Chapter 14, Concluding Summary and Analysis

This biography is quite educational. It could be used as a textbook for university or seminary students but that does not seem to be the intended audience. Through it one learns a great deal about the history of religion and especially of both Catholicism and Manicheism during the time of Augustine's life. The writing is quite clear. The author Peter Brown has clearly gone out of his way to describe many of Augustine's inner workings as well as giving impressive schematic descriptions of the presiding culture of the time locations in which he lived. Included in this is awareness that the education of the Saint, and his own beginnings were somehow both humble and quite triumphant in their own right. This is most dramatically noted when the author shows that Augustine was treated 'differently' when he went to Rome's...