I stumbled across Augustine when I was teenager and I remember this being much more profound. Having just reread it cover to cover, I was wholly disappointed. Augustine writes in response to attacks on Christianity for which the decline of the Roman Empire is being increasingly blamed. The first half of the book criticizes, effectively, the irrationality of pagan belief. However, he fails to turn the same clear-eyed analysis to Christianity. In one of the more painfully oblivious passages, Augustine writes:

These fables… are so skillfully invented by men as to involve no scandal to the gods. But whoever have pretended as to Jupiter’s rape of Ganymede, a very beautiful boy, that King Tantalus committed the crime, and the fable ascribed to Jupiter; or as to impregnating Danae as a golden shower, that it means that the woman’s virtue was corrupted by gold: whether these things were really done or only fabled in those days, or were really done by others and falsely ascribed to Jupiter, it is impossible to tell how much wickedness must have been taken for granted in men's hearts that they should be thought able to listen to such lies with patience. pg. 560.

Whereas Augustine writes in his Confessions that biblical interpretation may have many meanings, he engages in a very literal analysis for the second half of the book. Starting with a bedrock belief that biblical history is true and accurate, he builds layer after layer of biblical truth upon that unexamined foundation. Augustine adopts the Platonic philosophical traditions which support the existence of the soul and faults of paganism, but then readily discards philosophy as a whole for not able to achieve the quested true happiness for which it is engaged. Happiness is only found in accepting God. All inconsistencies and faults in Christianity are cured by faith that God is all powerful and can make all things come to pass. Which begs the question of why we should engage in any rational evaluation of anything since God’s will/power trumps all? It makes Augustine’s efforts to extrapolate meaning from biblical works a vain and futile exercise in human rationality.

Christians starting from the same principles as Augustine will probably find much to like about this work. For those of us not starting with the same assumptions of biblical authority, it is a tedious read.

Well, that was a book. I have been reading this one for probably far too long and I feel a bit dazed to realise I have actually finished it. This book is an interesting one to think about and perhaps I will revisit these words in a few weeks once I have more time to let this one simmer (yet Augustine’s words have been simmering around in my brain for the past eight months or so, so maybe that is long enough!). I am glad I read this book, yet I’m not sure I’ll ever re-visit. For this book, more than any I’ve read in recent memory, is a chore. Augustine goes here and there and everywhere. Yes the book is structured. Yes there is a progression. But I find myself slightly baffled at times by the topics that Augustine chooses to spend fifty pages on, and then the topics I would consider slightly more important get barely a page. Editors today would have a field day with this one. I don’t generally consider abridged versions of old books a good idea, but I would not argue with someone who chose to read a (good) abridged copy of this book.

Am I really being so harsh on Augustine, one of the prominent theologians of the Christian world? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike this one. I simply find it a bit unfocused and probably not entirely worth the time and effort it takes to read. In a way though, I think I understand why I feel as I do. In some ways, this book has far more value as a historical work than as a theological one. Yes, there are many solid and brilliant theological insights contained therein. Yes, Augustine’s devotion to the faith and high view of Scripture cannot be denied. Yes, Augustine’s clinging to Christ as the only way of salvation and his understanding of being eternally with God as the prime good of mankind was encouraging, and thrilling to meditate on! Yet, I also realise that this book was (as all books are) a product of its time. This is actually quite a polemical work. Augustine is responding to the philosophies of his day and speaking to the world in which he lived. So this book is enlightening and fascinating as we consider the topics that were of supreme and dire importance to the great minds of the late 4th century. In this day we do not perhaps need pages and pages detailing the natures and deficiencies of the pagan gods who were so quickly fading into irrelevance. But still? This book is important because it shows a great man of God (and indeed a great intellect, though that is of lesser importance) defending the faith and boldly speaking forth the gospel of God to a world that was so lost in its own pride and ignorance. Maybe the pride and ignorance of that long-ago world seems odd to us now, yet we cannot smirk too much. In this present world we are just as proud of our ignorance, though we would not put it in such terms. Anyway! I go off the topic. This book is important and it is quite fascinating to see Augustine discussing the Christian faith in a world that had just known the name Jesus Christ for barely four centuries. And I am exceedingly encouraged to see the faith Augustine has in both the nature and work of God, as well as his utter confidence in the Scriptures. Yes, sometimes Augustine says things with absolute confidence that I would…question. Augustine is not perfect and this book is not perfect. Yet still, there are many times where Augustine humbly confesses that he does not quite know the answer and simply puts forth his thoughts in the wisdom that he knows God has given him. Would that we all in this day exhibit more of Augustine’s humility.

This book is an odd one. I think I’m glad I read it? Would I recommend it? Unsure. At least, if you’re going to read Augustine, read Confessions first. I am grateful to ponder the truths that Augustine expounded, though the journey was messy at times. It is good to think that God indeed has a people that He has called into communion with Himself. We are now truly part of the city of God and someday we shall fully and intimately know God in a way we do not know Him now. For that day we long. We do not know exactly the future or how God shall accomplish His will. Yet we do know that God’s will shall be accomplished and that He shall not abandon the people He has called to Himself. There always has been a remnant. And someday this remnant shall weep and rejoice as the bride beams to welcome her bridegroom. Oh come quickly Lord Jesus. This is a desire that burned just as hot in Augustine’s own soul. Someday I wish to talk theology with this dear brother and rejoice as we look on the face of our Lord, even if now we cannot quite imagine what that will be like. We do know it shall be far better than we can think now. Oh Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Written at the end of the Roman Empire, Augustine defends Christianity against paganism and then proceeds to lay out the differences between the worldly city and the city of God.

It's interesting to read this from a historical standpoint. You see arguments against the Pagan gods that had preceded Christianity in the Roman Empire. You read answers to the philosophical arguments of Augustine's day. You catch a glimpse of the church just before it entered the Middle Ages. You begin to understand why this one person so influenced both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Church and why both sides claim him as their own.

But this book is not simply a historical read. I was at times brought to consider just how glorious the City of God really is and was made thankful for God's work of salvation to make me a part of that city.

I know that this is a hard read. It is long and written long ago, but you will likely find yourself glad that you did the hard work it took to read it.

Ever wondered how sex worked in the Garden of Eden? Why Seth's genealogy lists more people than Cain's? Why there were three levels on the ark?
Yeah, me neither.
But now apparently I do.
And those topics only cover like a chapter of this book.
Like many people who took a Western Civ class, I knew Augustine pre-dated the Enlightenment and Enlightenment obsession with rationalism. He lived in an era where the mystic lived hand in hand with the everyday. Where martyrs' bones performed miracles and the Roman gods were still worshiped. I just somehow wasn't expecting how often this book could jump from a profound, insightful, theological statement that the church still holds to today to an analysis of why 9 is such a magical number.
While loosely connected by the topic of "City of God v. City of Man," this book quite broadly covers philosophy, history, myth, apologetics, and Pythagorean theory. Topics range from the founding of Rome to the calling of Abraham to prophesies about the apocalypse.
Despite how overwhelming I found it at times, I am glad I read it. Besides its theological value, this book truly represents something incredible as a compilation of philosophical arguments and historical explanation. I am sure I didn't even scratch the surface of what it all has to offer. But I did learn from it. And now I've got some great random facts to pull out of my back pocket if anyone ever asks what day God created angels.