What every Christian should know about St Augustine of Hippo

Perhaps the most influential African Christian that most Africans don’t know about, St Augustine of Hippo has much to offer the Blach Church, says Jean Kabasomi. Not least a renewed passion for the best that theology can bring to the Christian community 

I’m a theology graduate, but sometimes I feel like a fraud. Why? Because I don’t really know much about Church history. I specialised in biblical studies, which means I haven’t studied history since my first year at university.

I did do a module on how Christianity shaped Western economic thought as part of my masters degree, but I’ve always felt that I don’t really know much about the development of Christian theology post the apostles. I mean. I know of the Church Fathers, but I haven’t read much of their work…

So, a few years ago I bought myself a copy of Martin Luther’s 95Theses. I read a bit of it but, quite frankly, I got bored and put it down. More recently, I found myself with not much to do one summer afternoon and decided to go to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I ended up reading some Tertullian (the first writer in Latin known to use the term ‘trinity’) and Eusebius’ The Church History. I found it to be a surprisingly pleasant experience.