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| St. Augustine of Hippo |
By Gary L. Morella
By common consent St. Augustine is one of the giants of the Latin Church. His life is an inspiration to all those in danger of succumbing to the grave sin of despair because his example is one of going from despair, the work of the devil, to ecstasy, the work of the God. Nowhere is this transformation better manifested than in his monumental work, the City of God, wherein he contrasts the struggle for our souls being waged by the forces of Perfect Good, God Almighty, against the forces of consummate evil, in particular, the “evil one.”
Greek philosophy as it spread out influenced the early generations of Christians. In fact, Plato was the dominant philosophical figure for much of the Middle Ages. Augustine was a Christian Platonist. He was enamored with Plato to the extent that he recognized that Plato arrived at some Christian truths unaided by grace or revelation. St. Thomas Aquinas had this to say about Augustine as a Platonist.
