Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) [Hardcover]

Augustine (Author), R. W. Dyson (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought | Publication Date: November 28, 1998

This is the first new rendition for a generation of The City of God, the first major intellectual achievement of Latin Christianity and one of the classic texts of Western civilization. Robert Dyson has produced a complete, accurate, authoritative and fluent translation of De Civitate Dei, edited together with full biographical notes, a concise introduction, bibliography and chronology of Augustine's life. The result is an important contribution of interest to students of theology, philosophy, ecclesiastical history, the history of political thought and late antiquity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Dyson's wonderfully lucid, carefully literal and historically sensitive translation ... makes this the edition that most readers will now choose to consult ... We must be grateful for this excellent new translation.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

'It reads remarkably well; it is elegant, generally succeeds in reproducing the rhetorical colouring Augustine frequently gives his argument, and, is remarkably faithful to the text. A short but helpful introduction ... provides the necessary information about the context of the work, and summarises the main points of Augustine's political thought. The book is handsome and well produced.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Latin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1278 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521464757
• ISBN-13: 978-0521464758
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,344,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be the new standard, February 21, 2001

By 

E. M. Dale (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (Paperback)

It is hard to find recent work on De Civitate Dei in English that does not use this newest edition and translation of probably Augustine's most influential work (if not his most readable). I am convinced that this will be the translation that will be used for the foreseeable future. An excellent rendering of the Latin original, wonderful introduction and copious notes. So clear and precise is the translation, and so helpful is the supporting scholarship, that one could conceivably come to this particular text of Augustine's work having no prior knowledge, and leave it with complete fluency. It is that good. For the full effect, get the 3 vols of the Loeb Classical Latin-English edition (the MacCracken-Greene translation is still very useful, though not in comparison to newer scholarship such as Dyson's) and work though the text yourself. I think that Augustine's Latin and Dyson's English match up well next to each other--this is a volume to own if you are contemplating any serious work with Augustine, or if you are just curious about what all the fuss over Augustine is about. A polemical, brilliant, controversial, and stimulating work, City of God is as good a place as any to introduce yourself to Augustine, and this is an excellent translation to use.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs A More Detailed Table of Contents, September 9, 2011

By 

michael mcgreevy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (Paperback)

I can add no further comments of value beyond that which have been made throughout the centuries by some of the greatest scholars, leaders and saints. Simply said, this is a great and inspired work of a man of God. However let me make one suggestion to help the reader:

May I propose that you consider not reading it in one great "slog" (as one reviewer noted). Rather consider it as a reference and spiritual guide.

To use it as such you will need a much more detailed Table of Contents than that which is provided in most translations, including this one. You need a list of topics within each major chapter.

To do so, I suggest that you make a link on the internet to the Online Library of Liberty. In there you will find a detailed listing in subchapter form of every one of the major topics within these chapters. (Amazon will not permit the identification of web sites in reader reviews. So you will have to search for the Library on Google.)

Scanning this detailed table of contents by topic I am sure that you will find it to be useful to bookmark. Then you can use it as a helpful guide when you are seeking Augustine's thoughts on a specific subject.

10 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Detailed Table of Contents, May 10, 2009

By 

Jonathan Aquino (Victoria, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (Paperback)

The Table of Contents isn't very detailed, so here's a more detailed one that you can print out and insert, based on the section titles:

Book I (3)
1 Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the Barbarians for Christ's Sake Spared When They Stormed the City
2 That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods
3 That the Romans Did Not Show Their Usual Sagacity When They Trusted that They Would Be Benefited by the Gods Who Had Been Unable to Defend Troy
4 Of the Asylum of Juno in Troy, Which Saved No One from the Greeks; And of the Churches of the Apostles, Which Protected from the Barbarians All Who Fled to Them
5 Caesar's Statement Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City
6 That Not Even the Romans, When They Took Cities, Spared the Conquered in Their Temples
7 That the Cruelties Which Occurred in the Sack of Rome Were in Accordance with the Custom of War, Whereas the Acts of Clemency Resulted from the Influence of Christ's Name
8 Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men
9 Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad and Good Together
10 That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods
11 Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed
12 Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury
13 Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints
14 Of the Captivity of the Saints, and that Divine Consolation Never Failed Them Therein
15 Of Regulus, in Whom We Have an Example of the Voluntary Endurance of Captivity for the Sake of Religion; Which Yet Did Not Profit Him, Though He Was a Worshipper of the Gods
16 Of the Violation of the Consecrated and Other Christian Virgins, to Which They Were Subjected in Captivity and to Which Their Own Will Gave No Consent; And Whether This Contaminated Their Souls
17 Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor
18 Of the Violence Which May Be Done to the Body by Another's Lust, While the Mind Remains Inviolate
19 Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her
20 That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever
21 Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder
22 That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity
23 What We are to Think of the Example of Cato, Who Slew Himself Because Unable to Endure Caesar's Victory
24 That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished
25 That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin
26 That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed
27 Whether Voluntary Death Should Be Sought in Order to Avoid Sin
28 By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians
29 What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies
30 That Those Who Complain of Christianity Really Desire to Live Without Restraint in Shameful Luxury
31 By What Steps the Passion for Governing Increased Among the Romans
32 Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments
33 That the Overthrow of Rome Has Not Corrected the Vices of the Romans
34 Of God's Clemency in Moderating the Ruin of the City
35 Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church
36 What Subjects are to Be Handled in the Following Discourse

Book II (51)
1 Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary
2 Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book
3 That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods
4 That the Worshippers of the Gods Never Received from Them Any Healthy Moral Precepts, and that in Celebrating Their Worship All Sorts of Impurities Were Practiced
5 Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods
6 That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life
7 That the Suggestions of Philosophers are Precluded from Having Any Moral Effect, Because They Have Not the Authority Which Belongs to Divine Instruction, and Because Man's Natural Bias to Evil Induces Him Rather to Follow the Examples of the Gods Than to Obey the Precepts of Men
8 That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them
9 That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was Restrained by the Ancient Romans
10 That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief
11 That the Greeks Admitted Players to Offices of State, on the Ground that Men Who Pleased the Gods Should Not Be Contemptuously Treated by Their Fellows
12 That the Romans, by Refusing to the Poets the Same License in Respect of Men Which They Allowed Them in the Case of the Gods, Showed a More Delicate Sensitiveness Regarding Themselves than Regarding the Gods
13 That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor
14 That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than These Gods Who Desire to Be Honoured by Theatrical Plays
15 That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods
16 That If the Gods Had Really Possessed Any Regard for Righteousness, the Romans Should Have Received Good Laws from Them, Instead of Having to Borrow Them from Other Nations
17 Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome's Palmiest Days
18 What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security
19 Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods
20 Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion
21 Cicero's Opinion of the Roman Republic
22 That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality
23 That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of Demons, But on the Will of the True God
24 Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help
25 How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example
26 That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness
27 That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order
28 That the Christian Religion is Health-Giving
29 An Exhortation to the Romans to Renounce Paganism

Book III (94)
1 Of the Ills Which Alone the Wicked Fear, and Which the World Continually Suffered, Even When the Gods Were Worshipped
2 Whether the Gods, Whom the Greeks and Romans Worshipped in Common, Were Justified in Permitting the Destruction of Ilium
3 That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves
4 Of Varro's Opinion, that It is Useful for Men to Feign Themselves the Offspring of the Gods
5 That It is Not Credible that the Gods Should Have Punished the Adultery of Paris, Seeing They Showed No Indignation at the Adultery of the Mother of Romulus
6 That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus
7 Of the Destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a Lieutenant of Marius
8 Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods
9 Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods
10 Whether It Was Desirable that The Roman Empire Should Be Increased by Such a Furious Succession of Wars, When It Might Have Been Quiet and Safe by Following in the Peaceful Ways of Numa
11 Of the Statue of Apollo at Cumae, Whose Tears are Supposed to Have Portended Disaster to the Greeks, Whom the God Was Unable to Succor
12 That the Romans Added a Vast Number of Gods to Those Introduced by Numa, and that Their Numbers Helped Them Not at All
13 By What Right or Agreement The Romans Obtained Their First Wives
14 Of the Wickedness of the War Waged by the Romans Against the Albans, and of the Victories Won by the Lust of Power
15 What Manner of Life and Death the Roman Kings Had
16 Of the First Roman Consuls, the One of Whom Drove the Other from the Country, and Shortly After Perished at Rome by the Hand of a Wounded Enemy, and So Ended a Career of Unnatural Murders
17 Of the Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic After the Inauguration of the Consulship, and of the Non-Intervention of the Gods of Rome
18 The Disasters Suffered by the Romans in the Punic Wars, Which Were Not Mitigated by the Protection of the Gods
19 Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties
20 Of the Destruction of the Saguntines, Who Received No Help from the Roman Gods, Though Perishing on Account of Their Fidelity to Rome
21 Of the Ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, Its Deliverer, and of Its Manners During the Period Which Sallust Describes as the Best
22 Of the Edict of... Read more ›