On a recent flight to Algeria, the Associated Press' Nicole Winfield spoke with Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine, about Professor Catherine Conybeare's book, Augustine the African, on the theologian and philosopher whose teachings are central to the Order's tradition.
Conybeare, a professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies, recently wrote an essay for The Conversation titled "Love, Grace and World Peace: How an African Saint Has Shaped Pope Leo's Worldview." She has also been quoted in news stories about Pope Leo's 10-day trip to Africa. In an Associated Press story by Winfield that appeared in outlets nationwide, Conybeare pointed out that Augustine, "One of the most important thinkers in the Western intellectual tradition, actually came from Africa." She told The Washington Post that Leo's African trip "matters now precisely for this business of drawing attention to the importance of Africa specifically, and the Global South more generally, in the construction of European history."
When Conybeare's book was released in August 2025, it garnered media coverage in Publisher's Weekly and The Boston Globe, and was reviewed by a number of outlets including Christianity Today, Literary Review, and The New Yorker. The book also made The New Yorker's list of Best Books of 2025.
Read more about Augustine the African in the Fall 2025 Bulletin magazine.