Augustine of Hippo is known as a philosopher who was very important to the Christian tradition and well known in the field of philosophy. To give the background to Augustine, he was born in Algeria in the year three hundred and fifty four. He was born to a Roman family and he studied in Carthage. After becoming a teacher of rhetoric and sciences at Carthage he went to Rome to further his career. This plan succeeded as he became a teacher at Milan for two years until he left to some “soul searching”. After some time he went to the town his family was in, Tagaste, and Augustine acted as a squire in which he raised his son and looked over the family property and belongings. His son died and he became a clergyman. Then after spending much time within the monastery he became a bishop. He then became a prominent theologian in Africa and Rome where he reconciled Christianity with many of the schismatic branches that arouse after Constantine died. He went on to write many theological books and combat heresy within the church and those against the church. Augustine’s philosophy was heavily inspired by Plato. Augustine himself was a Platonist through and through and focused on the dualistic nature of the world. In fact, he is often called the Christianized Plato because of how much Plato inspired him and his writing. His philosophy is the reason for writing this blog about him, so I will not write about his theology (too much). To start, one giant thing that he expands upon that impacts philosophy and theology to come is the concept of free will. This concept is pretty well known, but it is about how humans have choice since we are rational creatures. We have the ability to choose what we want to do, and although we have factors that influence these choices we still the free will to make choices. In addition to free will being important for philosophy it was equally important for Christian theology. Augustine also furthered epistemology by stating that humans are made to know truth (which was not a new concept) however he interwove it with theology and how God plays an active role by illuminating the mind. This is once again a Platonist view of it was furthered by Thomas Aquinas. Another thing that Augustine established was Just war theory. The theory states that it is right for war if the opposing party is actively committing grave wrongs that can only be stopped by violence. This in my opinion is best seen in the World War two with how the Nazis were committing genocide and various other war crimes. They refused to listen to reason, so it would be the just and right thing to do to stop them even if it required violence. Overall, Augustine (also known as Saint Augustine) brought an early philosophical view of Christianity by also using Greek philosophy (A very Platonist view) to show various theological and philosophical concepts.