"You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power and to your wisdom there no limit." So begin the Confessions of St. Augustine: the most intimate and heartfelt prayer ever composed, a cornerstone of Western thought, and a study of anguish, hesitation, and divine intervention that influences Christians--Catholics and Protestants alike--to this day. But the Confessions do not tell the full story of Augustine's tumultuous life and...

Augustine's Confessions might be one of the most profound Christian testimonies ever recorded. Not necessarily because Augustine led an unusual life or faced intriguing circumstances which had to be overcome; because, in reality, the actual events of his life were relatively less than extraordinary. Augustine's Confessions serve as such a spectacular testimony because, besides the fact that it was one of the first of its kind in the literary world,...