Augustine

Part of the acclaimed Greece and Rome Live series, which aims to introduce figures and aspects of the ancient world to the general reader and to students approaching the subject for the first time. Companion volume to Aideen Hartney's Gruesome Deaths and Celibate Lives, also published under the Phoenix imprint, which examines a selection of colourful early Christian martyrs. Pays particular attention to the historical context of Augustine's work, his education in the pagan classics and the Christian climate of his age. Includes handy combined index/glossary and a guide to further reading.

Explains just how and why Augustine came to abandon a successful career and the personal enjoyments of a largely secular existence to follow a life of prayer and study, leading to a true comprehension of God and the Bible. This title deals with Augustine's own experiences of religion, philosophy and Christian faith.Augustine's 'Confessions', written at the close of the fourth century CE, is a highly significant text in the history of European culture. Augustine explains just how and why he came to abandon a successful career and the personal enjoyments of a largely secular existence to follow a life of prayer and study, leading to a true comprehension of God and the Bible. The avowed approach of this introductory book is to 'historicise' - to set Augustine's own experiences of religion, philosophy and Christian faith against the long-standing political, cultural and religious traditions of the classical world. Late antiquity saw the transformation of the classical heritage and its transmission by Christian authors. Augustine's ideas about how texts may be presented and read, how people respond to written and spoken language, find resonance in recent critical theory.The world in which Augustine lived, the structure, style and purpose of the Confessions, and the problems of rhetoric and truth posed by its author's personal search for himself are all scrutinised in this lucid introductory account. The volume also offers a useful guide to further reading.