- the greatest theologian of the ancient Western church - pagan father, devout Christian mother
- lived a fairly “wild” life for a while, studied to be a lawyer and government official - came to Milan as a teacher of rhetoric (speech)
- influenced greatly by Ambrose, converted in 386 by a child's voice saying “take and read” - was baptized, returned to Africa and was planning to start a monastery, but was forced to become a priest and in 395 became the bishop of Hippo
- wrote much against the Donatists, the Manichaeans (good and evil of equal power in a struggle for the world) and the Pelagians (5th century)
- greatly influenced the Western church, and was “the spiritual ancestor, no less, of much in the Reformation”
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