Saint Augustine lived in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, in the declining years of the Roman Empire. He was a converted Neoplatonist who eventually became a bishop at Hippo Regius in North Africa. He spent much of his career trying to deal with challenges to orthodox Christianity from Manichaeism (a descendant of Gnosticism), Donatism, and Pelagianism. Many of his letters and writings deal with practical political and legal issues related to these problems. His most important work on politics, the massive book The City of God, was written in response to a different threat — a pagan
...more
