Augustins Leben

by Possidius, Adolf von Harnack (Editor)

Few figures from antiquity are as well known to us as Augustine of Hippo. Thanks to his Confessions, we know a great deal about Augustine's life prior to his conversion to Christianity. Yet, without this little biography written by his intimate friend Possidius, bishop of Calama, we would know comparatively little about Augustine's life after his baptism. In straight-forward, unadorned prose, Possidius shows Augustine as a powerful intellect, voluminous writer, and compelling orator, willing and able to defend the Church against all comers be they pagans, Donatists, Arians or Manichaeans. But he also presents an Augustine who humbly endured the everyday trials and difficulties of life as a bishop in Roman Africa. He shows a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence and frugality in the financial stewardship of his see. Possidius also supplies one of the only first-hand descriptions of the great tragedy of Augustine's life-the Vandalic conquest of Roman Africa. He poignantly describes Augustine's final illness as he lay locked inside Hippo Regius with the barbarian host literally at the city gates. More than simply the biography of a great saint, The Life of Saint Augustine provides a tantalizing glimpse into life in late Roman Africa-a prosperous society on the verge of destruction. This edition of Weiskotten's translation has been completely re-typeset for the modern reader. The text has been amended to include several corrections from an errata sheet that accompanied the original publication. It includes an expanded bibliography, updated citations, and a revised map. (Note: this edition does not includeWeiskotten's revised Latin text.)

Genres: History

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2015

Reviews

[Matthew C.]

Lots of great anecdotes and vignettes of Augustine

[Johan Rutgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ontzettend interessant om een biografie over Augustinus te lezen van iemand die hem nog persoonlijk gekend heeft.

[David Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possidius knew Augustine for the entire 39 years or so of his priesthood, and wrote this short Life a few years after Augustine's death. I believe it is the only contemporary biography. His writing is workmanlike and straightforward, and sheds light on Augustine's life and troubled times (so much like our own).

This edition bookends Possidius' work with a nice introduction, explaining what we know about Possidius himself, his relationship with Augustine, and the probable trustworthiness of the text; and good explanatory notes at the end.

This Kindle edition is not ideal. The endnotes are not hyperlinked in the text, so it's not really possible to read the note and easily jump back to the text. I ended up reading all the endnotes after the actual text, so I lost track of what most of the notes were about.

To know about Augustine's life as seen by a contemporary, after you've read Augustine's own Confessions, this book is the place to come.

[Alex]

This book was easy to read and full of instruction.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possidius, a close friend of Augustine, picks up Augustine's biography where the Confessions left off. If you'd like to know more about Augustine, what happened after his conversion, what was his ministry like, what he as a person was like, look no further. This book is a delight to read.