A Reader’s Guide to Augustine of Hippo

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. PSALM 119:105

Augustine left more writing than any other author of the ancient church: over a hundred books and treatises, hundreds of letters and hundreds of sermons. No one reads it all, and no one needs to. All of it is in the public domain in its original Latin, and a great deal is freely available in older English translations, above all in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, the series edited by Philip Schaff in the 1880s, whose first eight volumes are given to Augustine. The difficulty is not access but choice. What follows is a short map.

Begin here

Confessions. Begin here, and come back here. Thirteen books: the first nine tell his life to the death of his mother; the tenth examines his memory and his present heart; the last three meditate on time, eternity and the opening of Genesis. The Pusey translation is in the Ochorus library. It is old-fashioned but faithful. Among modern translations, Henry Chadwick’s (1991) is exact and readable, and F. J. Sheed’s (1943) is warm and much loved. Many readers leave the last books for a second reading.

Enchiridion. His own handbook of the faith, written for a layman, arranged under faith, hope and love. It is in the Ochorus library in J. F. Shaw’s translation from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Short, clear and the best single summary of his mature theology.

The great works

The City of God. Twenty-two books, written after the sack of Rome: the story of the two cities from creation to the end. The first ten books answer pagan objections and can be skimmed. Books XI to XIV and XIX to XXII are the heart. The translation by Marcus Dods in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers is widely available.

On Christian Doctrine. His handbook on reading and preaching Scripture, and the source of the rule of love. The first book is short and repays slow reading.

On the Trinity. His most demanding work, written over some twenty years. Read the first books for his handling of Scripture and the eighth to tenth for his search for the image of God in the soul. Not a place to start.

Sermons and commentary

Homilies on the Gospel of John and on the First Epistle of John. Sermons preached to his people at Hippo, plain and vivid. The homilies on First John, which contain the saying love, and do what you will, are the best introduction to Augustine the preacher.

Expositions of the Psalms. His longest work, on every Psalm. Dip in rather than read through.

On grace

The anti-Pelagian writings, gathered in the fifth volume of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: especially On the Spirit and the Letter, on the difference between the law that commands and the grace that gives, and On Grace and Free Will, a shorter, pastoral piece written for monks troubled by the controversy. These are the books the Reformers read most closely.

Approach with care

His late writings on predestination, On the Predestination of the Saints and On the Gift of Perseverance, and his letters defending the coercion of the Donatists, are part of the record and should be read, but read with Scripture open and with the cautions raised in this book in mind.

Shorter things

The Rule that bears his name, a brief guide to common life, still followed by religious communities today. The Retractations, his late review and correction of his own books. And his letters, which show the bishop at work.

About Augustine

Possidius, his friend and fellow bishop, wrote a short Life soon after his death; it is the only account by someone who knew him, and it is simple and moving. Peter Brown’s Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (1967, with a revised edition in 2000) is the standard modern life — learned, humane and beautifully written, and not afraid of the hard questions. Henry Chadwick’s brief Augustine (1986) is an excellent short introduction by a great scholar.

Three counsels for reading him

Read him as prayer. Much of what he wrote was spoken to God before it was written for us.

Read him whole. Do not take only the Augustine your tradition likes. The teacher of grace alone and the bishop of the Catholic church are the same man.

Read him under Scripture. He would insist on it. He placed his own writings far below the Bible, and spent his last years correcting them. Hold fast what agrees with the Word of God, let go what does not, and give thanks for the one who taught so many to say, with him, that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 TIMOTHY 3:16