If the defining feature of the Middle Ages is it churches, the defining architect of its mind , heart and soul- at least until Aquinas - is St Augustine. The Church was the spiritual army whose leaders were its fathers. And in that sense, Augustine's thought is closer in modern terms to a revolutionary like Lenin than it is to a philosopher's. A philosopher may well be part of a broad movment, but his appeal is usually to first principles rather than to a body of faith, even if once philsophies are entrenched, very questionable first principles easily become matters of faith, and the collection of a philosophers' members form a kind of church. This collection examines Augustine's core ideas and brings scholars from the USA, EU, Australia and Asia.