1 of 1 people found
the following review helpful:
Splendid
- but caveat lector,
Reviewer: |
C. Coffman ( |
This new book on the great Augustine enthralled and puzzled me,
sometimes on the same page. I strongly recommend it for readers who have
already read Peter Brown's incomparable biography of Augustine, and perhaps
also a book on Manicheism--my personal favourite remains the great study by
Hans Jonas, although since Nag Hammadi there have been many more recent books
based upon the Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi. For readers who are
already familiar with Brown's biography, this is a splendid updating of the
facts about Augustine's life. But I would not recommend it for readers just learning about Augustine, for example somebody who has just
read THE CONFESSIONS and now wants to learn more about Augustine himself. The
best biography (as O'Donnell himself generously acknowledges in a footnote of
this book) remains the Peter Brown biography.
One of the key features of this book is the availability of new research, and
new material, not available to Peter Brown when he wrote his great book(s) on
Augustine and late antiquity. O'Donnell is immersed in seemingly all the
scholarship on Augustine and on subjects related to Augustine, and O'Donnell
brings a mature and considered judgment to his consideration of Augustine's
life and work.
Having said that, I do have the following caveat, which is why I recommend
O'Donnell's book as a supplement, but not a substitute, for the Brown
biography: O'Donnell's tone veers from learned and ironic and amused to being
slightly sardonic, even cynical about Augustine.
I remember reading A.N. Wilson's biographies of Tolstoy and C.S. Lewis and
feeling very satisfied when I had finished; over time, however, I realised that
Wilson had subtlely diminished his subjects and that I
had lost much of my esteem for Tolstoy and Lewis as a result of having read
Having said all that, I really admired O'Donnell's magisterial grasp of his
material and his profound, considered take on Augustine, his work, and his
world. What I considered the flaws in the tone spring from an interpretation
which, while it may not be shared by all readers (I certainly don't share it),
will not obscure the many wondrous insights that O'Donnell offers, insights
which leave me admiring Augustine all the more.