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City of God

by Augustine of Hippo, Henry Bettenson (Translator)

3.88 · Rating Details · 7,815 Ratings · 339 Reviews

No book except the Bible itself had a greater influence on the Middle Ages than Augustine's City of God. And since medieval Europe was the cradle of modern Western society, this work is vital for understanding our world and how it came into being.

Paperback, Penguin Classics, 1097 pages

Published November 27th 2003 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 426)

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Nov 18, 2008 Bud Smith rated it really liked it

ok, this is my one brag book. anybody who gets through this (unabridged only), gets to go to heaven, no questions asked.

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Nov 07, 2013 Roy Lotz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religion-mysticism-theology, lets-get-medieval, footnotes-to-plato

Once on the beach at Utica, I saw with my own eyes—and there were others to bear me witness—a human molar tooth so big that it could have been cut up, I think, into a hundred pieces each as big as one of our modern teeth.

I’m trying to think of books that might be equal to this one in importance to Western history: Plato’s Republic? the works of Aristotle? Euclid’s Elements? Homer’s epics? There aren’t many. This book arguably set the tone for the entire Middle Ages that followed. It is a vast, ...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Briana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: torrey-johnson-soph-fall

Uh...

I only had to read half of this for school. But it was still really long.

Imagine you're in a math class. And the teacher says, "Now we're going to learn about numbers: one plus one is two, two plus two is four, etc." And you think, "Yeah. Okay. I get that." Then all of a sudden, while your mind wanders around, the teacher says, "So now that you've got that, let's talk about calculus." And then your brain explodes from the jump that it just made.

This is sort of how City of God treated me. A ...more

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Feb 09, 2009 Chris Comis rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy, theology, his-story

One of the best books ever written. Augustine wrote this just as Rome was coming to an end. Part of the impetus was to show that the City of God was not confined to the Roman Empire, but would outlast any earthly empire. The amount of detail he poured into describing the pagan culture of his time was also amazing. Also, he offers some fascinating theological insights towards the end of the book.

If you want to understand Western Christendom, you really have to read this book from cover to cover.

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Jul 10, 2014 Brian Eshleman rated it liked it

OMG, I FINISHED!

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Mar 31, 2013 Jill rated it liked it

Shelves: religious-misc, classics, history

I had no idea what I was getting into when I began this book. It sometimes felt like it would never end, but it was a great experience. First, I discovered how early on very basic doctrines were lost. I loved what he says about the trinity. I was fascinated by how he defined demons (man-made gods). I would define a demon as a devil's angel. Also interesting to me was Augustine's take on the God of Israel's name being the conjugated Hebrew verb "to be" rendered "I am that I am." To me, this seems I had no idea what I was getting into when I began this book. It sometimes felt like it would never end, but it was a great experience. First, I discovered how early on very basic doctrines were lost. I loved what he says about the trinity. I was fascinated by how he defined demons (man-made gods). I would define a demon as a devil's angel. Also interesting to me was Augustine's take on the God of Israel's name being the conjugated Hebrew verb "to be" rendered "I am that I am." To me, this seems a very obvious way of showing that He is the only God who actually, in fact, exists - the only God who is not "the workmanship of man's hands" as it were. There is an awful lot of time wasted on incredibly menial an irrelevant questions - like whether God can count infinite numbers - whether He knows they exist (Really? Why?). Then there were bits I found very entertaining, like Augustine's insistence that woman is weaker than man, and it was she who succumbed to temptation because Adam was too strong, and Solomon was too strong - he had to be led into temptation by his wives - or that Aaron wouldn't have made the golden calf without Miriam's making the decision first. Most convenient and amusing, I thought. However, there were also really beautiful and profound parts. "Pride is the beginning of sin. And what is pride but the craving for undue exaltation? And this is undue exaltation - when the soul abandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself." Also "...Though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked." (Very similar metaphor in Isaiah 28 - the parable of the Lord, the Farmer) He continues to say that "...So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them." Beautiful! Also, "No sin is committed save by that desire or will by which we desire that it be well with us and shrink from it being ill with us. That therefore is a lie which we do in order that it may be well with us, but which makes us more miserable than we were. And why is this, but because the source of man's happiness lies only in God, whom he abandons when he sins." I really liked these nuggets. Augustine seems to spend a lot of time trying to prove points that I feel are completely irrelevant – e.g. is it possible for a human body to burn eternally in fire and not be consumed? He goes on to explain that because there is a specimen of worm that not only lives in a hot spring, but nowhere else, a body could last eternity in fire and not be consumed. Who cares about this stuff? And why does it matter? And why is it for us to figure out? The mechanics of how God does things – those are the things I feel are much better left to faith. ...more

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Aug 06, 2011 David Boyce added it

Evolution was a religious Idea. Back in 410 Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa was the first to describe evolution by natural selection. "We see a constant succession, as some things pass away and others arise, as the weaker succumb to the stronger, and those that are overwhelmed change into the qualities of their conquerors; and thus we have a pattern of a world of continual transience."

This book is a tremendous work. At 1090 pages long it is a vast collection of religious musings and t ...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Rob Roy rated it really liked it

Shelves: religion, 1000-list, ancient-lit

This is a monumental work of theology. Written just after the sacking of Rome, it starts by answering how God could allow a Christian city to fall. This proceeds with a detailed attack on paganism, and a defense of Christianity. He belabors these points, but then goes on to a treatise on Christian theology which sets a decided uncompromising tone. He endorses the predestination arguments later made by Calvin, and shows a narrow moral view. What you get is an excellent view of the early Christian ...more

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Sep 09, 2008 Joshua Nomen-Mutatio rated it it was ok

Shelves: philosophy, cultural-and-or-political, theology, history, religion

Could not finish it. Don't care to. It's a rather lengthy and often times boring read. I got enough of the gist by making it about halfway through and then skipping around through the rest. His unsurprising righteous indignation about the truth and beauty of 4th century Christian doctrine and the falsity and demoralizing nature of "paganism" makes me want to run for the bathroom. But when I look upon it as a book written by a man whose mind would've been blown by the mere revelation that the Ear ...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Erik Graff rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: students of late antiquity/patristics

Recommended to Erik by: Henry Kintner

Shelves: religion

Ironically, I switched my major at Grinnell College from history to religion because of this book. We had just read Thucydides in the Historiography class, the last course required to complete the major, when Professor Kintner assigned De civitate Dei. That weekend, openig the tome and beginning to read, I decided it was simply too much. Augustine seemed to be psychotic polemics, not history. Being a junior and having accumulated a lot of religion credits almost by chance, I determined a switch ...more

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Oct 24, 2013 Isaac rated it liked it

I don't really know how to review something like this in a format that I've used primarily for rating fiction, but I'll give it a shot.

The three stars are not meant as some kind of snobbish modern judgment on The City of God but my attempt to balance its theological and historical significance with the difficulty and not infrequent irrelevancy of the material. Augustine was adept at philosophy and rhetoric, keen in his exegetical analysis, and thorough in his argumentation, but many of the topi I don't really know how to review something like this in a format that I've used primarily for rating fiction, but I'll give it a shot.

The three stars are not meant as some kind of snobbish modern judgment on The City of God but my attempt to balance its theological and historical significance with the difficulty and not infrequent irrelevancy of the material. Augustine was adept at philosophy and rhetoric, keen in his exegetical analysis, and thorough in his argumentation, but many of the topics discussed and many of the frequent digressions, excurses, and flights of fancy are tedious to the modern reader, even a sympathetic one.

A suggestion: If you're interested in the theology of the work, skip the first ten chapters. Seriously. I hate skipping stuff, especially when I'm trying to get through classic works. I plowed through every word of this thing and I assure you -- you don't need to. You won't miss anything. Augustine's arguments against the Roman gods and the ancient Roman worldview(s) are really tough to get into. He spends a great deal of time explaining and then arguing against theories about the world that we would never dream of countenancing, with disproportionate amounts of time devoted to refuting very minor sub-points of philosophical systems.

Things pick up a bit at ch. 11, where some of Augustine's famous emphases emerge, such as the nature of evil as privation of good and the doctrine of original sin. We also get his take on biblical history with a hearty dose of typological interpretation that treads on and across the border with the allegorical not infrequently.

The book is full of intriguing observations and theological insights. The last three chapters deal with final judgment and the eternal state in ways that continue to be influential in contemporary theology. Augustine's eschatology is, I think, a major piece in the development of amillennialism. Perhaps sometime I'll come back here and put in a few of my notes.

Let me conclude for now with a quote that had me laughing out loud. It comes from the section describing the surprising operations of the human body in special cases that hint at how we shall live once our resurrected bodies submit entirely to our redeemed wills.

Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing (XIV.24).

...more

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Nov 06, 2013 James M. rated it it was amazing

This book weighs in at over 1,000 pages - 22 books in the original. Fortunately for the reader, St. Augustine frequently wanders from his main theme, for many pages at a time, providing fascinating explorations of why the number 11 symbolises sin (short answer: it transgresses the perfect 10 of the Decalogue); of how the Ark of Noah is an allegory of Christ; of the creation and fall of the angels, and of much, much more.

These questions are digressions, but they do help to make the book palatabl ...more

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Dec 06, 2016 Justin Evans rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-etc

Any star rating is entirely meaningless. This is a ludicrous book, astonishing in scope, and in desperate need of an editor to make sense of it. I simply can't; it's overwhelming. Arid stretches of rhetoric suddenly cough up a fascinating philosophical argument, which then itself belches forth more arid rhetoric, and so on. Augustine takes the ancient pagan beliefs to pieces by showing that they simply can't be rationalized--then immediately forgets the obvious lesson and tries to rationalize Ch ...more

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Mar 24, 2012 booklady added it

Shelves: 1990s

Read this back in the 1990's but now I want to reread it. I know I would get a lot more out of it.

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Apr 05, 2017 Zaman Ali rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, philosophy, ethics, theology

A very long book and very difficult to have full focus in reading all book but it's the book of long influence in human history because of Augustine theological thoughts. And this book has long explanatory views on theological ideology and Augustine explains it very well and point by point and even you agree with Augustine or not but one thing is certain that Augustine made a significant change in philosophy by adding the theological reasons in philosophy and that made him popular in throughout ...more

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Sep 13, 2009 John rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the great classics in all of Christian--no, check that--human history, The City of God presents two contrasting groups of people, or to use the imagery of the book, two contrasting cities: the earthly and the heavenly. Everyone in the world falls into either one city or the other, and Augustine painstakingly lays out their origins, their history, and their destiny.

This fifth century book was the classic Christian book throughout the church's history until the individualism of the Enlighte ...more

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Jan 19, 2014 Amy C. marked it as to-read

Shelves: faith, didn-t-finish

Reading this along with a Facebook group. Just through book One now and really enjoying the book and the experience with the reading circle. The group's organizer posts a reading schedule and regular comments with the readings, and other commenters have been so valuable to read. I'm getting so much out of it because of the group. If you're reading it now or want to read it, check out the Reading the City of God group on Facebook.

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Jul 07, 2011 John rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, homeschool-books, omnibus-books

Augustine is widely considered the most important of the early church fathers. He was born in North Africa in 354 A.D., became the Bishop of Hippo and wrote a vast number of works—most notably Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, On the Trinity, and City of God. Augustine’s legacy particularly in the Protestant tradition, cannot be underestimated, as his works left an indelible impression upon the Reformers—a legacy that Protestants still draw upon today. Indeed, the very nature of the argument c ...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Matt rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I stumbled across Augustine when I was teenager and I remember this being much more profound. Having just reread it cover to cover, I was wholly disappointed. Augustine writes in response to attacks on Christianity for which the decline of the Roman Empire is being increasingly blamed. The first half of the book criticizes, effectively, the irrationality of pagan belief. However, he fails to turn the same clear-eyed analysis to Christianity. In one of the more painfully oblivious passages, Augus I stumbled across Augustine when I was teenager and I remember this being much more profound. Having just reread it cover to cover, I was wholly disappointed. Augustine writes in response to attacks on Christianity for which the decline of the Roman Empire is being increasingly blamed. The first half of the book criticizes, effectively, the irrationality of pagan belief. However, he fails to turn the same clear-eyed analysis to Christianity. In one of the more painfully oblivious passages, Augustine writes:

These fables… are so skillfully invented by men as to involve no scandal to the gods. But whoever have pretended as to Jupiter’s rape of Ganymede, a very beautiful boy, that King Tantalus committed the crime, and the fable ascribed to Jupiter; or as to impregnating Danae as a golden shower, that it means that the woman’s virtue was corrupted by gold: whether these things were really done or only fabled in those days, or were really done by others and falsely ascribed to Jupiter, it is impossible to tell how much wickedness must have been taken for granted in men's hearts that they should be thought able to listen to such lies with patience. pg. 560.

Whereas Augustine writes in his Confessions that biblical interpretation may have many meanings, he engages in a very literal analysis for the second half of the book. Starting with a bedrock belief that biblical history is true and accurate, he builds layer after layer of biblical truth upon that unexamined foundation. Augustine adopts the Platonic philosophical traditions which support the existence of the soul and faults of paganism, but then readily discards philosophy as a whole for not able to achieve the quested true happiness for which it is engaged. Happiness is only found in accepting God. All inconsistencies and faults in Christianity are cured by faith that God is all powerful and can make all things come to pass. Which begs the question of why we should engage in any rational evaluation of anything since God’s will/power trumps all? It makes Augustine’s efforts to extrapolate meaning from biblical works a vain and futile exercise in human rationality.

Christians starting from the same principles as Augustine will probably find much to like about this work. For those of us not starting with the same assumptions of biblical authority, it is a tedious read. ...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Jeremy rated it it was ok

Shelves: philosophy

Okay, from what I read, which certainly wasn't the whole book, there are a few useful ideas here. Augustine does an excellent job (though unintentionally) of showing how religious doctrines do not come about by an organic, bottom up process, but are the products of artificial acts of committees and compilers. And he also shows how large institutions are necessary in order to keep a doctrine going once it gains a modicum of acceptance. But honestly, I found this work overall to be hopelessly reac ...more

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May 20, 2011 James Violand rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone.

Shelves: own

This is one of my favorite works. Yeah, I know you're skeptical, but here me out. I've begun my quest to read the basic works of western man beginning with Gilgamesh and in sequence reading through to the present. It's a lifelong ambition. I've read most of the ancient works of some repute, including Roman histories from Greek and Roman historians. When I arrived at 411 AD, I picked up The City of God. Shortly after the first sack of Rome, Augustine wrote it not as an apology for the claim that ...more

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Sep 24, 2010 Nemo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: christianity

A Masterpiece of Christian Apologetics

St. Augustine started the book to address a pressing crisis and the practical problem of suffering, and then gradually rose to the height of Christian philosophy and theology that has rarely, if ever, been surpassed since. He gave a sweeping overview of ancient history, the history of the Jewish people intertwined with the history of the worldly empires (Roman and Assyrian), and revealed the main, though hidden, plot in the script of history, i.e., the birth ...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Suzannah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I read The City of God over six months last year in a translation by Henry Bettenson which runs to 1091 pages in my Penguin Classics edition. As Joe Morecraft says, this is a book on everything. I am not going to review it; all I feel that I can do is gesture helplessly in its general direction.

Read the rest at my blog, In Which I Read Vintage Novels.

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Sep 23, 2016 Laura marked it as to-read

Recommended to Laura by: My father

Shelves: e-books, gutenberg, religion

Free download available at Vol. I - Project Gutenberg.

Free download available at Vol. II - Project Gutenberg.

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Jun 11, 2009 Gwen Burrow rated it it was amazing

Shelves: theology

Stunning. Not just a theologically good book, but also an enjoyable one.

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Nov 20, 2014 Pinkyivan rated it really liked it

I did it. Feels good man.

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Mar 01, 2013 Jay rated it really liked it

Shelves: theology

Often brilliant. Occasionally tedious.

Here are some quotes that stood out to me:

"I am sick of recalling the many acts of revolting injustice which have disturbed the city's history; the powerful classes did their best to subjugate the lower orders, and the lower orders resisted - the leaders of each side motivated more by ambition for victory than by any ideas of equity and morality." Book II, 17

"At the beginning of history the supreme power over races and nations rested with kings, who rose to Often brilliant. Occasionally tedious.

Here are some quotes that stood out to me:

"I am sick of recalling the many acts of revolting injustice which have disturbed the city's history; the powerful classes did their best to subjugate the lower orders, and the lower orders resisted - the leaders of each side motivated more by ambition for victory than by any ideas of equity and morality." Book II, 17

"At the beginning of history the supreme power over races and nations rested with kings, who rose to that summit of authority not by canvassing popular support, but because their moderation was recognized by good men. The peoples were not under the restraint of laws: it was their custom to protect, not to extend, the frontiers of their dominion, and their realms were confined within the limits of their own country." Book IV, p. 141 (quoting Justinus' abbridgement of Trogus Pompeius).

"Do not imagine that is was by force of arms that our ancestors made a great nation out of a small community. If that were true, we should today have a far more glorious nation. In allies, in our own citizens, in armaments, in horses, we have greater resources than they enjoyed. But is was other causes that made them great, causes that with us have ceased to exist: energy in our own land, a rule of justice outside our borders; in forming policy, a mind that is free because not at the mercy of criminal passions. Instead of these we have self-indulgence and greed, public poverty and private opulence. We praise riches: we pursue a course of sloth. No distinction is made between good men and bad: the intrigues of ambition win the prizes due to merit. No wonder, when each of you thinks only of his own private interest; when at home you are slaves to your appetites, and to money and influence in your public life. The consequence is that an attack is being launched on a republic left without defences." Book V, p. 200 (quoting Cato).

"Besides the benefits which God lavishes on good and bad alike in accordance with his government of the natural order, about which I have already said something, he has given us a striking proof of his great love, a proof which is the special privilege of the good. We can, to be sure, never give him adequate thanks for our existence, our life, our sight of sky and earth, or our possession of intelligence and reason, which enable us to search for him who created all these things. But there is more than this. When we were overwhelmed by the load of ours sins, when we had turned away from the contemplation of his light and had been blinded by our love of darkness, that is, of wickedness, even then he did not abandon us. He sent to us his Word, who is his only Son, who was born and who suffered in the flesh which he assumed for our sake - so that we might know the value God placed on mankind, and might be purified from all our sins by that unique sacrifice, and so that, when love has been diffused in our hearts by his Spirit, and when all difficulties have been surmounted, we may come to eternal rest and to the ineffable sweetness of the contemplation of God. In view of all that, what heart or what tongue would claim to be competent to give him thanks?" Book VII, pp. 292-293.

"For the specific gravity of a body is, in a manner, its love, whether a body tends downwards by reason of its heaviness or strives upwards because of its lightness. A material body is borne along by its weight in a particular direction, as a soul is by its love." Book XI, chapter 28, p. 463

"Consequently, in those areas of the universe where such creatures have their proper being, we see a constant succession, as some things pass away and others arise, as the weaker succumb to the stronger, and those that are overwhelmed change into the qualities of their conquerors; and thus we have a pattern of a world of continual transience. We, for our part, can see no beauty in this pattern to give us delight; and the reason is that we are involved in a section of it, under our condition of mortality, and so we cannot observe the whole design, in which these small parts, which are to us so disagreeable, fit together to make a scheme of ordered beauty. Hence the right course for us, when faced with things in which we are ill-equipped to contemplate God's providential design, is to obey the command to believe in the Creator's providence. We must not, in the rashness of human folly, allow ourselves to find fault, in any particular, with the work of that great Artificer who created all things." Book XII, p. 475.

"Arrogant as they are, they think that by their own righteousness, not God's, they can please God, who is 'the God of all knowledge' and therefore also the judge of men's inner thoughts; for in them he sees men's imaginations, knowing them to be futile, if they are only men's, and do not come from him." Book XVII, p. 719.

"Hence a 'bishop' who has set his heart on a position of eminence rather than an opportunity for service should realize that he is no bishop. So then, no one is debarred from devoting himself to the pursuit of truth, for that involves a praiseworthy kind of leisure. But high position, although without it a people cannot be ruled, is not in itself a respectable object of ambition, even if that position be held and exercised in a manner worthy of respect. We see then that it is love of truth that looks for sanctified leisure, while it is the compulsion of love that undertakes righteous engagement in affairs. If this latter burden is not imposed on us, we should employ our freedom from business in the quest for truth and in its contemplation, while if it is laid upon us, it is to be undertaken because of the compulsion of love." Book XIX, p. 881.

"... when the child arrives at years of discretion, when he can now understand the commandments and can be subject to the rule of the Law, then he must take up the struggle against evil impulses, and fight vigorously, to avoid being led into sins which will bring damnation. And if those impulses have not yet grown strong and their victory has not become habitual, then they are more easily overcome, and they yield to the victor; but if they have grown accustomed to conquest and command, victory over them is difficult, and costs great hardship. And this warfare is not waged with genuinely whole-hearted purpose, unless the motive is the love of true righteousness, which comes through faith in Christ. For if the Law is there with its commands, but the Spirit with its help is absent, the very prohibition of the sin increases the craving for sin, and when that craving wins the day, the guilt of transgression is added to the evil impulses. Not infrequently, to be sure, the obvious vices are overcome by vices so masked that they are reputed virtues; and the king of those is pride, an exalted self-satisfaction which brings a disastrous fall." Book XXI, pp. 993-4.

"Evil men do many things contrary to the will of God; but so great is his wisdom, and so great his power, that all things which seem to oppose his will tend towards those results or ends which he himself has foreknown as good and just." Book XXII, p. 1023. ...more

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Mar 28, 2013 David Sarkies rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Those interested in Theology & Ancient History

Recommended to David by: I Dunno, I guess I just wanted to read it.

Shelves: christian

Where the pagan and the Christian culminate in the Ancient World
28 March 2013

Now this book is an absolute brick and even though I had decided that I would read it I questioned how long it would take for me to actually wade through it. As it turned out it was quite quickly, namely because there was a great deal of Roman History included which I find quite fascinating. The City of God traces the concurrent history of Israel and Rome and outlines the contrast between the city of men (as represente Where the pagan and the Christian culminate in the Ancient World
28 March 2013

Now this book is an absolute brick and even though I had decided that I would read it I questioned how long it would take for me to actually wade through it. As it turned out it was quite quickly, namely because there was a great deal of Roman History included which I find quite fascinating. The City of God traces the concurrent history of Israel and Rome and outlines the contrast between the city of men (as represented by Rome) and the city of God (as represented by Jerusalem). As is evident, Augusting is using Rome and Jerusalem metaphorically and in the book the history of Israel is not so much Judaism (Augustine was not a Jew) but rather the origins of Christianity as is represented by the city of Jerusalem.
This is an audacious work and is designed contrast the two camps that humanity falls into (as was evident to many early Christians). Rome represented the secular world, and this is also reflected in Revelation where the two cities that are represented are Babylon and Jerusalem. Jerusalem always represents the city of God's children in biblical literature, even though many of the prophets spoke against the inhabitants in the Old Testament. However it is clear that God held a special place in his heart for the city of Jerusalem (that being the inhabitants, not the buildings) as can be seen where Jesus weeps over the city when he arrives.
The view of Augustine no doubt will differ from the view of many of us moderns. In the days in which he was writing the esoteric literature (of which Augustine was very familiar with, particularly since he was trained in rhetoric, which was considered one of the highest skills in his day and would have put him on par with a professor of Humanities and Social Sciences mixed with training in Law) would have brought about a different reaction to the readers than would be these days. In Augustine's day these works were very popular and held in high regard by the intellectual elite of the Roman Empire. As such there was going to be a lot more of a rejection of them by the Christian writers of the day who did not want Christianity tainted by the religion of the people (not that it was a strict doctrinal religion like we have these days).
To us as moderns though the writings that have survived down to our days form the basis of our understanding of the culture from which Augustine came from. Mind you Augustine has been seen by some as to be the last of the true ancient writers, and that ancient literature came to an end with him. His compilation of the history of Rome can be seen to have been written from numerous sources which we no longer have (and some that we do). No doubt Augustine believed many of the ancient legends (such as Romulus and Remus) and writes his treatise as if it were fact. Basically anything written after Augustine most likely falls into the category of Medieval literature (though Augustine died about a year before the vandals sacked Africa, so it would probably more likely be the Dark Ages than the Medieval period). This is not surprising since Rome was coming to its last days at this time (and there was also a greater shift towards Christianity and a huge shift away from Paganism when certain emperors attained the throne).
This is a good book: I quite enjoyed it, but these days it really only works as historical value. I have known pastors who have read it, but there has been much more literature written that is more applicable to our times that while it is not obsolete, it would not necessarily be essential reading (though I come from a school in which the only 'essential literature' for Christianity is the Bible, and while other books serve a purpose, one should not necessarily accept them at face value). However, we must also remember that Augustine set the tone for Christianity for centuries to come, and it wasn't until Aquinas that Christian thought once again began to change. ...more

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May 31, 2012 Matthew rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-for-work, ancient-classics

This is simply an initial reaction book review. Further and deeper thoughts will follow on a blog somewhere...

I have finished reading City of God. It is a massive book. It took me a year plus a few months to achieve this, albeit sometimes going weeks without peaking inside. This is one of the largest works from antiquity, and it's basically an education in a volume -- history, the theory of history, theology, biblical scholarship, pagan religion, philosophy, political philosophy, moral philosoph This is simply an initial reaction book review. Further and deeper thoughts will follow on a blog somewhere...

I have finished reading City of God. It is a massive book. It took me a year plus a few months to achieve this, albeit sometimes going weeks without peaking inside. This is one of the largest works from antiquity, and it's basically an education in a volume -- history, the theory of history, theology, biblical scholarship, pagan religion, philosophy, political philosophy, moral philosophy, Christian apologetics, and more, are all treated in this one, giant, compelling (at times, admittedly, dry) volume.

Augustine ostensibly sets out in this book, On the City of God Against the Pagans, to demonstrate the falsehood of polytheistic traditionalists' arguing that Christianity was the cause of Rome's sack at the hands of Alaric in 410; at least, that's what we always say Augustine sets out in this book. If it is, he clearly decided that the only way to do it was to set forth the 'two cities' -- the City of Man and the City of God, describing each, its origins, and its history, as well as dealing with the polytheist detractors head-on with his reading of Livy that observes that Rome had many disasters when she observed the pax deorum, and that many bad men prosper, so Christianity can't be to blame for 410.

Augustine's discussion of Roman history is a joy to read, for it presents us with an alternative reading -- God allowed Rome to prosper for his own designs, not due to anything Rome had done. This runs counter to the vision of history abroad amidst many both of the pagans and of the Christians who imagined history as 'good men prosper while bad men fail.'

This book will also throw you headlong into the Christian reading of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as Augustine sets forth the parallel histories, from Adam to the reward of the saints in glory at the bodily resurrection. Here you are immersed in the story of Scripture but also always surrounded by how Augustine's keen intellect read and interpreted the text, seeking out its meaning meticulously. Modern scholars may disagree with Augustine's conclusions at times, but his keenness in seeking out the truth and working through difficult bits of the Bible will be eternally laudable.

City of God is not for the faint of heart. It is, as I say, large. It is also, figuratively speaking, heavy. You will have to think your way through this book. You will probably forget some of it as you move on to later parts. But its contribution to so much western theology and philosophy makes it worth the effort. If you want to think hard about history, theology, philosophy, if you want to exercise your brain and consider why the world is as it is, if you want to enter into the world of one of antiquity's greatest minds, if you want to see what an ancient tour-de-force in philosophy looks like, if you want to understand the fourth and fifth centuries -- you should read this book. ...more

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Dec 18, 2013 J.W.D. Nicolello rated it it was amazing

I picked up City of God in the winter of 2014 after a year or so of preparation. My swash-buckle existence in Hell, New York, afforded me a room with a window, bed, a chair squeezed in against the wall so as to prop up my legs on the bed in order to read or write, the hardcover was a no-go - this was a let down, as Thomas Merton's introduction seemed as if a near divine green light in this bleak hour of my life, or Augustine had put it, 'This matter of days.' I ventured out and picked up a paper ...more

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About Augustine of Hippo

Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, in English Augustine of Hippo, also known as St. Augustine, St. Austin, was bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria). He was a Latin philosopher and theologian from the Africa Province of the Roman Empire and is generally considered as one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all times. His writings were very influential in the development of Western C ...more

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“God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.” — 159 likes

“What are kingdoms without justice? They're just gangs of bandits.” — 29 likes

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