The City of God

“The City of God, for those who can understand it, contains the secret of death and life, war and peace, hell and heaven.”—Thomas Merton 
“Of all the saints, Augustine is possibly the one who, as the Quakers phrase it, ‘speaks most clearly to our condition.’ Today as fifteen hundred years ago.”—Anne Fremantle, Saints Alive!

The medieval philosopher Saint Augustine wrote The City of God (De civitate Dei contra paganos), a philosophical treatise vindicating Christianity, about 413–426 CE. With designs to solidify the Christianization of the Roman world, Saint Augustine has led one of the biggest battles against heresy. His love of rhetoric combined with his relentless philosophical search paved the way for his historic legacy—to this day. He influenced the work of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin and many other theologians throughout the centuries.
The first part (Books I–X) is a polemical critique of Roman religion and philosophy, corresponding to the Earthly City. The second half of The City of God (Books XI-XXII) turns to Augustine’s defense of Christianity in the context of his philosophy and theology of history.

BOOKS I-XII- also available The City of God-BOOKS XIII-XXII

Excerpts: “The glorious city of God is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus, suggested, and which is due to you by my promise. I have undertaken its defense against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of this city—a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits for, expecting until “righteousness shall return unto judgment,”1 and it obtain, by virtue of its excellence, final victory and perfect peace. A great work this, and an arduous; but God is my helper. For I am aware what ability is requisite to persuade the proud how great is the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite human arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that totter on this shifting scene. For the King and Founder of this city of which we speak, has in Scripture uttered to His people a dictum of the divine law in these words: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”2 But this, which is God’s prerogative, the inflated ambition of a proud spirit also affects, and dearly loves that this be numbered among its attributes, to
Show pity to the humbled soul,
And crush the sons of pride.3
And therefore, as the plan of this work we have undertaken requires, and as occasion offers, we must speak also of the earthly city, which, though it be mistress of the nations, is itself ruled by its lust of rule.” (1 Ps. 94:15, rendered otherwise in English versions.  2 Jas. 4:6 and 1 Pet. 5:5.  3 Virgil Æneid 6.854.)
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