Customer Reviews

Penguin Classics Concerning The City Of God Against The Pagans

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This abridged version of St. Augustine's work is great for casual readers who are looking to brush up on their classics or, as in my case, for students who either don't have time to read and decipher the text in its entirety or need help doing so. If you want to truly study "The City of God," you should probably stick with the Modern Library edition (ISBN 0679783199) which provides better explanatory footnotes, one sentence chapter summaries, a collection of commentaries, and a much more comprehensive subject index. This Image abridged version, however, benefits from simpler and more fluid prose. After reading a chapter of the Modern Library edition, I often found myself referring back to this edition to reinforce and/or clarify what I had just read. I also appreciated the better biblical footnotes found in this version. Certainly the existing chapters are condensed and those that the editors have omitted are given brief summaries. Overall, this edition does not take away the essence of Augustine's original but it does make it slightly more digestible to the average reader.

I just had one comment to make about the book, since it rarely seems to get discussed in the other reviews here, if at all.

Besides the many important issues the book dicusses, one of the main themes Augustine was concerned with is how an intelligent man could be religious. This problem is all the more important today since the rise of science has seriously called into question the Bible's picture of the universe. Whether I agree with his answers or not, Augustine was a great intellect for any age and a great man of God, and his book should be read more often by Christians, or anybody interested in religious history and philosophy.

I was interested in studying examples of spiritual healing in the early Christian Church.I was quite disappointed to discover that only about six pages of Book XXII, Chpt. 8 were recorded, the remaining twelve pages were dismissed by an abridgement statement "Twelve more pages describe similar miracles witnessed by, or directly reported to Augustine."

Saint Augustine (354 - 430 AD), was born at a time when the Roman Empire was in its nadir, a situation quite antipodal to the heydays of the glorious times of the philosopher emperor Julius Caesar and a few others that, for the glory of Rome, spread the wings of the Roman conquest to the borders of almost all the civilized world, from Britain in the West to the occidental limits of the Persian Empire in the East. The barbarians hordes were already knocking at the gates of Rome and many other important cities and eventually got there invadind Rome trough the auspices of the Germanic barbarian Alaric, who, along with Atila the Hun, was one of the cruelest of his kind. The "Civitatis Dei" was written a few years after the first sack of Rome, a thrilling background to and the starting point of many of Saint Augustine ideas concerning God's attitude toward the city and its citizens. Despite the impending fall of the Western Empire, Christianism was steadily gaining ground as the official religion vis-à-vis Paganinsm, which began to suffer all the burden of (unofficial) persecuted by some Roman emperors. But Paganinsm still had strong adherents in many important places, specially in the Senate, and the purpose of Saint Augustine was to counterpoise the ascending fortunes of Christianity.

Augustine, born in the north of Africa in the city of Hippo, was one of the most important theoreticians of Christian doctrine of all times, a great thinker in his own right, who could be compared to great Catholic thinkers as Saint Thomas Aquina and Saint Paul, being one of the true founding fathers of the Catholic tradition and religion along with the Gospel four Evangelists. His written output is impressive, even outstanding, both from the point of view of its quantity as from the point of view of its inner quality. His most important works, written in Latin as usual at the time, are "The City of God" (Civitatis Dei) and "Confessions", the former an impressive book of 1,100+ pages of teachings concerning various aspects of the lives of Christians and pagans in the V century he lived.

The book's lenght notwithstanding, it is a very pleasant and easy reading, not losing the elegance it should have in Latin, with all the quotations necessary for the full understanding concerning some allusion of Augustine to the recent or remote history of Rome, ROman and Greek mythology and philosophical citations from authors renowned at the time but almost unknown today. A good introduction to the life and work of Saint Augustine is also provided.

TO sum it up, the book is a very good one and an essential reading to anyone interested in the importance of the philosophical thinking before the Middle Ages, most certainly influenced by Plato instead of Aristotle. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"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.

This is a difficult read. It is worth the effort because it is highly educational and very enjoyable. Some familiarity with Roman history and mythology would be helpful but is not necessary. Augustine shows his reader the superiority of the City of God over the city of man. With Biblical and historical examples, Augustine shows that citizens of the City of God have characters and hopes that set them apart from the ungodly. He exposes the ugliness of paganism and the folly of men outside of the City of God. Today's reader will see that these differences between the two cities manifest themselves as clearly in our day.

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.

The venerable St. Augustine is to be ordained as the best Christain Apologist ever. The way in which he explains the flaws of Paganism and reveals the truths of Christianity will give wings to your rational mind and set forth new horizons of thought. This masterpiece is essential for any Christian who wishes to grasp a higher concept of Theology. 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 prohecies 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. Many words may be used to describe this text, but none of mine are credible enough to express the eminence of this work.

The Roman Empire was on the verge of being destroy, and pagans blamed Constantine the Emperor for the Christianization of the Roman Empire (because the Pagan gods protected the Empire.)Hence, Saint Agustine wrote this wonderful masterpiece.

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.