Saint Augustine - (Penguin Lives Biographies) by Garry Wills (Paperback)

About the Book

With the keen eye of a writer whose own intellectual analysis has won him a Pulitzer Prize, Wills examines this famed fourth-century bishop and seminal thinker, whose grounding in classical philosophy informed his influential interpretation of the Christian doctrine of mind and body, wisdom, and God.

Book Synopsis

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017.

Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills brings the same fresh scholarship, lively prose, and critical appreciation that characterize his well-known books on religion and American history to this outstanding biography of one of the most influential Christian philosophers.

Saint Augustine follows its subject from his youth in fourth-century Africa to his conversion and subsequent development as a theologian. It challenges the widely held misconceptions about Augustine's sexual excesses and shows how, in embracing classical philosophy, Augustine managed to enlist "pagan authors" in the defense of Christianity. The result is a biography that makes a spiritual ancestor feel like our contemporary.

From the Back Cover

For centuries, Augustine's writings have moved and fascinated readers. With the eye of a writer whose own intellectual analysis has won him a Pulitzer Prize, Garry Wills examines this famed fourth-century bishop and seminal thinker whose grounding in classical philosophy informed his influential interpretation of the Christian doctrines of mind and body, wisdom and God. Saint Augustine explores both the great ruminator on the human condition and the everyday man who set pen to parchment. It challenges many misconceptions - among them the myth of his early sexual excesses. Garry Wills's Saint Augustine illuminates both the man and the age with the eloquent economy that will introduce to a new generation of readers this once popular genre.

Review Quotes

"Less the history of a man than the progress of a frank, dynamic, jazzy and fiercely serious mind . . . The writing is exceptional throughout-- rich and surprising with detail."
--Chicago Tribune

"Seldom has this long-familiar figure . . . emerged so fresh and challenging from under so masterful a hand."
--The New York Review of Books

"A brilliant biography . . . Garry Will's agile mind matches the agility of St. Augustine's. He presents his subject with candor and with empathy."
--The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Garry Wills is a historian and the author of the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant, Papal Sin, Why I Am a Catholic, and Why Priests?, among others. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and other publications, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor emeritus at Northwestern University. He lives in Evanston, Illinois