The End of an Era
Gonzales writes, “When Augustine died, the Vandals were laying siege to the city of Hippo. Shortly thereafter, they were masters of the northern coast of Africa, Except Egypt. A few years earlier, in 410 CE, Rome had been taken and sacked by Alaric and his Goths.” 1 Augustine died in in 430 AD, historians will give varying answers as to when the Patristic period ended and the Medieval period began. My instructor, Provost, Dr. Jason Duesing marks it around 500 AD. 2 There is good reason for this; Catholics and Protestants alike look back at Augustine as the last great theologian of the Patristic period, but there were still much in the realm of Christological debates still occurring during the fifth century. There were two great Ecumenical councils during the fifth century (Ephesus 431 AD and Chalcedon 451 AD) that came to a consensus on the person of Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully Man yet without sin. 3 During the Medieval period much of the areas discussed during t