This biography restores Augustine is all his complexity and depth. Aimed at an educated general readership, it places him against the colourful background of the Mediterranean world of antiquity, and explores the major influences, events and competing philosophies which were formative for his thought and theology. The book makes available much important new material (and several significant new discoveries in Francophone scholarship) to English-speaking readers, who are invited to share in the author's intimate and sympathetic knowledge of this great figure of Christian antiquity. 'Masterly.' Sir Henry Chadwick