Augustine
The first autobiography, and the theology that shaped the West
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The *Confessions* is reckoned the world's first true autobiography and introduces an inward self that European literature built on for fifteen centuries. *The City of God* was written after Rome was sacked in 410, answering the charge that Christianity had weakened the empire — and separates the earthly from the heavenly realm in a way later used to argue for the division of church and state.
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Augustine of North Africa wrote the *Confessions*, telling of his own life, his doubts and his failings. No one had written about themselves that way before. His thinking on original sin and grace shaped all of Western Christianity.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org