O'Donnell's descriptions of these technologies are at the core of the two most important chapters of the book, 8 and 9, "The Augustinian Putsch in North Africa" and "Loomings," in which O'Donnell explains, sometimes too briefly, how Augustine exploited the genres of the letter, the sermon, and the public disputation, the physical expedient of travel between
Hippo Regius and Carthage, and North Africa and Italy, and the relatively new forum of the church council, to unite his version of Christianity with the dominant narrative of imperial Christianity across the Mediterranean.