introduction ivWhy Study Augustine? vThe Influence of Augustine viMeet Augustine xiiBook i 1Book ii 11Book iii 19Book iV 27Book V 35Book Vi 43Book Vii 51Book Viii 59Book iX 69Book X 77Book Xi 85Book Xii 97Book Xiii 107Book XiV 117Book XV 127Book XVi 137Book XVii 145Book XViii 153Book XiX 163Book XX 177Book XXi 183Book XXii 191Drill Questions 201

iii • Contents

Contents

few books receive more than one printing. A fortunate few may receive a second printing,

and an even fewer number receive multiple reprints. The reason for this is simple: most books have a life-span of a few years at best, finding an audience for a time, until a lack of interest or irrelevancy pushes them out of print.

Then there is the small number of books that achieve the elite status of classic. When you think of classic literature, a select group of authors immediately comes to mind – Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, and a handful of others who gave the world timeless classics to be studied as long as mankind populates the earth. But even among the classics there

are the few authors whose literary greatness shapes the very course of a civilization.

To such a class belongs Augustine. Possessing one of the most brilliant minds in the history of Western civilization, Augustine penned the City of God, a book that influenced society more powerfully than perhaps any other book except the Bible. The City of God is a monumental work in which Augustine presents his view of two cities – the spiritual City of God and the earthly City.

As is often the case, great literature is born of struggle. Augustine wrote the City of God in response to the charge that Christianity had weakened the mighty roman empire and was the cause for its tragic decline. Augustine’s powerful rebuttal of this charge rose out of the struggle between the spiritual and the temporal that battled for the heart of the Empire.

To study the City of God is to study the source of some of Western society’s greatest and most cherished beliefs. This is the source that serves as the fountainhead of all that followed, and it is unlikely that it will ever be equaled.

If the beauty of this order fails to delight us, it is

because we ourselves, by reason of our mortality, are

so enmeshed in this corner of the cosmos that we fail to

perceive the beauty of a total pattern in which the particular

parts, which seem ugly to us, blend in so harmonious and

beautiful a way. That is why, in those situations where it is

beyond our power to understand the providence of God,

we are rightly commanded to make an act of faith rather

than allow the rashness of human vanity to criticize even a

minute detail in the masterpiece of our Creator.

—Book Xii, Chapter 4, ¶ 2

Page from St. Augustine’s Retractions; Book 2, Chapter 69

iv • Introduction

IntroduCtIon