By any measure, the greatest Christian thinker of the first millennium of the church's history was St. Augustine (or Augustin), who served for most of his adult career as the bishop of Hippo, a seaport town in North Africa.

Augustin would have seemed an unlikely candidate for this honor, however, given the hostile attitude he maintained toward the Christian faith for the first 30 years of his life. When he finally did come to faith, his hostility was transformed into a powerful and insightful theological mind, which shaped the direction of the Christian movement from his time on.

This lecture briefly summarizes the life of Augustin, especially during his pre-Christian years, and sets the stage for several more lectures that will treat some of the better known aspects of his thought.

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