BBC In Our Time - Augustine's Confessions

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine of Hippo's account of his conversion to Christianity and his life up to that point. Written c397AD, it has many elements of autobiography with his scrutiny of his earlier life, his long relationship with a concubine, his theft of pears as a child, his work as an orator and his embrace of other philosophies and Manichaeism. Significantly for the development of Christianity, he explores the idea of original sin in the context of his own experience. The work is often seen as an argument for his Roman Catholicism, a less powerful force where he was living in North Africa where another form of Christianity was dominant, Donatism. While Augustine retells many episodes from his own life, the greater strength of his Confessions has come to be seen as his examination of his own emotional development, and the growth of his soul.
With
Kate Cooper
Professor of History at the University of London and Head of History at Royal Holloway
Morwenna Ludlow
Professor of Christian History and Theology at the University of Exeter
and
Martin Palmer
Visiting Professor in Religion, History and Nature at the University of Winchester
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
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[@loriscunado3607]

I love Melvin Bragg. I have actually met him. At the Hay festival. He was sitting at a table on his own and no queue had formed for a book signing. I hadn't heard his talk or bought his book but I went up to him and thanked him for his life's work especially for the 'In our Time' series on Radio Four. He smiled graciously.

[@JamesBarry-j7m]

Ano.
Ther phony who clung to something to make up for his rather shoddy life