The Key Teachings of Augustine of Hippo

This is not a book by Augustine of Hippo. It is a companion to him — an independent work of exposition and appreciation, written by Ochorus, that gathers the heart of his teaching into twenty short chapters for the ordinary reader. It tells his life plainly, as the life of an African bishop in a Roman province, and it draws throughout on the two of his books that sit in the Ochorus library, the Confessions and the Enchiridion.

Augustine’s one theme was the heart and its loves. We were made for God, and we cannot rest anywhere else; the tragedy of sin is love turned the wrong way, and the wonder of grace is that God Himself turns it back, going before the will He means to heal. This volume follows that thread through his conversion and his mother’s prayers, his teaching on evil, memory, time and the Trinity, his vision of the two cities, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the Sabbath rest, and it is honest about where he pressed too hard. Each chapter ends in a few questions and a prayer.

Augustine’s own writings are in the public domain and freely available in older English translations, and every chapter here names them so the reader can go to the source. This companion is offered only to open the door. It quotes Scripture from the Authorised (King James) Version, and makes no claim to stand in for the man’s own searching, praying pages.