The Garden Where Augustine Finally Listened

In the summer of 386 AD, a thirty-one-year-old rhetoric professor sat weeping beneath a fig tree in a Milan garden. Augustine of Hippo had spent years hearing the voice of God and refusing to yield. His mother Monica had prayed. Bishop Ambrose had preached. Augustine himself had read the Scriptures and felt their pull. Yet each time conviction stirred, he hardened his resolve.…