I have not updated Goodreads in ages, but I finished my second reading of The City of God in the meantime. The thesis of Augustine's book is simple (the city of God is spiritual and eternal, while the city of man is temporal and perishable). Still, his explanation of the thesis is very far-ranging.

What happens when you cross a brilliant, highly detailed, philosophical classic with a lack luster reader with a short attention span? A gigantic yawn. I know this 1,100 page tome is a cornerstone of Christian theology, but it left me beyond uninspired. The world view, the intellectual approach, the scientific and experiential underpinnings were so alien to my context that I never found an entry point or a moment of interest.

Augustine is widely considered the most important of the early church fathers. He was born in North Africa in 354 A.D., became the Bishop of Hippo and wrote a vast number of works—most notably Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, On the Trinity, and City of God. Augustine’s legacy particularly in the Protestant tradition, cannot be underestimated, as his works left an indelible impression upon the Reformers—a legacy that Protestants still draw upon today. Indeed, the very nature of the argument concerning Christ and Culture was framed by Augustine in City of God.
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City of God was Augustine���s last major work, finished in 426 A.D., having begun writing thirteen years prior. It is a massive volume, a little over one thousand pages of translated Latin. The work is broken up into twenty-two books, or chapters as we would call them today. Each book is then broken up into small chapters. This organization allows the reader to move through the book topically, and makes it easy to read in small sections.

The first half of the work focuses on Rome and pagan theology and philosophy—critiquing and exposing it as demon worship. The second half of the work focuses on the two cities—the City of God and the City of Man. First time readers will find the second half the most rewarding and the easiest-going. But there is profit in the first half—even for the modern day reader.
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Augustine is one of the pre-eminent Christian thinkers in the church, and his insights into pagan philosophy, though often arcane and hard to follow without a good understanding of pagan philosophy and religion, is sharp and incisive. Augustine’s understanding of the human heart and his skill in biblical exposition through these sections are excellent. His thought is often provocatively simple and straightforward. For example, when answering critics that argue that certain events have led to the slaughter of Christians, he writes,
“Well, if this be hard to bear, it is assuredly the common lot of all who are born into this life. Of this at least I am certain, that no one has ever died who was not destined to die some time. Now the end of life puts the longest life on a par with the shortest. For of two things which have alike ceased to be, the one is not better, the other worse--the one greater, the other less. And of what consequence is it what kind of death puts an end to life, since he who has died once is not forced to go through the same ordeal a second time? And as in the daily casualties of life every man is, as it were, threatened with numberless deaths, so long as it remains uncertain which of them is his fate, I would ask whether it is not better to suffer one and die, than to live in fear of all?” Book I Chapter 11

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In the first half of the City of God, Augustine comments on the burial of the dead, gives counsel for victims of rape, discusses suicide, argues in favor of capital punishment, argues that a kingdom without justice is a robber, discusses the foreknowledge of God and the freedom of man, discusses the sovereignty of God, and discusses sacrifice among many other topics. These arguments are foundational to the Protestant project and the advancement of Christian thought in the world. Yet it is the second half of the book that has left the more profound mark in western civilization—Augustine’s discussion of the two cities.
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The two cities have been at odds since the fall of Lucifer and the descent of some angels into demons, who then tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Augustine writes that the,
“…two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, ‘Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.’” Book XIV Chapter 28
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Augustine traces the history of the two cities—the City of God and the City of Man. The City of God is a small, but faithful remnant. The City of Man follows those disobedient to God—in biblical times the majority of people. This contrast was perhaps most evident in the flood that covered the earth, when God spared only Noah and his family. This chronicle of the origins and history of the two cities is essentially a commentary on Genesis and the Old Testament—and a fine one at that. It is clear that as one commentator has said that, “Augustine taught the west to read,” meaning that Augustine’s hermeneutical method is the foundation for those that have followed in his formidable footsteps.
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One of the most helpful insights from the two cities division is his understanding of the overlap of the two cities. As Augustine writes, the two cities are at odds—their telos, or end, are in opposite directions—the City of God toward the glory of God, the City of Man toward glory of self. This divergence leads to conflict in understanding justice, the purpose of culture, the goal of education, and so on. So while the two cities have very different ends in mind, there is some overlap in interests. Toward the conclusion of book XIX, he writes,

“Wherefore, as the life of the flesh is the soul, so the blessed life of man is God, of whom the sacred writings of the Hebrews say, "Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord." Miserable, therefore, is the people which is alienated from God. Yet even this people has a peace of its own which is not to be lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not in the end enjoy it, because it makes no good use of it before the end. But it is our interest that it enjoy this peace meanwhile in this life; for as long as the two cities are commingled, we also enjoy the peace of Babylon. For from Babylon the people of God is so freed that it meanwhile sojourns in its company. And therefore the apostle also admonished the Church to pray for kings and those in authority, assigning as the reason, "that we may live a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and love." And the prophet Jeremiah, when predicting the captivity that was to befall the ancient people of God, and giving them the divine command to go obediently to Babylonia, and thus serve their God, counselled them also to pray for Babylonia, saying, ‘In the peace thereof shall ye have peace," [1305] --the temporal peace which the good and the wicked together enjoy.’” Book XIX, Chapter 26
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So ultimately the two cities can, and in the best scenario, will cooperate with one another in seeking peace. But there is great danger here, as he warns earlier in book XIX. He warns of the City of Man, “For, in general, the city of the ungodly, which did not obey the command of God that it should offer no sacrifice save to Him alone, and which, therefore, could not give to the soul its proper command over the body, nor to the reason its just authority over the vices, is void of true justice.” (Book XIX, Chapter 24) It stands, therefore, that justice will only reign in the City of God.
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Ultimately, as Augustine concludes The City of God, he reminds us that the City of Man is perishing and that only the City of God will endure. Therefore the citizens of the City of God ought to labor unto the City of God, forsaking the purposes of the City of Man for the enduring, Heavenly City. Jesus says as much when he says, “…lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:20)
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Augustine’s model is a helpful one. Christians ought to labor in advancing the City of God now, for the City of God is not only a future place, but a present one—with a history of faithful saints. Those that have been faithful to God from Abel forward have labored in the City of God. The choice is not between the present and the future as so many believe. Culture, government, and family are not simply present realities as opposed to the church and Christ’s kingdom as eternal realities. The options are faithfulness and unfaithfulness. Creating art, establishing justice, and having a family, are not earthly things—they are either labors in the City of God to the glory of God, or labors toward the City of Man to the glory of self.
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Faithful Christians understand, as Augustine did, that all of life is the establishment and advancement of the City of God, in incremental steps, toward the ultimate fulfillment of the new heavens and earth. Things we may perceive as of only temporary value such as civil law, art, music, war, food, drink, sex, friendship, work are in fact of eternal significance if offered to the glory of God and his eternal city. Let us exert ourselves to the glory of God by offering our labors unto the City of God.

A defence of Christianity in the face of the then-popular Paganism. Zero relevance in today's world. A deep understanding of Pagan belief and mythology is neccessary to understand this long, verbose argument.

Read as part of a reading group at the Elm Institute in New Haven, led by Justin Hawkins. Didn’t read the whole thing - I read 7 of the 22 books. But going to count it as read for now haha.

ok, this is my one brag book. anybody who gets through this (unabridged only), gets to go to heaven, no questions asked.

After 2 Years in the Making, I have finally completed St. Augustine's City of God. This book, is amazing, but its also very intense and involved. I can see myself referring back to this many times in the Future. The first half of the book tries to undo many of the errors found in a dying Pagan society, that seems very similar in thought to our own culture today. Whereas the second half of the book, has more of a focused on God and His Eternal City and the implications it has for all of mankind.

However say what you will the footnotes coupled with the history, philosophy, theology even psychology as well as criticism for the society of his time is all provided by St. Augustine and is supplemented with the translators footnotes. I would wager this book could probably be completed in 22 Weeks, if one spends One Week on Each Book, however if you are like me, you may find yourself stopping and going, making this read something that takes even longer to complete, the read however once complete is well worth it.

I recently read Diarmaid MacCulloch's excellent book on the Reformation (Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700). In this book I learned, among other things, about the importance of Saint Augustine as the founding father (at least ideologically) of the Western Church and about the influence of Augustine's theological ideas in the events that divided the Western Church in the sixteenth century. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, as well as the Catholic Church fell back on Saint Augustine to promote their religious cause. This fact alone proves how ambivalent Augustine is in his theology (more about that later in this review). I became interested in the ideas of this fifth century Bishop of Hippo so I decided to read his two most famous works: Confessions and City of God. Because the City of God is the most impressive (a little bit too much...) with 1100+ pages, I decided to swallow the bitter pill first, and after that read his more accessible (and shorter) Confessions. I'm finally finished!

The book itself - even though it spans the above mentioned 1100+ pages - can be summarized rather well. It consists of two parts; with part two of the City of God divided further into three major parts. Part 1 is a critique of pagan religions, especially the Romans; part 2 is a Christian theological examination of (1) the origin, (2) the development and (3) the predicted ends of the City of God (the Church) and the City of Earth (the Roman Empire)

In part 1, Augustine examines the Greek and Roman theological concepts: the nature and the implications of the Roman gods. Basically, Augustine uses 450+ pages to criticize the Roman gods as superstitions and myths, and he does this by using a whole bag of rhetorical tricks (Augustine was a rhetorician in his younger days) and committing dozens of fallacies in the process (for example, begging the question, arguing from ignorance, selectively picking sources, etc.). It seems he couldn't muster the respect for the Roman religious ideas and he often ridicules the Roman believers (for instance, when he ridicules the Greek and Roman tradition of portraying gods in theatre plays). In his more emphatic moments, Augustine tries to argue that the pagan gods are demons, explaining how the Romans fell victim to the Devil (Antichrist). Part 1 is one long tirade against pagan religions - nothing more, nothing less.

(One of the things that I found remarkable is that Augustine seems to arbitrarily limit himself to a handful of pagan sources; with Varro, Cicero, Virgil, Homer as the most important ones. When dealing with the diversity of the philosophical schools - platonists, stoic, epicurean, sceptic, neo-platonists, etc. - he doesn't really offer representative accounts but seems to pick the parts of these schools that suit his purpose best [i.e. to portray these schools as delusional paths].)

Part 2 is the more interesting, albeit more long-winded and at times ridiculously incoherent, part of City of God. In the first part, Augustine explains how the City of God originated. God created the world, created man (and after that woman - from the rib of man), punished the first human beings for their sins and made sure all posterity will suffer for this original sin by becoming mortal. This supposedly wasn't enough for this vengeful God, since he made sure that humans would feel the irresistable urge to procreate (i.e. to have sexual intercourse), and at the same time making sure women would suffer horrible pains when giving birth to children. Man was somewhat more lucky - but of course man was victim of woman's deception, so it's only logical to punish woman more severely - and has to feel pain (literally blood, sweat and tears), by working hard on the field to produce food and material.

After this, Augustine traces the descendants of Adam and Eve up to Noah. Humanity is so sinful that God decided to wipe them all from the face of the Earth - the first genocide in history? - by creating the Deluge. The flood killed off all human beings and all living things on Earth, except the chosen Noah and his family, and the animals that were selectively picked on God's command to survive.

Next, in the second part, Saint Augustine examines how the City of God proceeded from the times of Noah up to the birth of Christ. Basically, this whole second part is one huge examination of the Jewish old testament. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. The exodus from Egypt under Moses and later on Joshua; the subsequent creation of Israel; the period of the judges; the decline of Israel under the rule of the kings; the splitting apart of Israel and Judea; the Babilonian captivity; the return home; the jews killing Christ and being destroyed and dispersed by the Romans; etc.

Augustine examines every major Biblical theme in detail: quoting endless passages and interpreting all the stories of both testaments. He seems obsessed by tracing the prophecies through time and connecting all of the prophecies to the coming of Christ and Christ's prediction of the final judgement in the end times. Once one is some hundred pages into this second part of part 2 of City of God, the main theme becomes clear and the long chapters on all the prophecies - and how they all support the Christian religion - become rather dull and hard to digest.

In the thrid and last part of part 2 of City of God, Augustine then tries to close his story. He explains how both the City of God and the City of Earth will come to their respective endings in the end times. Jesus will come back to Earth and will seperate the good (the followers of the Church) from the bad (the followers of Earthly lives). The good will be resurrected in heaven to exist for eternity in peace and quiet - gone are all the earthly lusts and appetites. But the bad, God has something different in mind for them: they will die a second death, in the sense that after their bodies die, they will be resurrected (bodily!) in Hell and be punished forever.

The absurdity and obsession of Agustine's world view becomes clear when he tries to explain how the fact that a peacock's flesh will not deteriorate, or the fact that a salamander cannot die, prove that a second death for the wicked is physically possible. Or take Augustine's argument that when Jacob purportedly poured oil on a stone this is to be taken as a hidden meaning of great significance - clearly point to Christ's later message, since 'Christ' has the same derivation as 'chrism', which means anointing. Hence, Jacob pouring oil over a stone proves the truth of Christianity. Throughout the City of God, Augustine uses these types of ridiculous arguments to prove that the Christian religion is true.

To a neutral observer it is clear that what Augustine does is re-interpreting - and very loosely and sloppy, at that - each and every deatil in the Old Testament books to prove some later fact (i.e. the resurrection of Christ and John the Evangelist's subsequent prophecy of the end times). In his arguments against pagan gods, Augustine seems to apply logical rigour; when evaluating his own pre-conceived notions, he seems to forget his own earlier critical standards. This makes the City of God a highly hypocritical undertaking - one truly wonders how the most intelligent minds in history have fallen prey to such obvious biased views. When concluding that the pagan religions (especially the Greek and Roman gods) are full of concocted myths - for example, important historical figures taking the shapes of gods over time (the stories seem to get more fancy with each passing generation) - he should take the logical step and conclude that his own religious views are full of the same absurdities and ridiculousness.

One of the quirks of Augustine seems that he seems to forget ethical standards in his obsessive quest to prove the truth of Christianity. He sees every human disasters as positive sign of God and he tries to conceal the ethical problems involved. So when Abraham binds his son, Isaac, to the stake and wants to slith his throat, Augustine takes this as a symbolic act, full of significant meaning. And when Lot's wife, on her escape from Sodom - which God destroys completely, as punishment for wicked sexual acts - looks back at the city, and hence breaks God's commandment ("Do not look back!"), she is immediately turned into a pillar of salt. Augustine claims she serves as a kind of seasoning for the faithful - one wonders if the pun is intended...

The whole of City of God can be summarized in a few sentences. Augustine sees his Roman contemporary world as deeply corrupt and hedonistic (he seems to be obsessed with sex). This is the Earthly City - the community of unbelievers who don't follow God's commandments. This society has developed historically, since God created the world, in line with the City of God, which is the community of true believers. The unbelievers and believers have been mixed on purpose - God's purpose - to test the faith of the believers. Augustine traces the historical progress of both Cities by studying the Old and New Testaments. He discovers a historical line of prophecies that all confirm the coming and resurrection of Christ and he interprets all the Earthly Kingdoms - the Babylonians, the Persians, the Assyrians, etc. - as one continuous test of the Christian faith. In Augustine's view, his contemporary Roman world was the epitome of the Earthly City - created by the Devil/Antichrist - and heralding the end times: 1000 years of living under the rule of Christ, his apostles and the angels - ending with an epic struggle of three years and six months (??) of Christ/God versus Antichrist/Devil. If you don't believe this, you will be picked by Christ, on his return to Earth, to eternally burn in Hell; if you do believe this, you will be picked by Christ to eternally exist in peace and quiet in Heaven. The ultimate goal for the believer is to enter a peaceful state of mind that will last for eternity. In other words: all your desires and pains will leave your existence and you will exist in this state of satisfied apathy forever. I can't explain this huge book more concisely than this...

The whole problem with Augustine is that he is too obsessed with human sin (i.e. sex). I'm no fan of Freud, but a psychoanalytic analysis of Augustine's book shows a human being who is extremely obsessed by his own sexual appetites, resenting himself for this and trying his best to ignore his passions. The only reasonable way to reduce his cognitive dissonance is to write doctrines on why sex - and why not life in general? - is sinful. Augustine's world view is bleak, gloomy and depressive - it is also toally delusional and other-worldly.

Of course, let's not leave out the deception of witnessing the destruction of an all-powerful Empire that existed for a thousand years, at the hands of the Goths, as well as structural and incidental persecution of Christians by the Roman State as well as some Emperors actively promoting Christianity. An ambivalent personality combined with tumultuous times make for some interesting ideas...

Augustine is so obsessed with sinfulness and the evil of humanity, that he stumbles onto the notion of predestinationWhen God created the world, He knew humanity would sin and hence he ought to punish all of us. But out of His goodness, he selectively picked some of us to escape the eternal burning of skin in Hell, and His choice was made before humanity existed. This means that all of us are already selected for either Heaven or Hell, with the later destination receiving the most of us.

The problem, of course, is that if this is true - which is rather an absurd idea - than why should we be obey God's commands? In other words, if it is already decided if you will burn (or not), why should we become citizens of God's City and not enjoy all the pleasures of the Earthly life? Augustine doesn't seem to see this as a problem - or rather: he doesn't see the problem, at all - since in this huge book he never mentions it, let alone tackles the problem. I now can see much clearer how Luther and Calvin could hold Augustine against the corrupt (at least, according to them) Western Church, while the Catholic Church could hold Augustine against Luther and Calvin.

Either predestination is true and free will (and hence, obeying God's will) flies out the window - and then what's the use of a Church? - or we are free to obey God's will (or not) and the doctrine of predestination flies out of the window. But why not cut the Gordian knot and just see the absurdity of this dilemma to begin with: an omnipotent, all-loving, omniscient perfect Being will not create flawed human beings and subsequently obey them things they cannot comply with anyway. Either God is not all-loving (which the Old Testament clearly seems to prove), or God is not omniscient and/or omnipotent (which the Old Testament also clearly seems to prove). A good God that commits genocides (wiping out all of humanity with the Flood; killing all Egyptian first borns in their cradles; wiping off whole cities and turning any witnesses in pillars of salt; etc.) or orders them (the command to the Jews to destroy all the Caananites and leave no woman, child or cattle alive; etc.) simply is a contradiction in terms. Conclusion: Christianity is just such a human myth and delusion as the Homeric or Virgilian gods were. It is a pity that intellects like Augustine couldn't see the obvious conclusion.

Due to the sheer length and dullness of this book, I cannot really recommend it to anyone. Better watch a summary presentation on YouTube or read some excerpts on internet. As a historical document, the City of God is valuable, though.

I would like my certificate of completion now please.

I mean, it's very long.

If his Confessions was autobiography as philosophy, the first part of Augustine’s magnum opus, City of God, is history as philosophy. As this book progressed beyond the halfway point, however, it digressed into an opaque maze of biblical explanations which I could not appreciate.

As someone who has not (yet) read Roman history, I found the first portion of this book pleasantly interesting. Augustine pretty much goes through the entire history of Rome to look at the (negative) role of the pagan gods throughout that period. One commendable thing here is that Augustine criticises the pagan Roman gods only because their worship and myths involved negative qualities (at least as per Christians) like violence and lust. In other words, his position is not that the Roman gods are not the One True God of My Exclusive Religion, and are therefore demons: a position that, unfortunately, many people take even today. Having read portions of the Old Testament, though, I know that Yahweh is also violent and jealous, much like most other gods of religions that command obeisance. Augustine may be throwing stones at others while residing in a glass house.

In his introduction in Book 1, Augustine speaks about how the earthly city — moving in parallel with the city of god — is ruled by its “lust of rule”. To me, this simple line speaks volumes about how nation-states are ultimately the outcome of desire for accumulation. I am not going to go to the extent of finding a Marxist interpretation out of Saint Augustine (of all people), though. Later, in Book 3, he talks about how a kingdom should be sufficient with a “moderate stature”, rather than seeking to be an afflicted giant. An interesting tidbit on self-sufficiency of nations and non-violence/non-expansion.

For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms?

For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world’s happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness.

^ This quotation has an obvious Stoic influence. And the interesting thing about Augustine is that he is definitely very well-read. He cites Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, the Platonists, Stoics, and Epicureans with ease on philosophical matters, notwithstanding his extensive knowledge of Greco-Roman history.

Augustine believes that the person who “faces the ills of this life” rather than flees is braver. But why? Why face the world at all? For Augustine, there’s no way out: the final judgment is inevitable. But remove god, remove the afterlife, and Augustine’s philosophy crumbles. I won’t go to the extent of doing that, though, because you cannot understand the worth of theologians after removing their theism.

On the ancient belief that god is everywhere and in everyone, Augustine critiques it by arguing - “what more unhappy belief can be entertained than that a part of God is whipped when a boy is whipped?” - Well, stop whipping boys then? Augustine ignores how this kind of belief can create equality by increasing our compassion for the people around us.

In Book 5, Augustine very skilfully reconciles free will with a prescient god. But again, his central assumption is that someone who is not prescient of all future things is not god. The issue here is that Augustine’s central (Christian) assumptions are different from those of the pagan world, which are deliberately illogical. I do not think that you can argue with such different cultures using the logic of theology.

Something I appreciate is Augustine’s appreciation for life as a miracle, which is rare optimism for me (at least from the books I read). He also borrows from Lucretius who shows a similar wonder towards nature —

…the standing miracle of this visible world is little thought of, because always before us, yet, when we arouse ourselves to contemplate it, it is a greater miracle than the rarest and most unheard-of marvels. For man himself is a greater miracle than any miracle done through his instrumentality.

Though his argument here is that because life is a miracle, we shouldn’t doubt the veracity of biblical miracles as well, for both have the same author. But I think miracles are what we’re not used to seeing, and do not logically think as possible. Life does not satisfy either of these conditions, biblical miracles do.

Augustine also assumes that all people prefer a miserable existence over annihilation. We know that this is untrue today, as it has always been. And because Augustine is so life-affirming, he has to be unnecessarily morose about death —

For no sooner do we begin to live in this dying body, than we begin to move ceaselessly towards death.

In Book 14, Augustine reconciles the current negative “burdens” of this “corruptible body” with the positive final judgment when soul is reunited with body. He does this by arguing that its not the body itself that is the problem, but its burdens — desires, pains, et cetera — which will be removed cometh the final judgment. I like this because it accepts the body and doesn’t reject it, while recognising that the faults of the body are rooted in desire alone. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I see an affinity with the four noble truths here.

His discussion on the original sin / fall of man is exactly what I was looking for. He connects eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil with lust, shame, needs, and desires.

In the dark solitudes of India also, though some philosophers go naked, and are therefore called gymnosophists, yet they make an exception in the case of these members, and cover them.

The later portion of this book, though, from Book 16 onwards, are footnotes to the Old Testament, of absolutely no interest to non-Christians. I skipped much of this.

Its brevity, therefore, does not clear it of misery; neither ought it to be called happiness because it is a brief misery.

Important but awful book I ever read. The civilization is falling into the darkest period and Agustine is the rat that is consuming the rotten food.

This christian writer is trying to explain why the romans falls and every answer is related to god and sins.