Augustine: Conversions and Confessions

Description

A major interpretation of how one of the great figures of Christian history came to write the greatest of all autobiographies 'Give me chastity, but not yet', young Augustine famously prayed to God. The Confessions, his masterpiece, is a classic study of anguish, hesitation and what he believes to be God's intervention. It has inspired philosophers, Christian thinkers and monastic followers, but still leaves readers wondering why Augustine chose to compose a work like none before it. Robin Lane Fox follows him on a brilliantly-described journey through his various conversions and their sequels. He combines the latest scholarship with recently-found letters and sermons by Augustine himself to give a portrait of his subject which is subtly different from previous biographies.

Robin Lane Fox is Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford, and was until 2014 Reader in Ancient History in Oxford University. He is the author of Pagans and Christians (1986), The Unauthorised Version (1992) and many books on classical history, including Alexander the Great (1973), The Classical World (2005) and Travelling Heroes (2008), all of which have been widely translated. He has been the gardening correspondent of the Financial Times since 1970.

Fifty years ago we learned how much more there was to say when Peter Brown published his magnificent life, Augustine of Hippo ... [Lane Fox] has now done Brown one better ... Brown managed to tell the whole story, from birth to death, with great economy and flair. Fox aims for full immersion, and he conjures the intellectual and social life of the late Roman empire with an almost Proustian relish for detail. -- Mark Lilla * New York Times Book Review * Undoubtedly a watershed in Augustinian studies ... the magisterial and compellingly readable narrative ... makes full and creative use of all the best recent scholarship. -- Rowan Williams * New Statesman *