'Augustine through the Ages' is one of those big, thick, $100 books that one longs to have in a private library (particularly the private library of someone with a catholic-leaning theological interest). I debated about the book for nearly a year until a friend of mine finally put the issue to rest by getting it for me for my birthday a few years ago.

I've now had sufficient time and use of the volume to warrant giving an opinion. I am sorry that I waited so long to add this book to my collection!

' "Augustine through the Ages" presents anew the life, work, and influence of Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430), one of the greatest figures in the history of the Christian church. Best known to modern readers for his "Confessions" and "City of God," Augustine has had a profound theological and philosophical impact on the Christian faith, and his legacy is also reflected in the development of Western thought as a whole.'

This book is organised and functions as an encyclopedia. Over 150 scholars in fields such as history, classics, theology, philosophy and political science have contributed to making this a very comprehensive and in-depth reference work. The contents include nearly 500 articles with appropriate bibliographic references for further research.

Entries involve his life, his work, and his influence. A few samples will illustrate:

His life: Life, Culture and Controversies
In this entry, a brief biography of Augustine is present, from birth in Thagaste in 354, in the province of Numidia, to his death in 430 in Hippo, as it was under siege from Vandal invaders. It details the major events and influences in his life, as well as the general cultural milieu of the time - education under the Roman system, the relationship of church and empire, and the influence of philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism. The controversies of his time, in which Augustine energetically participated, included the Arian, Donatist, Pelagian and Manichean trends.

His work: Confessions
This entry gives an overview of the 'Confessions', the most popular and widely-read of Augustine for twentieth-century audiences. As a result of this autobiographical work, the youth of Augustine is far better known than almost any other person in antiquity. The article includes translation and publication issues (the question about oral or written primacy is explored), as are the differing purposes of sections (autobiographical, polemical, exegetical). This work covers conversion and growth in faith and work.

His influence
Articles are included on those who influenced Augustine himself, such as Origen, Tertullian, Plotinus, and Plato, as well as upon those he influenced, from early figures such as Jerome and Ambrose, to later theologians like Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin, up to more modern figures such as Adolf von Harnack, Ernst Troeltsch, and Martin Heidegger. Similarly, Augustine's contributions toward topics that are of current (and recurring) interest such as social justice, war, suicide, contraception, etc. are explored.

The book also includes tables Augustine's works which show Latin titles, English translations, common abbreviations (very necessary for scholarship) and dates. Articles are cross-references, particularly with a view toward shared bibliographic information.

The editor, Allan D. Fitzgerald is professor of patristics at the Augustinian Patristic Institute of Rome. He also is editor of Augustinian Studies published by Villanova University. Jaroslav Pelikan offers a word at the front, which is an interesting choice, given Pelikan's Eastern Orthodox leanings, and the strained love-hate relationship Eastern Orthodoxy has traditionally had with Augustine.

This is a truly monumental work that will find an honoured place in the library of any scholar.

. . .which will be of value to Augustine scholars for many years to come.

The purpose of the encyclopedia is to provide a one-volume reference to Augustine, his life, his thought, his teachings, and his books. What did he believe about a particular doctrine? Look up the doctrine, get a synopsis of his thought, and find the appropriate reference(s) in his writings.

Wonderful for both Catholics and Protestants, esp. those branches of Protestantism which revere Augustine. Applicable for the layman or the cleric; for the serious student as well as for someone who simply wishes to be informed.

I highly recommend this volume.

This is, hands down, the best single volume on the life, work, ideas, and history of Augustine available. Not only does this reference work cover the period in which Augustine lived, but it also covers the periods in which Augustine had an impact. This book is very organized with charts of Augustine's works, and of course it covers the entire spectrum of Augustinian philosophy and theology from A to Z. This book is so detailed that many unexpected topics such as abortion to war are covered. The book is well referenced which enables the reader to launch into further works that have been used in compiling this massive volume. If you have been wanting a single volume that works well for quick references to detailed studies then this is the ONLY volume of its kind in print. I highly recommend this work for those who enjoy studying Augustine.

Mandie is traveling with Celia and Grandmother to SenatorMorten's house in St. Augustine, Florida. Mandie is sure that it isgoing to be a boring time because she really wants to move on with theplans that she and her friends have made for visiting each other over the summer. One of the senator's servants, Juan, supposedly can't speak, but Mandie is convinced otherwise. Who keeps coming into Mandie and Celia's room and switching the clothes around? Did she really see Miss Lucretia Wham from the lighthouse? Mandie and Celia are in for a surprise.

I really liked this Mandie book. Of course I like all of them and have read each one about five times. I especially liked the end when Mandie had a fun surprise. I would definitely suggest this book.

You should most definataly read this book. I loved it. If you love mandie than you must have this book. Mandie and Celia travel to St. Augustine florida. Where they get involved in some government buissness not even meaning to.If you like Mandie, this is a must.

This book was very exciting! I got it and finished it in just a few hours! Now I can't wait untill June, when the next book comes out. The Mandie books are the best books ever

If you haven't read Malcom Muggeridge, don't give up yet--you may yet do so. Should that happy event occur, you may end up as puzzled as I am that most of Malcom Muggeridge is out of print. A Third Testament, for instance was the accompanying book for a series of films/TV shows written and narrated by Mr. M.M.. You'd think since Little, Brown published the book, and it was owned by Time-Life, which also owned the shows, that ads would be popping up on late night TV for the whole Time-Life Muggeridge collection. Think again. Or you'd think that since Collins Books (now part of HarperCollins) brought out the two volumes of his autobiography, The Chronicles of Wasted Time, to rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, that someone might trouble to keep them in print. Think again again.

The reason must be that the author's life was too dull, his writing style too lifeless and dry, his testament (whatever that is) prescribed bedtime reading for insomniacs. His titles notably absent from the bestseller list, he would understandably not be a household name. One wouldn't recognize him as a former editor of the British humour magazine, Punch, or as a player on the BBC's send-up of the news, That Was the Week That Was. But that would explain why his books are so side-splittingly funny. One also wouldn't know that he did the first BBC interview with Mother Teresa, and was profoundly moved by her life, an inspiration evident in A Third Testament. That would explain why his books are so profound. Nor would one know of the awakening in his soul that led him to tirelessly denounce the idiocy of modern life even as Malcom and his wife, Kitty, simplified their own lives to follow a different drummer. That would explain why this book by a late convert to the Catholic Church was reprinted by Plough Publishing and praised by readers of all spiritual stripes. But nothing can explain why these Muggeridge books are all out of print, or keep readers who have tasted one from tracking down them all.

AN AMAZING BOOK! I picked this book up randomly. It was in a forgotten RELIGIOUS section of a city library. Malcolm takes scattered history and complicated theology and reveals what it simply looked like in the lives of these great leaders. Definitely food for the heart and the soul!

Muggeridge has created in this book and in the accompanying video series a humble, honest, and beautiful work of simple yet deeply compelling biography. By focusing on the spiritual journeys of six/seven essential figures (in the video series he covers Augustine, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Blake, Tolstoy, and Boenhoffer, and in the book he adds to this group Dostoyevsky) Muggeridge discovers certain necessities of the spiritual life and illuminates them and brings them into focus. Both the book and the video series are essential to any library collection of contemporary religious thought.

Someone must bring these back into print!

Augustine devoted quite a bit of attention to this book in his "Retractions", and as a result, we know quite a bit about its history.

The work is a collection of answers to questions composed by Augustine between the years 388 and 396, when he was living in a monastic community. The brothers asked him questions on a wide variety of topics and saved his answers. Some time later, as Bishop of Hippo, Augustine caused the questions and answers to be collected together into a single book, though how much detailed editorial direction he provided is unclear.

Before discussing the original text, it is worthwhile to note David L. Mosher's contributions to this edition. First, and most obviously, he translated the work into English. His translation is liberally commented with footnotes, noting translation issues, scripture references, historical references to people, places, events and ideas, as well as clarifications and corrections indicated by Augustine himself in "Retractions".

By way of introducing the book, Mosher wrote a preface that is really just a thank-you note to people who assisted him, a short bibliography mostly of general references on Augustine, a short list of abbreviations, and a fairly length introduction aimed at (1) describing the history and form of the work, and (2) doctrinal points. Finally, at the end of the book, Mosher provides two indices - an extensive general index and a scripture index.

In sum, Mosher's supplemental materials are excellent.

Insofar as the text proper goes, Augustine's individual answers vary in the length from less than half a page up to about ten pages, with most at the shorter end of the scale. The shorter answers tend to be philosophical in nature, with little or no explicit scriptural argumentation given. The longer answers tend to be concerned with scriptural exegesis, which Augustine typically approaches by seeking to uncover the symbolic meaning of the passage through close analysis.

With regard to subject matter, it is so diverse that it is difficult to tease out any unifying themes other than those that are the natural result of a single author. Certainly one gets to see Augustine apply his methods to a variety of individual cases and from them can infer how he generally thought and approached problems, but the cases tend to remain individual, rather than adding up to a cohesive whole. This is a shortcoming sufficient to have led me to consider grading this at four stars instead of five, but in the end, this is still a book that is read over 1500 years after it was written, and that makes downgrading it difficult even if it is not Augustine's best or most influential work.

The table of contents is as follows (Mosher's supplementary material indicated by his name):

Preface (Mosher)

Select Bibliography (Mosher)

Abbreviations (Mosher)

Introduction (Mosher)

1. Is the Soul Self-existent?

2. On Free Choice.

3. Is God Responsible for Human Perversity?

4. What is the Cause of Human Perversity?

5. Can an Animal without Reason be Happy?

6. On Evil.

7. What does 'Soul' Properly Refer to in a Living Being?

8. Is the Soul Self-moving?

9. Can Truth be Perceived by the Bodily Senses?

10. Does Body Come from God?

11. Why was Christ Born of a Woman?

12. The Opinion of a Certain Wise Man.

13. What Proof is There that Men are Superior to Animals?

14. That the Body of Christ was not a Phantom.

15. On the Intellect.

16. On the Son of God.

17. On God's Knowledge.

18. On the Trinity.

19. On God and the Created.

20. On the Place of God.

21. Is not God the Author of Evil?

22. That God is not Subject to Need.

23. On the Father and the Son.

24. Do Sin and Right Conduct Result from a Free Choice of the Will?

25. On the Cross of Christ.

26. On the Diversity of Sins.

27. On Providence.

28. Why did God Want to Make the World?

29. Is There an 'Above' and a 'Below' in the Universe?

30. Has Everything been Created for Man's Use?

31. Cicero's Opinion on the Division and Definition of the Virtues of the Soul.

32. Can Someone Understand Something Better than Someone Else, and Therefore Can There be an Endless Advance in the Understanding of the Thing?

33. On Fear

34. Must Nothing Else be Loved but Freedom from Fear?

35. What Ought to be Loved?

36. On Nourishing Charity.

37. On the Forever Born.

38. On the Structure of the Soul.

39. On the Sources of Nourishment.

40. Since the Nature of Souls is the Same, Why are the Choices of Men Different?

41. Since God has Made Everything, Why did He not Make Everything Equal?

42. How was Christ Both in His Mother's Womb and in Heaven?

43. Why did the Son of God Appear?

44. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ Come so Long After Man Sinned and not in the Beginning?

45. Against the Mathematicians (Astrologers)

46. On the Ideas

47. Will We Ever be Able to See our Own Thoughts?

48. On What can be Believed.

49. Why is it that the Sons of Israel Used to Make Visible Sacrifices of Animal Victims?

50. On the Equality of the Son.

51. On Man Made in the Image and Likeness of God.

52. "I am sorry that I have made man".

53. On the Gold and Silver Taken by the Israelites from the Egyptians.

54. "As for myself, it is good for me to cling to God".

55. "There are sixty queens, eight concubines, and young women without number."

56. On the Forty-six Years for the Building of the Temple.

57. On the One Hundred and Fifty-three Fish.

58. On John the Baptist.

59. On the Ten Virgins.

60. "Concerning that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son of Man-no one except the Father".

61. On the Gospel Story that the Lord Fed the Multitude on the Mountain with Five Loaves of Bread.

62. "that Jesus was baptizing more than John, although he himself baptized no one. Rather, his disciples [were baptizing]".

63. On the Word.

64. On the Samaritan Woman.

65. On the Resurrection of Lazarus.

66. On "Or do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the Law) that the Law is the master of a man as long as he lives?" to "He will bring even your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit living in you".

67. On "For I do not consider the sufferings of this world to be worth much in comparison with the future glory which will be revealed in us," to "For we have been saved by hope".

68. "O man, who are you to answer back to God?"

69. "Then even the Son himself will be subject to him who has subordinated all things to him."

70. "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your contending? Where, O death, is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin; but the power of sin, the Law".

71. "Bear one another's burdens, and in this way will you fulfill the law of Christ".

72. On the Eternal Times.

73. "And having been found in the [bodily] habit (habitus) of a man".

74. "In whom we have redemption and remission of sins, who is in the image of the invisible God".

75. On the Inheritance of God.

76. "Would you like to know, you empty-headed man, that faith without works is useless?"

77. Is Fear a Sin?

78. On the Beauty of the Pagan Idols.

79. Why did the Pharaoh's Magicians Perform Certain Miracles in the Manner of Moses the Servant of God?

80. Against the Apollinarians.

81. On the Quadragesima and Quinquagesima.

82. "For whom the Lord loves, he rebukes, and he scourges every son whom he receives".

83. "If anyone should divorce his wife, except for reason of fornication".

General Index (Mosher)

Index of Holy Scriptures (Mosher)

Trinitarian theology is a difficult subject. Scriptural references are few and their meaning is not obvious - indeed, they can easily be read as contradictory. In fact, there is no explicit description of the Trinity in the scriptures at all - the orthodox view of the Trinity (three persons in one God) is an inferential conclusion from scripture that took generations to piece together. Having arrived at that conclusion, the next problem was to understand exactly what it meant - a problem difficult enough that many argued that it was simply a mystery the answer to which we might know in the next life but not this.

This famously difficult problem is the subject of Augustine's "The Trinity". In addressing it, he has two motives. His first motive is to combat non-Trinitarian heresy by showing the scriptural support for the concept and by showing that it is not inherently contradictory. His second motive is to attempt to understand the Trinity more deeply, to satisfy the scriptural directive to "seek His face evermore".

"The Trinity" is a long book, the second longest work in the Augustinian corpus, and one that he worked on, intermittently, for sixteen years. He might not have finished it had not the unauthorized publication of the first twelve "books", led him to write the final three in order to avoid having the work available only in an incomplete form.

"The Trinity" begins with a consideration of the Scriptural references to the Trinity, with the aim of reconciling them and explaining them through the supposition of three equal persons in one God. Augustine is at particular pains to maintain the equality of the persons: that the Son is equal to the Father, and the Holy Spirit equal to both. Of particular concern to Augustine are the references to the Son and Holy Spirit being sent, with the implication that the Father who sends must be superior to them. This presentation takes up the first eight books.

From there Augustine aims to develop some deeper understanding of the nature of the Trinity. His approach is to use the fact that the Man was created in the image of God. Given this, Augustine reasons, there should be some image of the Trinity in man. This leads to the consideration of a succession of trinities - the lover, beloved, and love; memory, understanding, and will; the objects of sense, the will to attend to them, and the sense impressions of them; etc. This presentation, which take up the next four books, is interesting, but often perplexing. It is easy for the reader to see that the trinities he names are not analogues of the divine Trinity, and it can be perplexing to attempt to understand how Augustine intends to bring this discussion of the trinities in man together.

It is in the last few books, written after the premature publication of the earlier books, that Augustine works to reverse the centrifugal tendencies of his discussion of the trinities in man and unify them into a whole. The trinities in man are held up not as exact analogues to that in God, but as a ladder, starting with the most carnal and rising towards the most spiritual; we do not find a single Trinity like that of God within ourselves, but we do find a series of them that we can ascend, and in ascending it we approach the divine Trinity and a deeper understanding of God.

There is much discussion in contemporary theology about the Trinity (e.g. Moltmann, LaCugna, Gunton, Pannenberg, Rahner, Barth). In order to appreciate the discussion intelligently, you ought to go back to the source of the Western model of the Trinity. One of Augustine's analogies for the Trinity is the Father the Lover, the Son the Beloved, and the Spirit as the Love. Quite a few theologians are critical of Augustine's emphasis on the unity of the Triune God (e.g. Moltmann, Pannenberg, LaCugna). It is worth reading this work just to put their work in perspective.

This work is more than just an exposition of theology. Augustine has a long discussion of perception (memory, understanding and will), because he needs to give an account for how human seeing can fulfill its supernatural vocation to see God. Some of his discussion anticipates some of the concerns of the Enlightenment. E.g. if the representation I recall in my mind is from my memory, but is also shaped by my will, how do I know I have an accurate representation of reality?

Another reason to get this work is that any attempt to tackle the Trinity ends up by a mini-systematics. In a fairly short space, a close read of the work will pay a mountain of dividends.

In particular, Edmund Hill did an invaluable job editing and translating the work. The introductory notes, the endnotes, and the essays scattered throughout the work are worth the price of the book itself. I have gotten a lot more out of the work because of Hill's commentary (and they are not overly intrusive). Some of Hill's translations are a little bit too colloquial for my taste, but he wanted to write a dynamic translation. If you want a literal translation of this work, you can like in other places.

All in all, this is one of the all-time classics in Christian theology.

Arianism and Other Heresies

This is a collection of short works by Augustine. The table of contents is as follows:

The Heresies (with Introduction and correspondence between Augustine and Quodvultdeus)

To Orosius in Refutation of the Priscillianists and Origenists (with Introduction and Orosius's "Memorandum to Augustine on the Error of the Priscillianists and Origenists")

Answer to the Arian Sermon (with Introduction and "The Arian Sermon", by an unknown author)

Debate with Maximus (with Introduction)

Answer to Maximus the Arian (with Introduction)

Answer to an Enemy of the Law and the Prophets (with Introduction)

Index of Scripture

Index

The translations, introductions, and notes are by Roland J. Teske. The supplementary material provided by Teske is quite good. He gives every work its own introduction, which he uses primarily to provide the historical context of the work. The extensive notes which Teske provides are used mainly to identify Augustine's references to people, movements and other works. The index, interestingly, locates references by the book and chapter in the structure of the original work rather than the page number in this edition. The only caveat I would have is that I prefer notes at the bottom of each page, rather than collected together at the end of each work, which is how Teske does it.

"The Heresies", the first work in this collection, was written as a reluctant response to repeated requests by a deacon of Carthage, Quodvultdeus. Quodvultdeus wanted a short summary of all the heresies that had existed since the beginning of Christianity. Augustine replied that it had already been done, and that there was no need for him to add another, but finally gave in and wrote it. Augustine's original plan was to prepare the work in two parts - the first listing and describing the heresies and the second defining what a heresy was. Augustine completed the first part, which is heavily derivative (as Augustine had complained that it would be), but Augustine died before writing the second part, which would likely have been the more interesting of the two.

"To Orosius..." is a short work. It was written against two heretical doctrines. The first was the Priscillianist belief that man's soul is part of God, as distinct from the orthodox Christian belief that the man's soul is a creation of God. The second was the Origenist belief that all spiritual beings created by God were equal at first, and then assigned bodies according to their merits, and that all (including the devil) could be redeemed. Against the first, Augustine argued that the soul could not be part of God because the soul was changeable while God was not. Against the second, Augustine argued that such a doctrine had some absurd aspects and was not supported by scripture.

"Answer to the Arian Sermon" was written in refutation to an Arian creed. While this document no longer exists, so much of it is quoted by Augustine that a reconstruction is possible. The central Arian doctrine asserted therein and attacked by Augustine was the Arian concept of the Trinity - not as a single God, but as three different divine beings: The Father, who begot the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who proceeded from the Son. The unity of God, according to the Arian position, was a unity of opinion, not of being. Augustine's rebuttal was primarily scriptural, focusing on the Old Testament assertions that there is only one God, and that the Arian position contradicted that scripture.

"Debate with Maximus" and "Answer To Maximus" are properly taken together. Near the end of his life, Augustine was summoned to debate Maximus, an Arian bishop. The debate degenerated into speeches, in which Arian's were much the longer. The debate was to be followed by an exchange of essays, of which only Augustine's survives (it is not known whether Maximus even wrote his). The documents are not a total success from the reader's point of view. The first problem is that the level of ad hominem on both sides is rather high, and while it might have been an expected rhetorical style, it does not advance the reader's understanding of either position. The second problem is that the format resulted in documents that are somewhat repetitive and not particularly well structured. The content is similar to "Answer to the Arian Sermon".

"Answer to an Enemy..." was written in rebuttal to a document circulating that was an attack on the God of the Old Testament, holding Him to be both evil and an antagonist of Jesus Christ, who was man's saviour from that God. Scripture that held to the contrary was asserted to be Jewish fabrication. Augustine's rebuttal focused on the continuity of the Old Testament and the New, that the alleged differences in God and Jesus were the result of selective citation of scripture, and that the unity of the Old and New Testament could clearly be seen in that the Old foretold the New in prophecy. Much of the "Enemy's" line of argument is still used by enemies of Christianity today, and much of Augustine's counter-arguments retain their value in Christian apologetics.

Simply the most compelling treatment of Augustine as political thinker on the market.

Review of Augustine and the Catechumenate William Harmless Augustine and the Catechumenate (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1995). 406 pages with charts, index and bibliography. $34.95. St. Augustine: priest, bishop, theologian, doctor of the church, polemicist, apolo-gist, scholar-and catechist. Augustine is respected and loved by the Christian church for his many roles, but his role as a catechist has been the least well known, until now. Wil-liam Harmless has provided us with a magnificent portrait of Augustine the catechist. Harmless wrote this book to assist the Roman Catholic Church's Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The RCIA was launched in 1972 by the Vatican thus "reversing a thousand years of initiatory practice and attitude" (p. 1). Harmless' operating assumption is that "if the Church has found itself increasingly renewed by the wisdom and richness of these ancient rituals and their underlying pastoral vision, then the Church might find itself similarly renewed by our gleaning the best from ancient styles of catechesis" (p. 25). The RCIA has been used with great effectiveness in many Roman Catholic parishes. It is basically an adoption of the early church's classic catechumenate process, as that process reached a high point in the fourth century. Harmless sets out to investigate one example of the ancient catechumenate: the catechumenate of St. Augustine of Hippo. The reason for this is simple. Augustine wrote a number of treatises on the subject of catechesis and the catechumenate; he is the only pa-tristic author from whom we have samples of each of the four stages of the ancient catechumenate; there are excellent critical editions of Augustine's works, both in the origi-nal language and in English; and finally, Harmless notes that within the past sixty years there have been many archeological and textual discoveries that offer much detailed infor-mation about Augustine and his Church in Hippo. Harmless organizes his book in a clear and orderly fashion, something that can not always be said of scholars' books. In addition to the book's excellent organization, Harm-less' writing style is very engaging. This book was a delight to read. This reviewer found it hard to put down, so interesting is Harmless' narrative descriptions of Augustine as preacher, catechist, exegete, pastor and church leader. Throughout the book Harmless of-fers direct quotes from Augustine's sermons, a major source of our knowledge of Augustine's catechetical method and content. His translation of Augustine's sermons is vivid, as was Augustine in the original. Harmless recounts how the congregation in Augustine's day was often swept up by the Bishop's masterful rhetoric, applauding, weeping, cheering or shouting out Bible verses as Augustine preached. Harmless' book will both complement and supplement other treatments of Augustine in English. Definitive studies include Van der Meer's Augustine the Bishop; Brown's Augustine of Hippo and Bonner's St. Augustine of Hippo . For the best, and most complete, translation of Augustine's sermons into English we have The Works of Saint Augustine (New City Press, 1995). In this collection of Augustine's sermons, translator Edmund Hill has captured the vividness of Augustine's oratory and relies on the best manuscripts available, and includes copius notes. Eventually, the project hopes to make available, for the first time, Augustine's complete writings in English. Those who know Augustine only through the Victorian English of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers collection will be delighted by the New City Press edition of Augustine's works. Harmless traces Augustine's own catechetical experience under Ambrose of Milan and then takes a look at how Augustine approached each phrase of the classic catechumenate model: evangelization, catechumenate, candidate for Baptism (Lenten catechesis), and then post-Baptismal catechesis. In each section, Harmless masterfully il-lustrates how Augustine pulled out all the stops in his efforts to reach each catechumen. He especially focuses on Augustine the master orator, indicating how Augustine both used and ignored the classic rules of rhetoric in his catechetical work. For Augustine, reaching both the head and the heart was the goal, neither whipping up hearers into mindless emotional frenzy nor boring them to death with encyclopedic lectures on theological facts. Harmless does not gloss over the challenges faced by Augustine, or paint this as some sort of utopian era for the church. He makes it clear that Augustine grew frustrated with his congregations. Writing about the catechetical task, Augustine once rehearsed the catechumen's vices: "Those depraved persons who in mobs fill the churches in a bodily sense only: . . . drunkards, covetous, extortioners, gamblers, adulterers, fornicators, lov-ers of shows, wearers of idolatrous charms, soothsayers, astrologers, or diviners employ-ing vain and unholy arts" (p. 133). This was not a "pure church" - as if there ever was such a thing. Since we are not Donatists, we should not try to locate perfection in this fallen order either, or else we will become either self-righteous hypocrites or despairing pessi-mists. Harmless' shows us how one Christian theologian and teacher struggled with the all too human qualities of his congregation and continued to strive for uncompromising excel-lence in service of the Gospel. William Harmless has provided a true gem to the Christian church. He offers a very organized description of Augustine's catechetical work, in the process helping us to under-stand even more this great doctor of the church and how his genius for rhetoric was com-bined with his passion for teaching the Faith. Augustine would be pleased not only with what Harmless has to say, but how he has said it, and so will Harmless' readers. Paul T. McCain St. Louis, Missouri October 29, 1996

This book centres around Wolf, a boy whose father was a Briton, brought to Rome as a slave in the 6th century, and set free by Pope Gregory. Pope Gregory had a concern for the propagation of the Gospel among the "heathen" Saxons in Britain, so he sent a group of monks, led by Augustine, to Britain. Wolf and his father go with them. They land there in 597, and the story follows Wolf as he returns to the land of his fathers, and as the Gospel is preached in Kent. My children, aged 7 - 13 enjoyed this story being read to them, and it really complemented our study of the time period.

Timeless spiritual wisdom from one of history's great thinkers, succinctly organized by the editor. Each daily reading is a couple of sentences long, followed by a sentence-long prayer. A great way to begin the day or to use for meditation.