St Augustine of Hippo, the great Doctor of the Latin Church, was born at Thagaste in North Africa, in 354 CE. He was brought up as a Christian but he was soon converted to the Manichean religion. He also came under the influence of Neoplatonism. However, in 387 he renounced all his unorthodox beliefs and was baptised into Christianity. His surviving works have profoundly influenced Christian theology and the psychology and political theology of the West.

R. S. Pine-Coffin was born in 1917. He was educated at Ampleforth and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He died in 1992.