Book description
The son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Augustine spent
his early years torn between conflicting faiths and world views. His
Confessions, written when he was in his forties, recount how, slowly and
painfully, he came to turn away from his youthful ideas and licentious
lifestyle, to become instead a staunch advocate of Christianity and one
of its most influential thinkers. A remarkably honest and revealing
spiritual autobiography, the Confessions also address fundamental issues
of Christian doctrine, and many of the prayers and meditations it
includes are still an integral part of the practice of Christianity
today.
St Augustine of Hippo, the great Doctor of the Latin Church, was born
at Thagaste in North Africa, in A. D. 354. He was brought up as a
Christian but he was soon converted to the Manichean religion. He also
came under the influence of Neoplatonism. However, in 387 he renounced
all his unorthodox beliefs and was baptised. His surviving works had a
great influence on Christian theology and the psychology and political
theology of the West.
R. S. Pine-Coffin is a Roman Catholic and was born in 1917.
