Christian History Home > Issue 67 > Augustine & the Battle for Orthodoxy: From the Editor - A Giant-But A Man
Augustine & the Battle for Orthodoxy: From the Editor - A Giant-But A Man
From the Editor
Mark Galli | posted 7/01/2000 12:00AM
Because Augustine is such a towering figure in Western history, one of our goals for this issue was to describe his "everyday" self. We discovered he was both more extraordinary and more human than the legend we knew.
Yes, he was a brilliant theologian whose mind ranged over a vast array of issues (human nature, the Trinity, original sin, the church) with greater depth and dexterity than many of today's theological specialists.
Yes, he was a regal bishop who used his ecclesiastical authority to reign in schismatics and refine the teachings of the church—this is the view of Augustine handed down through the art of the ages, as the images in this issue show.
But Augustine was also a human being who struggled with common, run-of-the-mill weaknesses: sex, vanity, self-recriminations, a hot temper, and bouts with despair.
Though his insights have shaped Western thought for more than 1,500 years, he was a searching, confused, and waffling young man on his way to his conversion: see Robert Payne's ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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