Book IV Summary and Analysis

Augustine is a member of the Manichean sect, while being a teacher of liberal arts and rhetoric. Augustine gets money from his students and teaches them rhetoric. Nevertheless, he tries to be honest in the various competitions that he is involved in. Augustine refuses to have a magician sacrifice animals for him in order to win a rhetoric contest. That would be to sacrifice animals to devils, and in any case, Augustine is suspicious of such superstitions. By now, Augustine has tamed his sexual impulses to the point that he lives with only one woman, who he is not married to, but is faithful to. Augustine is clear that this was not a marriage; this was an arrangement of convenience based on lust. Augustine has a son named Adeodatus with this woman.

Augustine becomes a promoter of the Manichean...