Saint Augustine of Hippo (A.D.354-430) was one of the outstanding figures of the declining Roman Empire. From his own account he lived a life of sin until his conversion to Christianity at the age of thirty-two. Twelve years later he gave a personal account of his search for truth in the Confessions, where his analysis of the emotional side of Christian experience in the face of sin remains unsurpassed. They are also intensely revealing of the man himself.