Church History · AD 386 to 430

Augustine: Confessions and The City of God

Augustine was a brilliant, restless young man who heard a child's voice say Take up and read, opened Romans, and gave his life to Christ in 386. As bishop of Hippo he wrote Confessions and The City of God, and he shaped both Catholic and Protestant theology more than any writer since Paul.

Read it in the Bible: Romans 13:13-14 Ephesians 2:8-9 Hebrews 13:14 Matthew 11:28

Augustine of Hippo was converted to Christ in a garden in Milan in AD 386, after hearing a child's voice say, Take up and read. He became bishop of Hippo in North Africa and wrote two of the most important books in Christian history: Confessions, about 397 to 400, and The City of God, written from 413 to 426 after Rome was sacked. He died in 430. Outside the Bible, few writers have shaped Western Christianity more. Catholics honor him as a Doctor of the Church, and Martin Luther and John Calvin quoted him constantly.

Who Was Augustine?

Augustine was born on November 13, 354, in Thagaste, in what is now Algeria. His father, Patricius, was a pagan. His mother, Monica, was a devoted Christian who prayed for her son for years. He was gifted, ambitious and very much a party guy. As a teenager he lived with a girlfriend, had a son named Adeodatus, and later wrote about stealing pears just for the thrill of doing something wrong.

He spent about nine years in a religion called Manichaeism, which taught that the world was a battle between equal powers of light and darkness. He became a star teacher of public speaking and moved to Rome and then Milan in 384, aiming for a big career. Monica followed him there, still praying.

What Happened When Augustine Heard Take Up and Read?

In Milan, Augustine went to hear Bishop Ambrose preach. At first he went to study Ambrose's speaking style. But the content started getting through. He became convinced Christianity was true, but he could not let go of his old life.

One day in August 386, he was in a garden, weeping over his sins. He heard what sounded like a child's voice from a nearby house singing, tolle lege, tolle lege, take up and read. He picked up a copy of Paul's letters and read the first passage his eyes fell on.

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. Romans 13:13 to 14

He later wrote that a light of peace flooded his heart and the darkness of doubt vanished. Ambrose baptized him on Easter of 387. Monica died a few months later, having seen her prayers answered.

What Is Augustine's Confessions About?

Augustine returned to Africa, was made a priest in Hippo in 391 and became its bishop around 395. Soon after, around 397 to 400, he wrote Confessions. It is often called the first autobiography in Western literature, but it is really one long prayer to God.

He is honest about his sins, including his famous prayer as a young man: Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. He also wrote the line that is probably quoted more than anything else he said, from the very first paragraph:

You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You. Augustine, Confessions 1.1

It is a book about grace. Augustine did not find God. God found him and kept chasing him, through his mother's prayers, Ambrose's sermons and Paul's words.

Why Did Augustine Write The City of God?

In 410, the Visigoths under Alaric captured and looted Rome. It was the first time in 800 years that a foreign army had sacked the city. The shock was enormous. Pagans said Rome was being punished for abandoning the old gods and turning to Christ.

Augustine answered with The City of God, a huge work of 22 books written from 413 to 426. His big idea is that there are two cities. The earthly city is built on love of self. The city of God is built on love of God. They are mixed together in this world, but they are headed to different ends. Rome, like every human empire, would fall. The city of God would last forever.

For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Hebrews 13:14

Why Do Catholics and Protestants Both Claim Augustine?

Augustine wrote over five million words, and both sides of the Reformation found treasure in them.

Catholics value his teaching on the church, the sacraments, the authority of bishops and the unity of the church. He supported the councils of Hippo and Carthage that listed the books of Scripture. He is one of the original Doctors of the Church.
Protestants value his teaching on grace. In his debates with Pelagius, who taught that people could choose to be good on their own, Augustine argued that we are saved only by God's grace, which we cannot earn. Martin Luther was an Augustinian friar, and Calvin quotes Augustine more than any other writer.

Historians sometimes say the Reformation was a fight between Augustine's view of the church and Augustine's view of grace. It's a family argument where both sides quote the same grandfather.

His ideas also shaped teaching on original sin, the Trinity, the just war and how faith and reason fit together. Eastern Orthodox Christians respect him as a saint but are more cautious about some of his ideas, especially on original sin.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8 to 9

How Did Augustine Die?

In 430, the Vandals, a Germanic people, swept across North Africa and besieged Hippo. Augustine, now 75, fell ill during the siege. He asked for the penitential psalms to be written on the wall by his bed so he could read them, and he died on August 28, 430. The Vandals took the city, but his library survived, and his books went on to shape the next 1,600 years.

Why Augustine Matters for You Today

Augustine's story is good news for anyone with a messy past. He was proud, lustful and stubborn, and God saved him anyway. It is also a reminder that a mother's prayers are never wasted.

His big question is everyone's question: why can't I find rest? His answer is still the right one. Our hearts were made for God, and they stay restless until they rest in Him.

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

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Questions People Ask

What does tolle lege mean?

Tolle lege is Latin for take up and read. Augustine heard a child's voice singing these words in a garden in Milan in 386. He picked up Paul's letters, read Romans 13:13 to 14, and gave his life to Christ.

What is Augustine's Confessions about?

Confessions, written about 397 to 400, tells the story of Augustine's life, sins and conversion, written as a prayer to God. It includes the famous line, You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You. It is one of the most widely read Christian books ever written.

Why did Augustine write The City of God?

He wrote it from 413 to 426 after the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410, when pagans blamed Christians for the disaster. Augustine argued that human kingdoms rise and fall, but the city of God, made of those who love God, lasts forever. It became one of the most influential books in Western history.

Was Augustine Catholic or Protestant?

Augustine lived about 1,100 years before the Reformation, in the one undivided Western church. Catholics honor him as a Doctor of the Church and value his teaching on the church and sacraments. Protestants, including Luther and Calvin, drew heavily on his teaching about grace.

Sources

← The Councils of Rome, Hippo and Carthage Settle the Canon in the West Jerome Translates the Latin Vulgate →

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