Description

An eye-opening new history of one of Christianity’s most important figures – and one of Pope Leo XIV’s primary inspirations

‘Brilliant’ SPECTATOR
‘Illuminating’ NEW YORKER
‘Rich and sympathetic’ TLS

Augustine of Hippo is one of the world’s most influential theologians, an early Christian writer whose work shaped the course of Western philosophy. Born in Numidia in 354 CE, Augustine’s African identity has long been painfully denied. But it was foundational to his thinking and faith. Drawing on original sources and the Augustinian texts themselves, world-renowned scholar Catherine Conybeare traces Augustine’s travels from North Africa to the European continent and back again, placing his African origins firmly at the centre of his story.

A tale of exile, faith and identity, Augustine the African upends conventional knowledge about one of Christianity’s most celebrated saints, and recentres Africa as the locus of early Catholic intellectual activity – with Europe on the periphery.

Publisher Review

Conybeare […] intertwines learned exegesis with examples of Augustine’s human idiosyncrasies, offering illuminating analyses of the philosopher’s seminal texts and ideas * New Yorker * An engaging, thoughtful, and illuminating portrait… Conybeare vividly draws the thread of Augustine’s African identity through his life and work in a fresh and elegant way. She has enlarged my perspective on this monumental, complicated man * Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles * Beautifully written, thoroughly engaging and highly recommended * Literary Review * Rich, erudite and sympathetic… [Conybeare] allows us to appreciate [Augustine’s] thought anew * TLS * “A long-needed survey of the great theologian’s hinterland… His contemporary significance becomes clearer than ever in this excellent study.” — Rowan Williams This beautifully written and closely researched book is a powerful reminder of the intellectual validity and importance of questioning established and inherited narratives… it is a book startlingly charged and suffused with a sense of curiosity and compassion towards its subject , a quality that gives the
text an almost novelistic sense of emotional urgency * The Critic * A scholarly biography that places Augustine’s ambivalence toward Africa at the center of his and Christianity’s story * Kirkus Reviews * Succeeds brilliantly… [Conybeare] is a perceptive traveller, enlivening her textual work with vivid description * Spectator * Catherine Conybeare’s vital and exhilarating biography of Augustine portrays him, newly, in the context of his African society and identity. Through her meticulously researched yet utterly compelling account, we live with him through the upheavals that shaped his faith and his work. Conybeare’s is an important contribution and this is, simply, a wonderful book * Claire Messud, author of The Emperor’s Children * In this highly readable and innovative account, Conybeare has performed the challenging task of bringing alive this often-sidelined basis of Augustine’s life. With both verve and precision, she makes us see how central his African world was to the man and his ideas — Brent Shaw, Professor in Classics, Emeritus, at Princeton University It’s not just that Augustine the African is a book for a new generation… it is, more fundamentally, the first real portrait of Augustine qua African… .It will be liberating to get an African Augustine who leaves us with more options than sublime indifference or earnest handwringing — Jim Wetzel, Director of the Augustinian Institute, Villanova University