An immersive YA biography and introduction to the bold and deeply influential life of Saint Augustine, whose contributions to the field of philosophy have guided Western thought for nearly two thousand years.
“Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” —Saint Augustine
In a time when Christianity was just finding its footing on the world stage, Saint Augustine challenged the conventions of what it meant to live a pious life, one that promised an eternity beyond human comprehension.
In Augustine: Longings for the Infinite, Devra Lehmann constructs an accessible narrative of the seminal thinker and theologian, Saint Augustine of Hippo, author of Confessions and City of God. Augustine, who served as Bishop of Hippo from 396 C.E. until his death in 430 C.E., spoke of a faith rooted in an undeniable free will bolstered by the grace of God: “For what is so much in the power of the will as the will itself?”
Augustine comes to life in this biography—from his childhood in Thasgaste, North Africa, to his adult years practicing Manichaeism and Neoplatonism, to working as a teacher at home and in Rome and eventually converting to Catholicism under the guidance of Saint Ambrose and his mother Saint Monica. His commentary on moral behavior, freedom, creation, the Holy Trinity, and human nature, as well as his influential texts, are still held as pillars of philosophical theology.
Here is the story of the radical clergyman who made the concept of eternal life accessible to all, making him one of the most venerated Christian apologists of all time.
A new addition to the Philosophy for Young People series.
DEVRA LEHMANN is the author of Socrates: A Life Worth Living and Spinoza: The Outcast Thinker, which won the 2014 National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. In her 35 years in the classroom, she has taught preschoolers to sound out monosyllables, high schoolers to read Shakespeare, and adults to parse Talmudic passages. She is now at work on a young adult biography of Augustine of Hippo.
