A theological stronghold of the Church Father. Augustine (354–430 A.D.), one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity and philosophy, was the son of a pagan, Patricius from Tagaste, and his Christian wife, Monica. While studying to become a rhetorician, he found himself faced with a storm of philosophical and psychological doubts, which led him to Manichaeism. In 383, he moved to Rome and then to Milan to teach rhetoric. Despite exploring classical philosophical systems, particularly skepticism and Neoplatonism, his studies of the letters of Paul with his friend Alypius, as well as the sermons of Bishop Ambrose, led to his decisive conversion in 386 from mixed beliefs to Christianity. He quickly returned to Tagaste and founded a religious community, and by 395 or 396 he became the bishop of Hippo. From Augustine's rich output, the Loeb Classical Library offers his recognizable autobiography “Confessions” (in two volumes); “The City of God” (in seven volumes), which develops the action of God in the progress of world history and proposes the superiority of Christian beliefs over pagan ones in adversity; as well as a selection of Letters that are important for the study of ecclesiastical theologians.