Latin Christian Literature I (polemical and theological writings)

The chapter is part of an edited volume that aims at providing a literary context and background to Augustine of Hippo's authorial activities. It surveys polemical and theological Christian literature in Latin which Augustine of Hippo may have used or to which he may have been exposed when writing his own works. It is divided into three sections: 1. From Tertullian to Lactantius, 2. Milestones of the Latin Fourth Century, 3. Theological and polemical writing during Augustine's own flourishing. The chapter concludes that although Augustine may not have been "a great reader of his Christian contemporaries" (Williams), the literary output of his own time and of the centuries before him is still mirrored in his work to a surprising degree