religion. The evenhanded nature of the work and its beautiful style are a lesson for all other writers of religious biography.
Rating:
Summary: Best Biography I have Read--Period.
Review: Peter Brown's biography of Augustine is the best biography of anyone I have read. It explains the slowly evolving thought of a brilliant and complex thinker against a backdrop of culture, history, and intellectual currents of the day. What more could you want?
Rating:
Summary: Best Biography I have Read--Period.
Review: Peter Brown's biography of Augustine is the best biography of anyone I have read. It explains the slowly evolving thought of a brilliant and complex thinker against a backdrop of culture, history, and intellectual currents of the day. What more could you want?
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, Thorough, and Moving Biography
Review: Peter Brown's biography of Saint Augustine, written over 30 years ago, is still as fresh and inviting to-day, finding excited and interesting readers in whoever picks it up. Augustine lived from 354-430 AD. While this may seem remote, Brown has a special gift for making Augustine live through his writing style, which both provides clever and welcome points of modern comparison to Augustine's contemporary events. Another wonderful technique of Brown's biography is to let Augustine, for the most part, speak for himself - it is almost like a mediated autobiography, an expanded "Confessions," if you will.This manifests itself in the lengthy, but always extremely applicable excerpts that Brown draws for every occasion from Augustine's "Confessions," as well as his other major works, correspondence, religious tracts, and sermons. Brown is as little intrusive as possible, setting Augustine's writings, actions, and speeches in their immediate context. At the same time, Brown's exhaustive research is readily apparent, as he constantly refers to or makes note of the wide range of historical, biographical, and critical scholarship available to him as he wrote. A key element in Brown's biography is the importance of asserting Augustine's heritage as a particularly African one. Brown recovers and reminds us that for his massive impact on the course of Christian thought, Augustine was tied in remembrance to his native Thagaste, and through his ministry, to the seaside city of Hippo in Northern Africa. The African element asserts itself in Brown's emphasis on the African impact of many of Augustine's most definitive struggles - against the Manichees (who insist on static dualism and absolute wisdom), the Donatists (schismatics who insist on the primacy of their version of Catholicism), and the Pelagians (who insist on a form of radical free will). What is most important and most impressive about Brown's biography is that he renders a portrait of Augustine, the man. While other, now legendary figures are referred to as Saint Ambrose or Saint Jerome, Brown carefully calls the subject of his biography, in the spirit of Augustine's writings, simply Augustine. We see straight through the book Augustine's own pervasive preoccupation with the limitations and possibilities of the individual human being and his struggles with his faith and his responsibilities. In light of this, Brown consistently brings the reader back to Augustine's notion of the 'progress' of the person of faith. For Augustine, faith and belief were not matters of complacency. God and Heaven are to be always 'yearned' for, and actively sought, no matter how Augustine's thought shifts over the course of his life. There is a great hope in Augustine characterized by this idea that, although God's will may be fundamentally inaccessible, people must actively pursue and hopefully enrich their faith. In this context, Augustine is also very inclusive - his ideas for a church on earth that welcomes all people in all stages of faith who are willing to join is remarkable. So, yes, I heartily recommend Brown's biography of Augustine. That it is still in print and in revision is a testament to its own timelessness as a glimpse into the life of a quintessential thinker.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, Thorough, and Moving Biography
Review: Peter Brown's biography of Saint Augustine, written over 30 years ago, is still as fresh and inviting to-day, finding excited and interesting readers in whoever picks it up. Augustine lived from 354-430 AD. While this may seem remote, Brown has a special gift for making Augustine live through his writing style, which both provides clever and welcome points of modern comparison to Augustine's contemporary events. Another wonderful technique of Brown's biography is to let Augustine, for the most part, speak for himself - it is almost like a mediated autobiography, an expanded "Confessions," if you will. This manifests itself in the lengthy, but always extremely applicable excerpts that Brown draws for every occasion from Augustine's "Confessions," as well as his other major works, correspondence, religious tracts, and sermons. Brown is as little intrusive as possible, setting Augustine's writings, actions, and speeches in their immediate context. At the same time, Brown's exhaustive research is readily apparent, as he constantly refers to or makes note of the wide range of historical, biographical, and critical scholarship available to him as he wrote. A key element in Brown's biography is the importance of asserting Augustine's heritage as a particularly African one. Brown recovers and reminds us that for his massive impact on the course of Christian thought, Augustine was tied in remembrance to his native Thagaste, and through his ministry, to the seaside city of Hippo in Northern Africa. The African element asserts itself in Brown's emphasis on the African impact of many of Augustine's most definitive struggles - against the Manichees (who insist on static dualism and absolute wisdom), the Donatists (schismatics who insist on the primacy of their version of Catholicism), and the Pelagians (who insist on a form of radical free will). What is most important and most impressive about Brown's biography is that he renders a portrait of Augustine, the man. While other, now legendary figures are referred to as Saint Ambrose or Saint Jerome, Brown carefully calls the subject of his biography, in the spirit of Augustine's writings, simply Augustine. We see straight through the book Augustine's own pervasive preoccupation with the limitations and possibilities of the individual human being and his struggles with his faith and his responsibilities. In light of this, Brown consistently brings the reader back to Augustine's notion of the 'progress' of the person of faith. For Augustine, faith and belief were not matters of complacency. God and Heaven are to be always 'yearned' for, and actively sought, no matter how Augustine's thought shifts over the course of his life. There is a great hope in Augustine characterized by this idea that, although God's will may be fundamentally inaccessible, people must actively pursue and hopefully enrich their faith. In this context, Augustine is also very inclusive - his ideas for a church on earth that welcomes all people in all stages of faith who are willing to join is remarkable. So, yes, I heartily recommend Brown's biography of Augustine. That it is still in print and in revision is a testament to its own timelessness as a glimpse into the life of a quintessential thinker.
Rating:
Summary: Essential for lovers of Augustine
Review: This is the best biography I have ever read. Brown does a superb job of synthesizing an immense amount of biographical and textual information. The book is comprehensive and thorough without ever becoming tedious or heavy -handed. In fact, Brown writes so well that the book would probably be enjoyed by people who are not paricularly interested in Augustine. It is remarkable that Brown can do all of this in fewer than 500 pages, when biographies of figures far less significant than Augustine often exceed 1000. The only limitation to the book is that the author, as he himself freely admits, does not attempt to grapple with Augustine's most profound theological writings such as "The Trinity".
Rating:
Summary: "The Ingenious Work of a Scholarly Historian"
Review: With brilliance and radiance, Peter Brown has composed a masterful struture, which fluently conveys with luminesence, the untimely life of the most venerable St. Augustine. There are five parts of this book, which are all headed by a chronological table of the most eventful happenings in that particular period of antiquity. Entailing this are the most exquisite, and fruitfull chapters of this awesome work. The contents of this book I will leave enclosed for you to discover for yourself. For anyone within the realm of philosophy should have a keen understanding of St. Augustine. So, therefore, it isn't needfull for me to explain about any of the books material, but rather to simply encourage anyone who wishes to grasp ahold of its treasures, to avidly comply.
Rating: 
Summary: great biography
Review: Wow. This is a great biography. A lively and interesting recounting of St. Augustine's life is combined with perceptive interpretation of his thought. This is a good book for anyone interested in Augustine.
Rating:
Summary: Passionate History of Significant Church Father
Review: Written in 1961 while at Oxford, yet here given subsequent "New Directions" from additional historical developments, provides a provocative and captivating read of a most influential Christian, bishop, theologian and writer. Augustine is truly a gem of the church catholic, in a time of transition from one world power to another. Late Rome in Africa is so fascinating. Never before has it been brought to me the significance and the breath of this, yet here Brown does truly make one thirst for more. And I trust that this would be the highest compliment to his massive effort here, that one is stimulated for more of Augustine and his times. Truly this should be read and judged by its intended scope, a history, a biography, not a theological or philosophical work. He achieves his purpose convicncingly with what he had at the time. Amazed at the continuity and yet slowly opening maze of issues, personalilities, and cultural developments that the author maintains, yet all the time revolving around the inner tensions and development of this amazing individual. His background in Cicero and rhetoric served the church so well in his later years, as did his stints in Platonism and Manicheeism provide the necessary connects to his sigificant contributions to the spread of the early church and their bouts with Donatism, paganism and Pelagianism. Certainly has awakened my appetite to further study into this great Christian. As the 576 pages go so easily from the words of this fine writer, you will enjoy this read as well.
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