I just bought this book and will review it again later. I've read Brown on Augustine and am getting what I expect from this book: brilliant writing, brilliant thinking, brilliant scholarship. He turns you upside down and shakes all the change out of your pocket.

This is a great work that traces the development and movement of Christianity into Europe. A religion that started out in the middle east had, by the end of the work, come to be dominant more in northern Europe than in the middle east itself.

Brown is a very good writer and is able to very eloquently trace out the forces and personalities of the period as well as the theleologic discussions that often divided Byzantine and Latin interpretations of the religion.

While not an introductory work, any reader can benefit from reading this book. At best it will stimulate further interest in the period and reading other authors. At worst, the reader may require some maps and a copy of, "Who's Who in the Middle Ages"

Let me put it this way, and I quote another translator of this book, "You have not read 'Confessions' until you have read the Sheed translation."

Peter Brown melds the diverging factors to cover the history of a very complex man. By setting Augustine in his time and place he effecively traces the impacts on Augustine's life, which profoundly affect his doctrines. Make no mistake, Brown is writing an acedemic history, not hagiography. The reader should expect a thorough discussion of history, philosophy and or course religion. The evenhanded nature of the work and its beautiful style are a lesson for all other writers of religious biography.

Peter Brown is like a very caring, scholarly and slightly eccentric tutor, of the type grown and revered in England's ancient universities. As a non-scholar on the subject of Augustine and his time, I approached this book wearily, expecting to be ignobly defeated by the middle of, say, chapter two. But such was not the case. My smattering about Augustine, about his Manichaeism, about his saintly mother, Monica, about his "Confessions" and about his conversion by St. Ambrose, all rusty remnants of a fine (but wasted) education, were revived and even rejuvenated by Mr. Brown. His words coaxed ancient neurons to make dendritic connections with their neighbors, so that towards the middle of this longish book I was dealing confidently with Fourth century institutions and had become familiar with some of the philosophical issues that plaged the early Christians. This is Brown:

"A stranger from the provinces [Augustine] would, of course, go to church to find a girl-friend, much as another stranger, the Genoese, Christopher Columbus, will meet his wife in Seville Cathedral."

And about Augustine's desire to seek his fortune as a rethoritian in Milan:

"He would have been like a Westernized Russian in the nineteenth century, established in Paris."

This ability to move back and forth in time to clarify his points is one of the many joys of reading Brown. He is also a master of the right anecdote and of the enlightening "obscure" fact. For instance, he tells us that in the Fourth century the image of Christ was that of a teacher, a philosopher. There were no crucifixes in the Fourth century, and the concept of the suffering Savior did not exist.

The book is as satisfying as a plentiful and well prepared meal, and like a meal, it is to be consumed slowly and respectfully. Brown makes you trust him about his deep knowledge of the years immediately preceding the sack of Rome and the fall of the empire. He does this, over and over, by his ease with the trivial details and by the depth with which he addresses the important ones. A very fine book for the reference shelf, to read once and to return to frequently.

Peter Brown has accomplished what a scholarly biography should: make us feel that we have come to enter the life and mind of the subject of the biography. Brown's chapters are relatively short and thus make reading this long book pleasurable because you can make identifiable progress in your reading. Brown also has copious citations to the works of Augustine for those who wish to track down a quote. In addition, he has added an epilogue that actually corrects the flawed judgments he made in the first edition over thirty years ago (this is a humility rare in academic circles). The epilogue also has a chapter on new writings of Augustine that scholars have uncovered since the first edition of his work. My only wish would have been for more theological exploration of the theme of predestination which is presented in a superficial manner. As a Catholic, I would also have preferred more explicit exploration of Augustine's relations with the popes of his time. But, all in all, Brown has written and updated a great biography that deserves its stature as the definitive biography of Augustine. I heartily recommend it.

This is not a good book. The time I have spent reading this book has been mostly wasted. It does not compare to say, Bury's writings.

I am quite a critic when most people give it a 5 stars, I am giving 4 or sometimes less.

However this book I found to being both an excellent introduction to the period while at the same time being very readable. It has very good pictures illustrating the writers point throughout something I found very useful.

I have used this book as a text for a course titled the Decline of Rome. It proved to be the mose aesthetic piece of literature I've read at the University of California. Brown uses charming little metaphors, which I paraphrase: "A garden protected by spears" and "As the storm of Arab conquest swept across he sky, people sat back to enjoy the sunshine." The book read like an essay, but gives the reader enough introductory information as encouragement to read more about a particular subject. Brown makes Byzantium seem like utopia on the surface, but is careful to underline its precaious state. And the birth of Islam seems like am eastern Renaissance in Brown's hands. For a person who admires Classical Aniquity, one will see the Post-Classical world as a rival.

Peter Brown's "Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman World" is a work well-worth its weight in perspective, since it breaks with the customary norm of interpreting the rise and triumph of Christianity through a medium of objective analysis. Brown ignores the inevitable vicissitudes of recorded history and offers a much more personal, subjective, and systematic account of the triumph of Christianity. To Professor Brown, Christianity gradually emerged and ascended amongst a world deeply rooted in traditional Pagan "common sense" belief systems. This process involved a shift in how upper-class Roman society conducted religious and political institutions; these institutions were in turn viewed by the general public, and at last Christianity was accepted and validated by the consensus of both stratums of society. Brown concludes and confirms his view by pointing out the profound effect that the holy men of the fifth and sixth centuries had upon people of all walks of life. This, from Brown's perspective, proves that Christianity needed to have a firm hold upon the psyche of the late Roman world and not merely upon the social and cultural levels. In other words, Constantine's revolution was only half the story. This work is clear and concise, and definitely has something to offer to both scholars and general readers alike.

A brilliant analysis of the slow process of Christianising the Roman Empire. Brown writes in a learned yet clear manner, and addresses one directly as if in conversation. He guides the reader through his own considerations over the years, and displays not only his incomparable understanding of this topic, but also his interesting shifts of belief in different areas, as well as challenging or developing the theses of other scholars. A deeply personal and stimulting read, especially for those who enjoyed his 'World of Late Antiquity' and 'Augustine of Hippo'.

Peter Brown is a prolific historian who focuses primarily on the textbook market, a needed professional in a field where many look down on doing such "lay" work. Well written the reader with not be bored. However, the book is so short and not really organized as a textbook so it makes it difficult to grasp how late antiquity differs from the earlier periods or the medieval world.