St. Augustine Of Hippo Research Paper

Saint Augustine of Hippo is not only a rhetorician, but played an instrumental role in the Christian faith. Next to St. Paul, St. Augustine is seen as one of the most significant Christian thinkers in all of history. St. Augustine's creation of a theological system created a lasting influence in society today and his writings still play a major role in the modern practice of Christianity, specifically in Roman Catholicism. Throughout his 75 years on earth St. Augustine played influential roles in Christianity and his roles as a rhetorician (O'Donnell, 2017). His contributions to the field of rhetoric helped shape society, not only during the middle ages, but also in the present day. All of these contributions have shaped the field of communication …show more content…
Augustine’s origins are nothing short of culturally rich. St. Augustine was born in Tagaste on November 13, 354 in Souk-Ahras, Algeria. Tagaste was a Roman community in a river valley not far from the Mediterranean coast in Africa. His parents were pretty well-off in Roman society. They were able to give Augustine a first-class education. Although it is believed that Augustine had more than one sibling, he was the only child who obtained an education. Augustine first studied in Madauros, and then at Carthage, which was a major city of Roman Africa. After receiving his education so he briefly taught in Tagaste, but later returned to Carthage to teach rhetoric (O'Donnell, 2017). Rhetoric is defined as “the use of written, spoken, and visual language. It investigates how language is used to organize and maintain social groups, construct meanings and identities, coordinate behavior, mediate power, produce change, and create knowledge” ("Rhetoric & Writing Studies"). By the time Augustine was 28 years old, he left Africa to start a career in Rome. While in Rome, he taught for a short time and eventually landed a role as a professor in Milan. At the time Milan was the capital of the Western Roman Empire and a big area for career advancement. However, this time was short lived as he ended back up in Tagaste after only two years in Milan. With Augustine back in his home town, he passed the time as a family man. Her he looked after his family property and raised his son …show more content…
Augustine developed several theories and contributions that changed the field of rhetoric forever. These included: his theory of time and effects of language in the world (Shuma, 2013). The first theory was his interesting thoughts on time. St. Augustine believed that if God is eternal, which is the sole belief amongst all Christians, that he does not exist in individual moments of time. This led St. Augustine to believe that his angels, do exist in time carry out his actions on earth (Rosenfield). However, this isn’t necessarily a belief all Christians today follow. This theory was part of his most well known book series Confessions (Portalié). Another book from this series looks at his views on language. St. Augustine argues that language is a universal human characteristic that separates us from maybe other animals or mammals, language also divides us as a human race. Because not everyone speaks the same language, we are divided into communities and areas based on the language we speak. When going outside of those communities, language becomes a barrier and people are misunderstood. However, St. Augustine also views language on a more theological level on how to describe God using language that isn’t discretionary or hard-to-believe (Burton,