"Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the titans of church history. Works such as his ""Confessions"" and ""On the Trinity"" have earned him a place as one of “the Doctors of the Church,” responsible for shaping and defending Christian doctrine throughout the centuries. Yet Augustine was also pastor. Week by week, year by year, he shepherded his flock by preaching to them the Good News. In this short collection, listeners will find seventeen Advent homilies in which Augustine expounded from his pulpit the wonders of Christ’s incarnation for the everyday Christians in his congregation. Combining profound theological wisdom, sharp scriptural insight, and challenging practical application, these homilies are brief but rich meditations on the person of Christ—the Eternal Day who stepped into our darkness, the Bridegroom who came forth from his chamber, the Truth who sprung out of the earth. If you are longing for Christ this Advent season, these homilies will present him to you afresh from an array of surprising passages. "
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Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, in English Augustine of Hippo, also known as St. Augustine, St. Austin, was bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria). He was a Latin philosopher and theologian from the Africa Province of the Roman Empire and is generally considered as one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all times. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity. According to his contemporary Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith." In his early years he was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus. After his conversion to Christianity and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, and he framed the concepts of original sin and just war. When the Western Roman Empire was starting to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Catholic Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the Church, the community that worshiped the Trinity. In the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teaching on salvation and divine grace. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is also considered a saint. He carries the additional title of Blessed. Among the Orthodox, he is called "Blessed Augustine" or "St. Augustine the Blessed". Santo Agostinho
