‘Saint Augustine’ Explores Bishop’S Life

“Saint Augustine” Bb Garry Wills (Viking Penguin, 152 pages, $19.95)

“Since it is God we are speaking about, you do not understand it. If you could understand it, it would not be God.”

While acknowledging this paradox, Aurelius Augustine of Hippo could not resist it, either. He was only a Catholic bishop of a small port city in what is now Algeria. But in his search for understanding, he produced some 8,000 sermons, countless letters and 93 books, including “The Confessions” and “The City of God,” writing that shaped the foundation of Western theological and political thought.

In a wonderfully concise and adept new book, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Garry Wills presents the life of St. Augustine. Wills challenges conventions and refutes popular notions.

The most famous biography of St. Augustine is the one he wrote himself, “The Confessions.” Superficial readings of Augustine’s reflections on his youth have enforced the modern image of him as a debauched ex-libertine. But Wills is quick to point out that Augustine’s actual sexual activity consisted of a monogamous 15-year relationship with a concubine, a relationship recognized by both Roman law and the church, and “not shocking by any standards but those of a saint.”

In a mere 150 pages, Wills provides probing insights into Augustine’s life and thought. While Augustine’s own work fills volumes, this compact treatment is anything but superficial. The man who redefined the relationship between body and soul, and between the soul and the state, is given new, sharp definition, compelling readers to reconsider what this ancient has to say to the modern age.