Name Dropping : Saint Augustine ( Saint Uh - GUSS - tin if you ’re try on to shanghai multitude ; St. AWW - guh - Jan Steen if you ’re talking about the townsfolk in Florida ): ( 354 - 430 ) . The most important Christian theologist ever , except for St. Paul , whose thoughts on God terminate up sate out the latter half of the New Testament . Augustine did n’t get so prosperous — but he still gets say by anyone gravely studying the Christian reason of God .
When to unload Your Knowledge : Adds heft to your organized religion debate . But more importantly : Augustine author one of the greatest break up - up lines in chronicle , which crop today just as nicely as it work in CE 400 .
THE BASICS : Born in Africa ( in what is now Algeria ) , Augustine was raised a Christian but leave behind the blessed life when he set about hang schoolhouse in Carthage , which was sort of the 4th century ’s South Padre Island . In his youth , Augustine fathered an illegitimate son , but by the years of 21 , he start to get serious about spirituality . He undertook a deep and serious work of Philosophy , Theology , and religion while teaching school in Milan — and then , on Easter Day in the year 387 , Augustine was baptized a Christian . The Church would never be the same .
A mere eight years after his conversion , he was Bishop of Hippo ( the Algerian urban center , not the Hungry Hungry board game icon ) , a position he held for the ease of his career . Although enjoin to be an unusually good preacher — he made his outlandishly complicated theology comprehensible to a lay audience better than anyone has since — Augustine made his existent stigma with his writing . Confessions , a memoir - cum - Christian - apologia , is required reading for Catholic and Protestant seminarians alike . On the Trinitydid more to define the Christian understanding of the Trinity than any Church Council . AndCity of God , which we recommend reading if you have seven or eight free class , is a rambling and beautiful defense of Christianity against paganism that is so incredibly and utterly long that many people have converted to Christianity just so they would n’t have to keep read it .
From the commencement , the Catholic Church embraced Augustine ’s study . But his radical emphasis on good will as the way to redemption would later inspire the like of Martin Luther and John Calvin when they were asserting that faith alone leads to heaven . So , basically , everyone loved Augustine . Except of course of action the Manicheans , whom he help destroy .
Pop Quiz : What ’s the name of the religious religious order found by a charismatic chap who believed in baptism and terminate up getting pillory ? Why , Manichaeism , of track . Founded in the 3rd 100 by a Persian nominate Mani who was finally crucified for his feeling , Manichaeism stressed the duality of good and evil and exact to have successfully synthesize all the creation ’s major faith . Although Manichaeism live in Turkey and the Middle East until after 1000 CE , it was eventually overtaken by Islam and Christianity . We ’re just grateful Mel Gibson is n’t a Manichean , because as gory as his " Passion " was , Mani ’s tale was even bad : After being bedevil in 276 by a Persian Emperor , Mani ’s body was flay , gutted , stuffed , and hung up at the city gates as a admonition to his followers .
CONVERSATION STARTERS : Because Augustine ’s employment was directly considered so pregnant , a set of his writing has survived — about 5,000,000 word , in fact . ( That ’s some 100 of these books . )
There ’s a pervasive rumor that St. Augustine invented the phrasal idiom " missionary position . “ This is only untrue . ( However , there are vague statements in Augustine ’s writing that imply he believed the missional position was the least sinful . ) So where did the musical phrase " Missionary Position" come up from ? Its first manipulation appears to have been in about 1969 — probably by some counterculture kids who were ridiculing the status as dull and prudish .
Augustine of Hippo is called one of the " Four Great Fathers of the Latin Church,“ but that ’s a little like saying that all four Beatles were created equal . Of the Four Fathers ( the other three are the less - majuscule and less - famous Jerome , Ambrose , and Gregory the Great ) , Augustine ’s grandness far outdo the others . He ’s Paul and John — so Augustine ’s the only quaternary - C name you involve to drop .
Augustine is so important that his mom got sainted ( she ’s St. Monica ) , mostly for doing such an excellent job raising him . Augustine ’s dad , on the other hand , is not a nonsuch . He is remembered in the first place for cuckold on St. Monica .
And ultimately , the choice - up line!In his memoir Confessions , Augustine recounts that he would implore , " Lord , make me chaste — but not yet . “ As Augustine well knew , this works cracking as a pick - up line . Nothing makes someone finger special like rip off your habit or priestly apprehension and saying , " Lord , make me chaste — but not yet . “
falsify your way through any conversation . All you need isCocktail Party Cheet Sheets , themental_flossbook by John Green .
