Augustine, was born in 354 A.D. in Tagaste, a town in North Africa. Born just over a century before the fall of Rome, Augustine would live his entire life within the Roman empire. Augustine was a great Christian thinker and wrote numerous works which survive today, and offer us a vivid glimpse into the period. His works and thoughts on Christ, the nature of God, the role of the Church, and myriad other topics, shaped much of medieval thought. He would remain a major influence for 1000 years after he died. Two of his works stand out as possibly the most important of his writings: City of God, and Confessions. Augustine's Confessions is the first ever autobiography. In his Confessions, Augustine outlines his life and path toward Christianity and the Grace of God. Augustine was born into a Christian household but did not convert to Christianity until he was 32. In Confessions, he traces his spiritual journey of enlightenment through four stages. His religious conversion began with his exposure to Classical philosophy and progressed through a period of involvement with the gnostic Christian sect of the Manichees. The road to conversion passes through Milan, where Augustine meets Bishop Ambrose of Milan, and culminates with a miraculous happening which allows Augustine to take the final step to complete conversion. With his account of internal resurrection, and a personal relationship with God, the journey which Augustine relates typifies the attraction to Christianity which so many people felt during the latter period of the Roman empire.Augustine was raised in a Christian household. Augustine's mother, Monica, was devoutly Christian throughout Augustine's entire life, and his father converted when Augustine was a teenager. Yet Augustine was not a Christian, he held no particular religious beliefs at all. From an early age, his parents stressed studies, particularly in rhetoric. IN 873 A.D. Augustine was studying in Carth...
