A groundbreaking reassessment of one of Christianity's foundational thinkers from award-winning classicist Catherine Conybeare

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2026 An eye-opening new history of one of Christianity's most important figures - and one of Pope Leo XIV's primary inspirations 'Brilliant' SPECTATOR 'Illuminating' NEW YORKER 'Rich and sympathetic' TLS Augustine of Hippo is one of the world's most influential theologians, an early Christian writer whose work shaped the course of Western philosophy. Born in Numidia in 354 CE, Augustine's African identity has long been painfully denied. But it was foundational to his thinking and faith. Drawing on original sources and the Augustinian texts themselves, world-renowned scholar Catherine Conybeare traces Augustine's travels from North Africa to the European continent and back again, placing his African origins firmly at the centre of his story. A tale of exile, faith and identity, Augustine the African upends conventional knowledge about one of Christianity's most celebrated saints, and recentres Africa as the locus of early Catholic intellectual activity - with Europe on the periphery.

"Conybeare [...] intertwines learned exegesis with examples of Augustine's human idiosyncrasies, offering illuminating analyses of the philosopher's seminal texts and ideas" - New Yorker

"An engaging, thoughtful, and illuminating portrait... Conybeare vividly draws the thread of Augustine's African identity through his life and work in a fresh and elegant way. She has enlarged my perspective on this monumental, complicated man" - Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles

"Beautifully written, thoroughly engaging and highly recommended" - Literary Review

"Rich, erudite and sympathetic... [Conybeare] allows us to appreciate [Augustine's] thought anew" - TLS

"This beautifully written and closely researched book is a powerful reminder of the intellectual validity and importance of questioning established and inherited narratives... it is a book startlingly charged and suffused with a sense of curiosity and compassion towards its subject , a quality that gives the text an almost novelistic sense of emotional urgency" - The Critic

"A scholarly biography that places Augustine's ambivalence toward Africa at the center of his and Christianity's story" - Kirkus Reviews

"Succeeds brilliantly... [Conybeare] is a perceptive traveller, enlivening her textual work with vivid description" - Spectator

"Catherine Conybeare's vital and exhilarating biography of Augustine portrays him, newly, in the context of his African society and identity. Through her meticulously researched yet utterly compelling account, we live with him through the upheavals that shaped his faith and his work. Conybeare's is an important contribution and this is, simply, a wonderful book" - Claire Messud, author of The Emperor's Children