City of God

City of God
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City of God

About City of God:

St. Augustine's masterpiece is an interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil: the City of God in conflict with the City of the Devil. Abridged for the modern reader.

Information on City of God from the publisher:

No book except the Bible itself had a greater influence on the Middle Ages than City of God. Since medieval Europe was the cradle of today's Western civilization, this work by consequence is vital for an understanding of our world and how it came into being. St. Augustine is often regarded as the most influential Christian thinker after St. Paul, and this book is his masterpiece, a vast synthesis of religious and secular knowledge. It began as a reply to the charge that Christian otherworldliness was causing the decline of the Roman Empire. Augustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Then he proceeded to his larger theme, a cosmic interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil: the City of God in conflict with the Earthly City or the City of the Devil. This, the first serious attempt at a philosophy of history, was to have incalculable influence in forming the Western mind on the relations of church and state, and on the Christian's place in the temporal order. The original City of God contained twenty-two books and fills three regular-sized volumes. This edition has been skillfully abridged for the intelligent general reader by Vernon J. Bourke, author of Augustine's Quest of Wisdom. The heart of this monumental work is now available to a much wider audience.

Description of St. Augustine, author of City of God:

This edition of the City of God, St. Augustine's classic work, is the abridged version of the original that totalled 22 books in 3 volumes. This volume captures the major themes of Augustine---such as the self-destruction of paganism, the cosmic interpretation of history in terms of God's providence and the stress between empire and church which led to the triumph of Christianity. The original City of God was the first serious attempt at a philosophy of history, and had an incalculable influence in forming the Western mind on the relations of the Church and State. One of antiquity's greatest theologians, Augustine of Hippo lived from 354-430 A.D.