If a vote were taken on who were the most influential Christians that lived since Bible times, then one name would show up near the top on just about anyone's list. Whether Protestant or Catholic, Conservative or Liberal, any informed observer over the past fifteen hundred years would include the name of Augustine at or close to the top.

Some great leaders in our world made an impact on a whole generation. A select few even influenced a whole century. But Augustine was an incomparable figure in shaping the whole millennium of the Middle Ages and in many ways the foundations of modern Western civilization.

Fortunately, we know a lot about Augustine for he wrote what is considered the first autobiography in history. It is still published and sells well today over fifteen hundred years after his death. It is called The Confessions.

Augustine was a North African, born at Tagaste in what is now modern Algeria on November 13, 354 into a middle class family. His mother Monica was a strong Christian who persistently prayed for the salvation of her son, a brilliant young man who had no interest in the things of Christ. Monica tried to bring Augustine up in the ways and instruction of the Lord, but Augustine ignored her instructions. He loved to play, was prone to fits of temper, and was full of boyhood pranks, like stealing his neighbor's pears and throwing them to the pigs.

Youthful Lusts
At sixteen Augustine went to Carthage to further his education. Ignoring his mother's warnings against avoiding youthful lusts, Augustine took an unnamed mistress and fathered an illegitimate son named Adeodatus. While satisfying every fleshly desire, Augustine also pursued his studies. The Roman Cicero's exhortation to seek wisdom stirred Augustine, and he began to study philosophy in earnest. He even tried reading the Christian Scriptures, but they seemed dull to him.

Down Futile Paths
For nine years Augustine embraced the beliefs of the Manichaeans, who exalted Reason, Science, and Philosophy. Manichaeism was an eastern religion which combined the dualism of Zoroaster with the pantheism of Buddha, and covered them with a Christian veneer. It taught that good and evil are constantly warring together; we do not have free will because everything is predetermined by Fate. Yet, Augustine was dissatisfied with this older version of the modern New Age movement. He sought answers from Faustus of Milevis, the leading Manichaean of his day, but Faustus could not answer Augustine's emptiness. He was like a cupbearer presenting a beautiful goblet to Augustine, but the goblet had nothing in it.

To the Center of the World
Augustine had been a professor of rhetoric for three years in Carthage when he decided to move to Rome. Though Rome was declining politically, it was still in its material glory. In Rome Augustine resumed his teaching and began to study the philosophy of Plato. He was drawn to Plato's world of intelligence and pure spirit, while still captive to all the fleshly desires of youth. Pupils didn't pay well in Rome, so Augustine moved again -- this time to Milan. Mother Monica not only followed him with her prayers, but came herself to Milan, where she attended Bishop Ambrose's church.

The Preacher's Words Finally Got to Him
In Milan Augustine began attending church too -- not from any interest in Christianity, but from admiration of Ambrose and his eloquence. Here at last was a Christian Augustine could admire. Gradually Augustine was drawn by the substance as well as the style of Ambrose's words and became a serious student of Christianity. From reading Paul's epistles he began to understand the lost state of man and the need for divine grace. He accepted that Jesus Christ was the restorer of fallen humanity, but this intellectual acceptance had not brought the truth of the gospel to the depths of his being. His lust and sensuousness seemed to war with his lofty, inquiring soul. With his soul in turmoil, Augustine was sitting under a tree in the garden when he heard a child's voice saying, "Take up and read." Picking up Paul's epistle to the Romans, Augustine read from the 13th chapter. Then and there he was soundly converted. We will give his firsthand account of this event in full in the next issue of Glimpses. His life would never be the same, and neither would the world. On Easter, 387, Ambrose baptized Augustine in Milan along with his close friend Alypius, and Adeodatus, his son born out of wedlock. Monica's prayers were at long last answered, though as Ambrose told her, "it was impossible that the child of so many prayers could be lost."