Augustine (Saint) (354-430)

A Father of the Church and bishop of Hippo, in present day Algeria, whose immense philosophical work – situated at the crossroads of Platonism and Christianity – has considerably marked Western thought. With his Confessions first of all, the first autobiography in world literature; then with his The City of God, a book which makes of each individual the site where two kingdoms coexist: that of God, of immutable character and founded on love, and that of life on Earth, of an unstable nature and grounded on pride. Amongst the several of his ideas which prevailed after his death was that of predestination, according to which the salvation of each and all depends intimately on divine grace.