Saint Augustine's ten homilies on the First Epistle of John are among his greatest and most influential works. John and Augustine both develop the same central theme love and in these homilies Augustine uses John's epistle as a point of departure for exploring the meaning and implications of love with his customary profundity, passion and analytic rigor. As with John, a context of dissension and conflict within the Christian community (the Donatist breakaway from Catholic unity), gives his preaching a tone of urgency and poignancy. Anyone who reads these homilies, universally viewed as classics, cannot fail to be moved and challenged both intellectually and emotionally.
Aurelius Augustinus - more commonly "St. Augustine of Hippo," or simply "Augustine" - was a philosopher and theologian, and one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war. Augustine was one of the most prolific Latin authors in terms of surviving works, and the list of his works consists of more than a hundred separate titles.
Augustine took the view that the Biblical text should not be interpreted literally if it contradicts what we know from science and our God-given reason. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of Reformation teaching on salvation and divine grace.
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