"In the Beginning Was the Word" is a collection of Saint Augustine's homilies reflecting on the depths and intricacies of the Gospel according to John. His 124 homilies (tractatus in Latin) have been abridged and reorganized into 57 chapters for modern readers in conversational English. As Augustine spoke day after day in his cathedral church in Hippo (modern Annaba in Algeria) he employed his rhetorical gifts and prodigious memory "to teach, to delight, and to move" his people to share his love for the Word become flesh, and to yearn with him for the peace that is God's gift to those who seek him. As Augustine wrote in "Confessions," "Our hearts are restless untill they rest in you."