Last night saw the first of what may be a series of talks at the Friary, near Westminster Cathedral, held under the aegis of The Catholic Herald. I was one of the speakers, and I chose to speak of St Augustine. What follows is the text of my talk. The quotations are all taken from Dr Pusey’s translation of the Confessions, which is available online here. -- Most Catholic theology takes as its starting point the work of St Thomas Aquinas. In fact it really is not possible these days to write anything about theology without taking the Angelic Doctor as your starting point. This was brought home to me forcibly by a book proposal I once submitted – the person reading it objected to every single point outlined, with the words (I paraphrase) “But St Thomas Aquinas says…” My reply, that I wanted to tackle the question using St Augustine as my starting point, was met with disbelief. Again, when I was outlining my proposed doctorate at the Gregorian University in Rome, I was told “But what has Augustine got to do with morality?” My reply was – once you have read my doctorate, you will know the answer to that question. Of course, Aquinas has got the papal seal of approval – the encyclical letter Aeterni Patris written by Leo XIII – and he has the Aquinas industry behind him. Workers in that industry get very annoyed by people trying to break the monopoly. Now it was Luther who said Los mit Aristoteles! I do not want to say “Away with Thomas…” If that is what you like, by all means carry on. But I do want people to have a look at Augustine and see how he can change your outlook. Aquinas is a theory, a grand unifying theory, called Thomism, or neo-Thomism. Augustine is not a theory, he is a story. He is a personal story too. But that is precisely the point. Christianity is not a theory, it is a lived story, it is the intersection of two stories, your own story, and that of the Lord. Again Augustine is a personal story that transcends the personal and is of universal significance; just as the story of Jesus is a personal story that does the same. Augustine starts with the particular and moves towards the universal, not the other way around. The Confessions, his autobiography, though never in a narrow sense, is a wonderful book. Think for a moment of all the great documents on sexual matters produced by the Church. Now stop thinking, and hear this: