Saint Augustine: A Life

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills brings the same fresh scholarship, lively prose, and critical appreciation that characterize his well-known books on religion and American history to this outstanding biography of one of the most influential Christian philosophers. Saint Augustine follows its subject from his youth in fourth-century Africa to his conversion and subsequent development as a theologian. It challenges the widely held misconceptions about Augustine's sexual excesses and shows how, in embracing classical philosophy, Augustine managed to enlist "pagan authors" in the defense of Christianity. The result is a biography that makes a spiritual ancestor feel like our contemporary.

Reviews

"Less the history of a man than the progress of a frank, dynamic, jazzy and fiercely serious mind . . . The writing is exceptional throughout-- rich and surprising with detail."
--Chicago Tribune

"Seldom has this long-familiar figure . . . emerged so fresh and challenging from under so masterful a hand."
--The New York Review of Books

"A brilliant biography . . . Garry Will's agile mind matches the agility of St. Augustine's. He presents his subject with candor and with empathy."
--The New York Times BookReview

Author Bio

Garry Willsis a historian and the author of theNew York TimesbestsellersWhat Jesus Meant,Papal Sin,Why I Am a Catholic, andWhy Priests,among others. A frequent contributor totheNew York Review of Booksand other publications, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor emeritus at Northwestern University. He lives in Evanston, Illinois