57. Be able to describe St. Augustine and one heresy he was instrumental in teaching against

St. Augustine was born in 354 in North Africa.  He was a teacher of rhetoric and lived a wild life, including having a mistress and a child.  His mother, St. Monica, prayed incessantly for his conversion.  Eventually, after investigating different heretical sects, he joined the Catholic church, becoming the Bishop of Hippo from 395-430.

One of the heresies St. Augustine fought against was Manicheanism, which is a variant of Gnosticism.  They believed that good and evil are divided, yet equal powers (a good symbol for this might be the yin/yang symbol).  They are always in tension.  However, if this were the case, God could not have created both good and evil without being divided within Himself.  God is one.  God has to be good (evil is merely the absence of good).  God’s creation has to be good.