Customer Reviews

The City of God Against the Pagans, Vol. 7, Books 21-22 (Loeb Classical Library, No. 417) (Bks.XXI-XXII v. 7)

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"The City of God" is Augustine's most famous work. I agree with Thomas Merton's introduction to the latest Modern Library version, which says that an uninitiated reader of Augustine may wish to read his "Confessions" first to get a good background on the author. "The City of God" is long and deep, covering many philosophical and Biblical debates (many that are still alive today), so one who has been introduced to Augustine through his auto-biographical "Confessions" may find it easier to follow his logic as he discusses the numerous topics of "The City of God."

The first few hundred pages of "The City of God" may be very slow and difficult for the average modern, Western, reader. Augustine is speaking directly to the average Roman citizens of the time (413 AD), so the first several chapters of "The City of God" are spent debunking the Romans' beliefs in polytheism, a mindset long since abandoned by most in the civilized Western world (thanks mostly to... Augustine). But the difficulty of these first few chapters should only make one appreciate Augustine all the more for having helped dismiss such a convoluted belief system. Once Augustine has broken down the problems with Zeus and friends, he moves on to discussing Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek philosophers. Augustine discusses why these founders of Western culture came close to understanding the idea of the Judeo-Christian God, but he shows where they too eventually fell short of total comprehension of Him.

After Augustine has dealt with these religions and philosophies of the Romans, he begins to address the Bible and how it concerns the City of God and the earthly city (Rome, which had been sacked by Alaric in 410, was the best example of the latter). Augustine outlines the differences in the beliefs and actions of believers and non-believers, or in other words, the citizenries of the two cities in question. In doing this, Augustine discusses numerous debates and questions, including figurative vs. literal interpretations of Old Testament stories, how the Old Testament prophets pointed towards Jesus Christ and how Christ fulfilled their prophesies, as well as many other questions that are still discussed every day, nearly 16 centuries later. Ultimately, Augustine gives us the beautiful picture of life graced by Christ through the faith he gives to the citizens he elects to join his city. Augustine shows us how Christ's grace removes his predestinated citizens from the worries of the earthly city, while (paradoxically) energizing them to care that much more for the inhabitants of this city (as the Christians in Rome did for non-believers they sheltered from Alaric's invaders).

One note of recent relevance: The City of God is often referenced today for Augustine's discussion of "just war" theory. While Augustine definitely believed that war can at times be just, and therefore morally obligatory, he does not really go into great detail about "just war" theory in "The City of God." In nearly 900 pages (in the Modern Library edition), he writes about war for no more than 1-2 pages.

I highly recommend "The City of God" to everyone, Christian or not. Just for the history of it, this book is fascinating, but the theology makes it one of the greatest works ever written.

St. Augustine's immortal classic is incredibly long and very, very hard to follow at times. When I set out to read this a few years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. I read it because a professor I had in college that I greatly respected told me he'd never been able to read it all the way through, and I thought my reading it would impress him, or something. It took me forever, but I read it from cover to cover, and it was a rewarding experience. The book is essentially a very long examination of Christian theology, contrasted sharply with Roman paganism. There are very few theological questions that aren't at least touched upon; many of the ideas that would vex Christian philosophers for centuries are first addressed here. Augustine brings a fine, lucid mind and good instinct for argument and rhetoric to the discussion. This book is a must-read for anyone who takes the intellectual component of their Christian faith seriously. Highly recommended.

In this massive post-classical/late antique work, St Augustine exposes the follies of Rome's Pagan past, while revealing the mystery of the Church throughout the ages and unto eternity. Augustine begins with a refutation of pagan worship, thus proving the ignorance that reflected in their system of delusive beliefs. Later on in this work he explains many prophecies that were fulfilled in relation to Christ and the Church. After laying a sound foundation based on scriptural facts and Theological truths, he then incorporates a splendid picture of heaven and hell along with the resurrection of the body adjoined in felicity with the spirit for eternity with God the Father.

I read this book for the sake of pleasure, and nothing more. What a surprise I was in for! I've always admired classical texts, and the tradition of rhetoric which has influenced even the greatest speakers of our own times, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. However, I was totally unprepared for the moving experience of St. Augustine's written words. Had I not been a Christian before I read this book, I believe I would have been compelled to convert! The most interesting aspect of this work seems to me, to be that the utilization of such an ingrained, classical tradition as rhetoric was being applied (and rather effectively so) toward what was to become the new paradigm of Western Heritage. All things classical would be replaced by all things Christian, but thus so by the influence of powerful speakers--who were trained in the Classical tradition! This book is an enjoyable read; both for aspiring religious scholars AND lovers of classical culture.

With an eye to bypassing some of Augustine's many redundancies and digressions, the Image/Doubleday edition -- "abridged for modern readers" -- is nonetheless a major commitment for the reader. Augustine began writing The City of God at age 59 and worked on it, off and on, for much of the next 14 years. The impetus for the beginning of this vast work (and its recurring focus) was the charge of Pagans (polytheists) that Christianity was responsible for the decay and demise of the Roman Empire. The charge put forward the claim that the prosperity and social stability of the state was dependant upon polytheistic worship. In response, Augustine arrays several lines of argument, rebutting the assumed 'goodness' of the Pagan state, as such, and detailing the ethical/moral and logical failings of Paganism. Augustine displays tremendous scholarship, employing the writings of Paganism's greatest historians and philosophers in his case against their religious claims. The result is a giant literary, philosophical, historical, theological and exegetical work. In this abridged edition, some redundant and digressive texts are omitted with notes indicating this and summarizing their content. The integrity of the book and chapter divisions is retained.
Against the 'city', i.e., society, of many gods, there is but one alternate society, this Augustine calls The City of God, adopting the expression found in several of King David's psalms. Not only is the society of many gods the society of polytheists, it is also the "city" of pantheists, atheistic materialists and philosophical Cynics. In the case of the Cynics and atheists, these false gods are the myriad gods of self, indeed, at least as many gods (selves) as there are believers in them. Thus there are two "cities", two loves, two ways to understand the big questions of existence, two destinations. Says Augustine:
"The one City began with the love of God; the other had its beginnings in the love of self." XIV:13. "The city of man seeks the praise of men, whereas the height of glory for the other is to hear God in the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own boasting; the other says to God: 'Thou art my glory, thou liftest up my head.' (Psalm 3.4) In the city of the world both the rulers themselves and the people they dominate are dominated by the lust for domination; whereas in the City of God all citizens serve one another in charity. . ." XIV:28.
Among the many philosophical (and historical) passages of interest are Augustine's general recountings of the history and development of Italian and Ionian philosophy, in Book VIII, particularly as regards ethics, theology, physics and cosmography.

For the reader whose serious interest is Christian theology and scriptural exegetics, Augustine needs no introduction. It would be fair to describe him as the most influential human voice of the Christian faith, post New Testament. I'll sketch my 'take' on his views in just three areas of interpretation on which there were conflicting views within the Christianity of late antiquity and which are yet disputed 1600 years later. These being (1) interpreting the Genesis creation account, (2) the balancing of determinism or 'predestination' with freedom of the will, and (3) the doctrine of 'hell'.
(1) Although he devotes the matter more specific attention in other of his writings than he does here, Augustine finds a literal interpretation if Genesis 1-2 to give rise to paradoxes and conflicts within the text that make a literal interpretation unworkable. His understanding is sometimes called 'literary', as opposed to 'literal'. Rather than being an abrupt history, the account is understood as being essentially an introduction, a theological primer, presenting a literary exposition of God's primordial separateness, non-dependence, intimacy with the created ('hovering') and ultimate sovereignty 'over' it (Gen. 1:1-2), in other words, a framework for understanding the nature of God's relationship to his creation. In more recent times, those who hold for the so-called "framework" understanding have claimed this "non-literal" view; for an earlier but similar exegesis, read Philo (c.20BC-50AD). For Augustine, the physical and temporal facts of creation are a mystery known only to God (see Job 38ff). While he does not place the creation of man temporally six solar days after the original act of divine creation ("As for these 'days,' it is difficult, perhaps impossible to think -- let alone to explain in words -- what they mean"), he does use the genealogies of the Pentateuch to roughly estimate a time for the creation of the first man in God's image (Adam). He spends some effort examining inconsistent points in various genealogical accounts (both within and between the Septuagint and the Hebrew) but concludes that this is no significant difficulty as the genealogies are intended to establish lineages (e.g., for the patriarchs) and not to establish complete temporal histories. They are accurate for the purpose intended, inaccurate only if their intent is not recognized.
(2) Today, many Christians who hold the strong 'Calvinist' view of "predestination", claim Augustine as a proponent of this view. While many succinct statements will appear to support this claim, we should understand such statements within their given contexts. In this regard, Augustine is no denier of the freedom of the human will or the omnibenevolence of God. Although he does use the term 'predestine,' he would certainly agree with Anselm that the meaning of the word when applied to the omniscient God is simply not the same as our understanding of the concept for which we appropriate the word. Augustine's wrestlings with the thorny openness/determinism question, as regards the human will, is not as `cut and dried' as the `Calvinist' often insists! Wesleyans and other so-called 'Arminians' can look to Augustine too, and will understand him in a broader and more contextual manner than the strict Calvinist can permit himself.
(3) While I personally find no major difficulty in Augustine's approach to the two doctrinal issues considered above, I disagree with his doctrine of Hell. For Augustine, Hell is relentless, eternal, sensory, bodily torture, wherein one is, in his words, "pounded by perpetual pain." He tries to engage the opposing view of 'hell' being, in St Paul's words, "eternal destruction," but here he fails (Book XXI). It seems clear enough to me that Hades' chamber of pain and torture was adopted from Paganism and not scripture. The two texts that are often held to support Augustine's view are better understood as literary than literal. Either the 'worm that turns forever' and the "smoke of their torment" that ascends forever are metaphors (they obviously are), or the "second death" and the "eternal destruction" are metaphors (they do not have that sense). When commissioning His disciples, in a direct statement Christ himself calls "hell" the ultimate destruction of the soul (Matt. 10:28). I think it is evident that a large number of Christians, including Augustine, have on this issue chosen the wrong verses as metaphorical ('literary' as opposed to 'literal'), and the wrong verses as literal. The opposite of eternal life is eternal not-life, an eternal punishment to be sure, but not eternal torture, which, after all, would require eternal life and not its contrary. Augustine errs because he sees divine justice as necessarily trumping divine mercy, a view that cannot be well argued from New Testament scripture ("God IS love"; 1 John 4:8/16; and "Mercy triumphs over judgment", James 2:13). [Yes, I am a so-called 'annihilationist', many religious traditions stand against this understanding, many religious traditions are wrong.] Christians have been disagreeing on these issues for a long time, and obviously some readers will disagree with me.
In Book XXII, concluding this great work, Augustine speculatively considers the nature of an eternal life reconciled finally and completely with God. Here, the text simply soars. Of course there is much more of interest in this expansive volume -- its historical importance, or one of Augustine's famous treatments of the physics of 'time' (Book XI), for example, than I can touch on here. "Thus, it is the love of study that seeks a holy leisure; and only the compulsion of charity that shoulders necessary activity."

This is one of the great statements of Christian thought. It is the work which will define for many throughout the generations the fundamental Christian way of thinking about the world. Unfortunately this means it too is tarred by a fire- and- brimstone replacement theology which ruled Christian thinking in regard to the Jews for close to fifteen hundred years afterward.
The work sets up the basic contrast between the Good and the Evil, those who are part of the City of God( whether on Earth or in Heaven) and those who are in the City of sins, condemnation, and death. Augustine is a great teacher of doctrine, and his doctrine divides the world into the saved and the damned. If you are not going to be with the Church then you are not going to live. His idea in short is an absolute idea, and his great intellect argues to support a way of understanding the world which is total and complete.
The intellectual challenge presented by this book is great indeed. And in it one of the great minds of religious history expounds his fundamental teaching.
As one who belongs to a people and religion condemned in this book I cannot simply sing its praises. But it is impossible not to recognize the great scope and power of the mind at work here.

City of God is a difficult, complex, and wide-ranging book, which makes many references to persons and places that will often be obscure to most of us. But I think anyone can learn something from the genius and wide-ranging observations of Augustine. One of the first things I noticed when I began reading this book about twenty years ago was, "Hey! I recognize that faith!" Him, a Latin-speaking north African "Catholic" of the 4th Century, me, a 20th Century English-speaking Norte Americano WASP. City of God showed me that the Church of Christ is more united in its diversity than I realized. And in a sense, Augustine is broader still; he writes not only as a Christian, but as a human being. All of us can learn something from him, I think:

The skeptic. You will find a few ideas here based on an out-dated "pre-scientific worldview." If you're looking for something to laugh at, and aren't intimidated by his intellect, you may be able to pull out a few quotes. But if you're looking for truth, you'll find much more, in every way. Augustine's love of truth burns from the pages of this book like a flame. The scope of his curiosity is broad, and his intellect first-rate by any standard.

The missionary. In the tradition of Paul and John, point people to a God not entirely unknown. Remind people how their own ancestors sought God, and knew something about Him before we got there. Quote the oracle of Apollo, or the Platonists, to prove Christ. Expect God to do miracles.

The New Ager. The period in which Augustine wrote City of God bares a striking resemblance to our own. "Many civilizations had met in one civilization," as Chesterton put it. Augustine argues against reincarnation and channeling and other modern fads. His solution is neither complete negation nor complete affirmation, but a more subtle synthesis that allows truths of many cultures to meet in Christ and find fulfillment; a solution that modern Christians have applied in an interesting way to redemptive truths in Buddhism, Hinduism, Marxism, and Islam.

The debater and apologist. This book is a model for those who who want to make an effective argument. Know your opponent's arguments as well as they know them themselves. Admit when they are on the right track. When they wander off it, quote sources they see as authoritative to show the error of their nehs. Love truth. Use reason and passion in equal measure. (But maybe, in our day, don't be quite so long-winded. . . I mean thorough.)

While I respect those reviewers below who read City of God cover to cover, personally I skimmed a bit. The Penguin edition also has a useful, though concise, index.

Author, Jesus and the Religions of Man d.marshall@sun.ac.jp

Augustine wrote the City of God to respond to pagan charges that Rome fell to the barbarians because Christianity had made it soft and removed the gods' (small "g") blessings. Augustine uses devastating (and occasionally tedious) historical reasoning and sheer deductive logic to demolish that view. Those who know little Roman history will have trouble understanding the allusions. There are, however, footnotes for the more obscure references.

Thomas Merton, probably the most activist contemplative in the 20th century, surely read the book in the original and felt he could make a more readable translation. This version is almost painfully literal. He adopts Augustine's Latin style, which tends to be very verbose. Forty word sentences, such as we would "ding" a 9th grader for, are the result. And those are the short ones! Nonetheless, blame the Latin original.

Still, shortening the sentences will in many cases lose some of the meaning. Latins thought a lot more rigorously and logically than we. Augustine was their leader. Don't read this non-stop, and have a history of Rome handy, just in case. This is a Christian classic that every educated person should know, but that doesn't mean it's as easy as, say, something by Tim LeHay.

First of all, I am writing this review for the 1958 abridged edition by Image Books (City of God), but I know that this review will be posted on the product pages for the other editions, most of which are unabridged. So, I want to make one quick comment that is specific to the abridged version: I think this was a great copy to read. The editor cut out some of the digressions, which made the book about 300 pages shorter than the normal length (over 800 pages). I was reading this for a research project, so I was thankful for an edition that got rid of some of the less central points so that I could quickly get through the work and still get exposed to Augustine's main points.

That being said, whether you read the abridged or the unabridged version, this book is an absolute classic. Most people don't know this about Augustine, but he lived in Northern Africa (today's Tunisia) while that area was part of the Roman Empire. He started writing "City of God" shortly after the city of Rome had be sacked by the Goths in 410 A.D., and this book is a response to the claims being made by the pagan population of the time that Rome had been sacked because as the official religion of the Empire had been Christianity people had stopped worshiping the pagan gods. Thus, they claimed, the pagan gods allowed Rome to be sacked; they withdrew their blessing from Rome, as it were.

Of course, Augustine thinks this notion is ridiculous and he spent the next 14 years of his life writing "City of God" to refute the pagan view. This work is a great exposition of classical Christianity. The influence of the book was (and is) beyond measure; it remained an important work in terms of influence at least until the end of the Middle Ages. One of the things I really liked about the book is that the translation was really good; you really get an insight into Augustine's character. Furthermore, since Augustine wrote about previous philosophers (Plato, Varro, etc.), you get a great idea of how this work fits into that context.

A thick read, a read that makes you think, but a very enjoyable one nonetheless. I would recommend this book to anyone curious for some exposure to classical Christianity at its best.

Recently read St. Augustine's City of God. It's a pretty good workout; my impression is that I've only sampled something, without having enough time to properly consider his wide-ranging discussion. It's simultaneous a work of Christian apologetics, theology, philosophy, historiography, and Biblical criticism. Its influence, overwhelming in medieval times, persists to the current day. It's a demanding work, but it can be read without any specialized historical knowledge.

Augustine reflects deeply here on human nature and the meaning of eternal life and eternal punishment, within an explication of the "meaning" of history. He writes of all human history as a single narrative. This also a work of Biblical exegesis, as Augustine treats Scripture as a historical document. For Augustine, creation is good, creation exists in time and has a history. Indeed, since God enters into history to show man His love, history itself is sanctified, through the City of God.

The book contains the parallel histories of what Augustine terms the City of God and the City of Man, both descended from Adam. The City of Man is founded on murder (specifically fratricide, the murder of a brother, viz. Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus). The City of Man has been deceived and debased, fallen under the sway of pagan gods, which appear to be either demons or, at best indifferent or benign spirits that are mistakenly worshipped. The City of God, on the other hand, is a pilgrim on this earth, toiling here in the joyous expectation of final salvation in God's Kingdom.

Augustine wants to explain the ways of God to man, but he does this from some humility, expressing his speculation in doubt. City of God also shows Augustine to be interested in the goods of Greek and Roman philosophy and rhetoric and in purging the negative elements of these while and Christian revelation. He's always intent on removing the possibility of gnostic/Manichaean distortions of Christian texts, such as St. Paul's admonitions not to "live according to the flesh" but rather "according to the spirit." Augustine is clear that this does not mean disdain for the body, but that one should refuse to live according to human ways, and consent to live by God's will.

Again, there's no way to give an adequate summary of a book like this, but it is surprising readable (if voluminous). I'm sorry I waited as long as I did to read it.

The translation here is readable, the abridgement makes the work as a whole accessible to a casual reader, and Etienne Gilson's foreword and Bourke's introduction are good companions.