A Review of Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo Essay -- Augustine Hippo

A Review of Peter dark-browns Augustine of Hippo Peter embrowns Augustine of Hippo is a dense, scholarly pass outlining the entire t cardinal of the Catholic bishop. The University of California Press in Berkeley, California published the release in 1967. My version was the 1973 second paperback printing, found in the University library. Its smallish, scholarly, serifed, typewritten causa allows for a instant respect for the subject matter the words ar at first imposing, only then revealing as their right tone complements the complexity of the text. The pages are studded with footnotes, filling out this work with evidence of Browns exhaustive research. There is a three-page present before the work, and, after the work, a seventeen-page bibliography, and ten-page index. Browns book is organized, wish well any scholarly biography, chronologically according to Augustines life. It is separated into quin parts, each corresponding to significant portions of Augustines life his pagan life, his conversion, his actions against the Donatists, his actions against Pelagians, and his nett legacy and death. Each part opens with a chronological table of events some(prenominal) directly involving Augustine and the world he lived in. The first part begins with Africa, a chapter expand the section of northern Africa its Greco-Roman literary and political history, painting a picture of the world Augustine came from. The next chapter, titled Monica, describes Augustines parents, particularly his mother, and their unearthly beliefs and socioeconomic status. Education, the third chapter, is about the future bishops early education, counsel on his introduction to his favorite school subject, Latin literature. T... ...uum Writing the urban center of God, rather than just City of God. (This chapter is actually misprinted in the table of limit as Opus Magnum rather than Magnum Opus, a small error, but one easy enough to catch in proofreading, for this second paperbac k edition. Also, Brown has a penchant for Latin or French phrases, inserted randomly to acquit special meaning this could be forgivable if they were translated or explained, even in the spacious footnotes they are not, leaving the layman reader frequently disconnected and agitated. But, this book is not intended for the layman it is a scholarly work, and most readers would be in his field of antiquity, and most probably know Latin, and be more acquainted with familiar French phrases. Augustine of Hippo is not perfect, but it is an extremely good biography, being both exceedingly thorough and to the full captivating.