Augustine of Hippo is one of history's great minds, which makes it all the more remarkable that he spent so many years being devious, promiscuous and extremely busy explaining why he wasn't quite ready to change. He eventually ran out of reasons, got baptized, picked up a quill and accidentally rewired Western Christianity.
“Confessions” — completed around the year 400 — is the book that taught Western Christianity how to talk about itself. Before Augustine, religious writing tended toward the declarative. Here are the rules. Here is the creed. Here is what you must believe and how you must live.
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