St. Augustine Of Hippo Research Paper

St. Augustine
Joshua Perez
HRE 201
Word Count: 1043
Monday, October 27, 2014

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was born on November 13, 354 in Tagaste, in Northern Africa. He was a theologian and philosopher, born from Saint Monica and Patricius. St. Augustine, spent most of his life in the Manichaeism belief, though at the age of 32, converted to Christianity. He held an important role in the Christian faith and would carry the title ‘Church Father’. St. Augustine holds the status of ‘Church Father’ because he was a renowned preacher, had influential writing and combated false religions and their heresies.
As the leader of his basilica in Hippo, Augustine was a renowned preacher for over thirty-five years. St. Augustine had become a preacher
Augustine’s Bishop became sick, and then died in the year 395 from which St. Augustine would later be deemed as the new Bishop of Hippo. People loved being with St. Augustine as much as he loved being with them. Augustine’s intellectual insights to human nature allowed him to connect to the audience and during the course of his life, he preached approximately 8000 times. St. Augustine had a peculiar way of preaching which was from the heart, meaning that whenever he spoke, it was the inspiration of the moment; this allowed to keep focus on what was being taught rather than who was teaching. Whenever preaching, he respected everyone and symbolically speaking, did not talk down to them, he also made himself one with the listeners. Augustine before preaching would explain that there are two teachers at work, the exterior teacher, Augustine himself and God the interior teacher. Augustine’s interaction with the audience while preaching
Confessions, is an autobiography which describes Augustine’s spiritual quest to obtain true happiness and how he came to understand Christianity to be the one true faith. The book has been regarded as the first ever autobiography in the western world and was influential for over 1000 years to Christian writers thus inspiring the insights of modern phenomenology and hermeneutics. The City of God was written in the fifth century, when the Roman world was collapsing. The book explains and justifies Christianity and its role in the realm of this world. For instance, the Romans blamed Christianity for their downfall and Augustine in his writings proclaimed that Christianity is not only responsible for creating the downfall, but it was likewise responsible for Rome’s success. He also attempted to inform Christians that if Rome’s Empire were to collapse, the City of God and all who believe would still triumph. What Augustine was trying to convey from his book City of God was that Christians should be worried more about Heaven than earthly complications. Augustine’s writings were influential in many of his own time, his writings also helped to secure Christians to their