One of the greatest early theologians, and one with a sense of humour (albeit a rather nasty one) as well.

An immensely important figure in the intellectual history of the Christian faith.

An incredibly important figure in western intellectual history, though he seemed to have an uncommon dislike for moderation. If I remember correctly, he devotes an entire chapter in the Confessions to the sins he committed as an infant at his mother's breast, and the punishments that awaited him in hell for this, except for the overwhelming mercy of his Savior. Gosh, maybe it's best to give your baby the bottle after all.

he tries to logically contradict the fact that God can prevent evil but does not because God's will is sometimes fulfilled through the evil will of man. Augustine IMO is too imposing. There is no way one can set out to prove or disprove the existence of God, yet Augustine urges people to first have faith and then question. Sorry, I'm just an athiest. I dont see why the world has to be divided with something that was originally intended to build community.

There's hope for us all. After Augustine decided to stop tappin the keg and chasing the ladies, he got serious about moral obligation as his tedious tome, Confessions so aptly shows us. I had to read this in college and after about 100 pages on the sins of eating a grape, I think he got a little carried away with his point. On Free Choice of the Will is a good beginner point for arm-chair philosophers and introduced me to humanity's eternal struggle with free will and why we must have it. Think about it, if we did not have free wills, there would be no evil in the world to begin with but how could we appriciate goodness without evil to put it in perspective?

A promiscous man who became a Saint. There are two translations of his story. One says that he married and had Children under the Manicinians (a deulistic and the largest of all gnostic sects), the other version that he didn't marry the lady he had children with (but Manicinians were stricter than Catholics on marriage and did not allow this). Upset with them for not promoting him, he latter became a Catholic Bishop. called a Doctor of the Church (This means that he could explain religious questions left out of or not explained properly in the Bible in a way that almost anyone can understand). Politicaly he was a Nationalist.