Augustine the African

Catherine Conybeare's biography reexamines St. Augustine's life and legacy by emphasizing his North African birth, Berber heritage, and experiences as an African in the Roman Empire.

Drawing on his Confessions, City of God, letters, and involvement in controversies like the Donatist schism, it traces how his groundbreaking ideas on Christianity, original sin, and human pilgrimage emerged from an African context during the crumbling Western Roman Empire.

The book upends conventional wisdom by portraying Augustine as both African and Roman, outsider and insider.