Catherine Conybeare – författare

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2026An 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.

The Irrational Augustine takes the notion of St Augustine as rigid and dogmatic Father of the Church and turns it on its head. Catherine Conybeare reads Augustine''s earliest works to discover the anti-dogmatic Augustine, who values changeability and human interconnectedness and deplores social exclusion. The novelty of her book lies in taking seriously the nature of these early works as performances, through which multiple questions can be raised andmultiple options explored, both in words and through their dramatic framework. The theological consequences are considerable. A very human Augustine emerges, talking and playing with friends and family, including his mother - and a very sympathetic set of ideas is the result.

The aristocratic convert, Paulinus of Nola, was revered by contemporaries and correspondents, like Augustine of Hippo and Sulpicius Severus, as Paulinus noster - 'our Paulinus'. But his role as a shaper of, and exemplar to, the early Christian Church has, until recently, been often overlooked. This literate and accessible study examines the profound impact Paulinus had on Christian thought during a crucial period of its development. His ideas on friendship, Christian symbolism, and the nature of personal identity were produced on the cusp of the transition from the classical world to the burgeoning Western Christian civilization by a thinker with strong links to both. Paulinus' letters and other writings reveal the roots of many important strands of Christian thought; the works of Augustine and others attest to this influence. The letters of Paulinus and his correspondents portray an early Christian 'web' of shared concepts, intellectual discussion, and group development. Catherine Conybeare examines how the very process of writing and transmitting letters between members of a far-flung community helped to bind that community together and to aid the creation of ideas which would continue to reverberate for centuries after. 'Our Paulinus' was key to that group iconic as a model of behaviour, as a conversion success story, and as a intellectual contributor able to bridge the old world and the new.

The Irrational Augustine takes the notion of St Augustine as rigid and dogmatic Father of the Church and turns it on its head. Catherine Conybeare reads Augustine's earliest works to discover the anti-dogmatic Augustine, who values changeability and human interconnectedness and deplores social exclusion. The novelty of her book lies in taking seriously the nature of these early works as performances, through which multiple questions can be raised and multiple options explored, both in words and through their dramatic framework. The theological consequences are considerable. A very human Augustine emerges, talking and playing with friends and family, including his mother - and a very sympathetic set of ideas is the result.

The Self in Premodern Thought reconfigures the historical study of the self, which has typically been treated in disciplinary silos. Bringing multiple disciplinary perspectives into conversation with each other, it broadens the discussion to include texts and forms of writing outside the standard philosophical/theological canon. A distinguished group of contributors, from philosophy, classics, theology, history, and comparative literature, explores a wide range of texts that greatly expand our understanding of how selfhood was conceived in the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. The essays in this groundbreaking collection range from challenging new perspectives on well-known authors and texts, such as Plato and Augustine, to innovative explorations of forms of writing that have rarely been discussed in this context, such as drama, sermons, autobiographical writing, and liturgy.

Modern disciplinary silos tend to separate the fields of classical philology and theology. This collection of essays, however, explores for the first time the deep and significant interactions between them. It demonstrates how from antiquity to the present they have marched hand in hand, informing each other with method, views of the past and structures of argument. The volume rewrites the history of discipline formation, and reveals how close the seminar is to the seminary.

Modern disciplinary silos tend to separate the fields of classical philology and theology. This collection of essays, however, explores for the first time the deep and significant interactions between them. It demonstrates how from antiquity to the present they have marched hand in hand, informing each other with method, views of the past and structures of argument. The volume rewrites the history of discipline formation, and reveals how close the seminar is to the seminary.

Modern disciplinary silos tend to separate the fields of classical philology and theology. This collection of essays, however, explores for the first time the deep and significant interactions between them. It demonstrates how from antiquity to the present they have marched hand in hand, informing each other with method, views of the past and structures of argument. The volume rewrites the history of discipline formation, and reveals how close the seminar is to the seminary.

Modern disciplinary silos tend to separate the fields of classical philology and theology. This collection of essays, however, explores for the first time the deep and significant interactions between them. It demonstrates how from antiquity to the present they have marched hand in hand, informing each other with method, views of the past and structures of argument. The volume rewrites the history of discipline formation, and reveals how close the seminar is to the seminary.

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so.The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is an engaging introduction to this spiritually creative and intellectually original work. This guidebook is organized by themes:the importance of languagecreation and the sensible worldmemory, time and the selfthe afterlife of the ConfessionsWritten for readers approaching the Confessions for the first time, this guidebook addresses the literary, philosophical, historical and theological complexities of the work in a clear and accessible way. Excerpts in both Latin and English from this seminal work are included throughout the book to provide a close examination of both the autobiographical and theoretical content within the Confessions.

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so.The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is an engaging introduction to this spiritually creative and intellectually original work. This guidebook is organized by themes:the importance of languagecreation and the sensible worldmemory, time and the selfthe afterlife of the ConfessionsWritten for readers approaching the Confessions for the first time, this guidebook addresses the literary, philosophical, historical and theological complexities of the work in a clear and accessible way. Excerpts in both Latin and English from this seminal work are included throughout the book to provide a close examination of both the autobiographical and theoretical content within the Confessions.

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so.

The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is an engaging introduction to this spiritually creative and intellectually original work. This guidebook is organized by themes:

the importance of language creation and the sensible world memory, time and the self the afterlife of the Confessions

Written for readers approaching the Confessions for the first time, this guidebook addresses the literary, philosophical, historical and theological complexities of the work in a clear and accessible way. Excerpts in both Latin and English from this seminal work are included throughout the book to provide a close examination of both the autobiographical and theoretical content within the Confessions.

Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so.

The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine’s Confessions is an engaging introduction to this spiritually creative and intellectually original work. This guidebook is organized by themes:

the importance of language creation and the sensible world memory, time and the self the afterlife of the Confessions

Written for readers approaching the Confessions for the first time, this guidebook addresses the literary, philosophical, historical and theological complexities of the work in a clear and accessible way. Excerpts in both Latin and English from this seminal work are included throughout the book to provide a close examination of both the autobiographical and theoretical content within the Confessions.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430), also known as Saint Augustine, was one of the most influential theologians in history. His writings, including the autobiographical Confessions and The City of God, helped shape the foundations of Christianity and Western philosophy. But for many centuries, Augustine’s North African birth and Berber heritage have been simply dismissed. Catherine Conybeare, a world-renowned Augustine scholar, here puts the “African” back in Augustine’s story. As she relates, his seminal books were written neither in Rome nor in Milan, but in Africa, where he had returned as a wanderer during a perilous time when the Western Roman Empire was crumbling. Using extant letters and other shards of evidence, Conybeare retraces Augustine’s travels, revealing how his groundbreaking works emerge from an exile’s perspective within an African context. In its depiction of this Christian saint, Augustine the African upends conventional wisdom and traces core ideas of Christian thought to their origins on the African continent.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2026An 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.