Lecture 20: The Distinctive Issues of the Latin West
o Strongly influenced by Ambrose in Milan, Augustine converted
to Christianity in 386 and, despite his protests that he was ill-
prepared, was ordained a priest in the North African city of
Hippo in 391; he was elected bishop in 395.o After a lifetime of prodigious pastoral and literary effort, he
died in 430 as the Vandals laid siege to the city of Hippo.o If Ambrose provided the political posture and Jerome the
biblical learning that shaped the subsequent West, Augustine
was the supreme source of its intellectual vision.Augustine’s Influence
• Augustine’s Confessions is not only a classic account of conversion,
but it also introduced a sense of interiority, of “self,” that was
distinctive. His remarkable self-awareness is revealed, as well,
in his Retractions, written shortly before his death, in which he
reviewed, criticized, and amended each of his voluminous writings.• Augustine’s polemical and doctrinal works provided fundamental
guidance for subsequent theology.
o His anti-Manichaean works established a sense of the church
and of the material order as positive. Despite his attraction
to the ascetical life, he developed a principled defense of
the created order: the goodness of the body, food, marriage,
and children.o His work on the Trinity introduced a profound “psychological”
model for understanding the inner life of the Christian God,
suggesting that the path of introspection by one created in the
image of God might plumb something of God’s inner life.o His writings against Donatism and Pelagianism asserted, on
one side, the importance of the church as an inclusive body of
sinners and, on the other side, the necessity of divine grace for
any human goodness. On both sides, he emphasized the frailty
of humans and the sovereignty and mercy of God.