AUGUSTINE: A New Biography
James Joseph O'Donnell, . . HarperCollins, $26.95 (416pp) ISBN 978-0-06-053537-7
Though labeled a biography, this book on the fourth-century North African saint is better read as a complex study of the man and his thought. Eschewing a chronological cradle-to-grave narrative, O'Donnell, professor of classics and provost at Georgetown University, circles back and forth in time, starting with a vignette of Augustine preaching, skipping back to just after his baptism, then ahead to after he became a bishop and so on. For a reader new to the subject, this will be confusing, but it is all part of O'Donnell's scheme to present Augustine afresh after centuries of overfamiliarity. In O'Donnell's view, there are many Augustines, two of whom he wants to illuminate: "the one who lived and died a long time ago and the one who lives to be remade by us and is known from his works." Balancing historical detail and interpretation of Augustine's works, the book proceeds through many topics, including the
Reviewed on: 03/07/2005
Genre: Nonfiction
Other - 432 pages - 978-0-06-186472-8
Paperback - 432 pages - 978-0-06-053538-4