Doubtful whether I'll finish it before the Civitas Dei is made fully manifest at the eschaton, but might as well try!

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.

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.

Evolution was a religious Idea. Back in 410 Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa was the first to describe evolution by natural selection. "We see a constant succession, as some things pass away and others arise, as the weaker succumb to the stronger, and those that are overwhelmed change into the qualities of their conquerors; and thus we have a pattern of a world of continual transience."



This book is a tremendous work. At 1090 pages long it is a vast collection of religious musings and thoughts. Though it starts with a rather tedious microscopic analysis of the sins of the day it slowly transforms into a detailed bible study and finally a theological, philosophical and even scientific treasure troth.



Saying that though, there are a few bits in it that seem a bit fifth century and are a bit dated when viewed with today's eyes. At one point he comically rejects the idea that people live on the other side of the world. However considering its age those parts that we now know to be incorrect are few and far between.



In some ways he is my hero. He brought theology and observations about the world together. Being in one sense the first clergymen to realise that science and religion were complementary. Augustine says in the book that god is the author of all natures. There are no argument that Dawkins is presently using that Augustine didn't unpick by logic 1600 years ago.



Augustine does though lay the foundation for the catholic church's Galileo's heresy trials. Augustine suggests in this book that authority or at least agreement between learned men provides a strong fortress from which a particular point of view can be defended. Augustine failed to realise that the fortresses themselves could and would be built above fallacious points of view.



Augustine criticised the idolisation of the pontiff. He recounts stories of ancient meteorite falls in Italy. The unbelievable range and scope of this book will make it one of the most interesting books you will ever read.

All we see is a prefiguration of that which we believe.

Read this back in the 1990's but now I want to reread it. I know I would get a lot more out of it.

Took me about two months and I’m finally done. And it was the hardest and most challenging book I’ve ever read. So yes this is my bragging book. But seriously there was so much good stuff in here and so much confusing stuff. It really covered everything. I definitely see why this os one of the most influential works in Christian theology/philosophy.

Man, that took FOREVER.

Basically ditto Amy's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For the average layman, I would not recommend reading the entire thing. It's long swaths of boring rambling punctuated by moments of brilliance. As I read, I marked the sections that I felt were worth discussion, and I'll list them below. It's a work you can easily jump into and out of to pull out greater ideas. I can sense how much Luther pulled from this!

My completely arbitrary list of what struck me as most interesting...
Book One: Preface, points 8, 9, 10, 11, 36
Book Two: Points 2, 13, 23
Book Three: Points 1, 20, 31
Book Four: Point 23
Book Five: Points 9, 10, 19
Book Six: Points 1, 5
Book Seven: Points 27, 30
Book Eight: Points 6, 8, 23, 24
Book Nine: Point 15
Book Ten: Points 5, 24, 25, 29
Book Eleven: Points 21, 23, 25
Book Twelve: Point 6
Book Thirteen: Points 4, 5,
Book Fourteen: Points 2, 3, 13, 17,
Book Fifteen: Points 1, 7, 14
Book Sixteen: Points 37, 43
Book Seventeen:
Book Eighteen: Points 35, 41, 50
Book Nineteen: Points 12, 17, 21,
Book Twenty: Point 30
Book Twenty-One: Points 15, 25, 26
Book Twenty-Two: Points 2, 17, 22, 24

Five years and a lot of sporadic reading episodes later, I've finished one of my major reading ambition projects. I am not sorry for the time spent reading this. A true treasure in so many ways, and a pleasure to read slowly.

This is a truly COLOSSAL book! Why, exactly, do I say that?

Because, you know, there are two ways of getting answers in the world... there’s getting the world’s answers (and that’s sometimes doublethink) and there’s getting SYMBOLIC answers!

Sub specie aeternitatis, symbolic answers are the ONLY important ones. Rather than show the world’s Real face, they Suggest it.

And they’re what Augustine gives us when he divides the world RIGHT UP THE MIDDLE.

If you cut through the layers of your illusions about it, it's all about that one central fact, from which you can then draw your own conclusions:

There are TWO PARALLEL WORLDS on this planet.

One of them is a cold, grasping, calculating - in a word, selfish - world; the other is a world of warm, compassionate, caring, but quite ordinary, human beings.

In a word, a loving world.

Hard to believe?

Take a closer look at the people around you. Some of them uniformly choose to do good. They‘d be lost if they didn’t!

So, why are they JUST SO PLAIN NICE?

It’s not just to please you...

Maybe, just maybe, they think if they lose their way in the world they JUST MIGHT LOSE THEIR SOULS.

‘You’re kidding me, of course! NOBODY’S like THAT any more...’

That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. There are MILLIONS like that.

They’re from the Second City (now I KNOW you’re gonna find that funny)!

NO - we’re not talking standup comedy, for heaven’s sake; it’s the queue that’s forming RIGHT NOW for Heaven - Stage Right!

This Second City is ‘the best of all possible Worlds.’ It don’t get any better than this.

God threw away the mold when He made that city...

The first city Augustine calls the the City of Man: you know it well - its grit, grime and corruption have done some Serious Damage to our planet, and some DEADLY serious damage to our Hearts.

It’s the first city, because unfortunately it’s the only one most folks believe in... and it’s OUR first city, in time.

It’s the familiar city of THE FALL OF MAN.

If ONLY all the people who are still living there knew they had another, better choice of city to live in...

The second, of course, is the City of God. Hence the title.

The fabled Stairway to Heaven (no apologies to Led Zeppelin)!

The City of SALVATION. Now, that’s an overused word!

Did you ever play that Ancient board game Snakes & Ladders? The City of the Man is full of hidden snakes, who will take us down to the Underworld, and hence back to square one.

The City of Salvation, though, is full of Ladders - taking us up to paradise - and the finish line.

Going up, up to our Lost First World - you know, the one we knew when we were very little... so vivid, so clear - so Really There.

And all those many people we hear about who’ve been brought back from near-death by modern medicine have ACTUALLY SEEN IT.

Take the nomenclature as you will - the fact remains that this is no pie-in-sky pipe dream, as turned out so unfortunately for the young female social climber in Zeppelin’s lyrics.

She was going DOWN that UP STAIRWAY. Down on a Snake’s back to Discouragement and Dusty Death. Instead of going UP to SALVATION.

These two worlds DO exist, and they're engaged in an ongoing battle.

To death!

And BEYOND...

And you know what else?

We must - each of us - choose a side! Here and now - in THIS world.

Which side will WE be on?

The Side of the Winners - or the LOSERS - sub specie aeternitatis?

Will we gain Happiness or lose Everything?

That’s entirely up to each one of us...

So let’s always take the UP Ladder to paradise - rather than ride the back of a Snake, Deep Down Under the Earth into Endless Darkness:

And lose the whole game!

Uh...

I only had to read half of this for school. But it was still really long.

Imagine you're in a math class. And the teacher says, "Now we're going to learn about numbers: one plus one is two, two plus two is four, etc." And you think, "Yeah. Okay. I get that." Then all of a sudden, while your mind wanders around, the teacher says, "So now that you've got that, let's talk about calculus." And then your brain explodes from the jump that it just made.

This is sort of how City of God treated me. Augustine would say, "So God created angels, the world, Adam and Eve..." and I think, "Yeah. Okay. I get that." And then all of a sudden, Augustine says, "So God made us out of nothing, which is why our souls are mutable, but evil cannot exist outside of goodness, so nothing is not the same as non-existence" or something confusing like that. And then my brain explodes from trying to comprehend eternity.

Also, it does not help when Augustine goes on one of his many tangents. Like, "So about God's will. Some people think it's like fate. It's not. Hey, speaking of fate, you know why astrology is wrong? Because twins are born under the same stars and they don't live identical lives! Ha! So there! But back to God's will." Except with 5 million times more words. And you spend all this time reading about astrology and twins before coming back to the main point.

I did appreciate all the thought that Augustine put into his writing. It sounds like he very much loved the Bible. Which is really cool. And he goes through a lot of really exciting concepts.

It's just...so long...

Huh, this is a lot shorter than I thought it was - it appears to be a lot longer in iBooks. I'll go ahead and finish it, and then I'd like to get one of the longer-but-abridged editions (around 500 p). But I can't buy books right now, so maybe I'll be stuck with the unabridged version...

Finished! I'll have a review up in a few days (after I've reviewed March: Book One). I'll start the unabridged version, but I'm thinking I might stop after I finish vol. 1.

**update**

The editor of this abridged edition, FR Montgomery, provides a quote from the 2nd book of another work by Augustine, Retractations, that outlines Augustine’s purpose in writing the city of God:
"After the storming and the sack of Rome by the Goths under their king, Alaric, the worshippers of false gods or heathen, as we call them, tried to prove that this calamity was due to the Christian religion, and began more fiercely and bitterly than ever to blaspheme the true God. This it was that kindled my zeal for the House of God, and induced me to defend the City of God against the calumny and misrepresentations of her foes. After many serious interruptions this great undertaking, which was extended over many years, was at length finished in twenty-two books. The first five are written in answer to those who believe that worldly prosperity is insured by the old polytheistic religion of Rome, and that calamities have followed by reason of its neglect. The next five are addressed to those who admit that the human race is always exposed to such misfortunes, and yet believe that the old religion is a good preparation for the life to come; …while the last twelve books of this extensive work are devoted to a comparison of the different origins, histories, and destinies of the City of God and the City of the World."

Some of the most important ideas:

- Augustine sets out to refute the charge that Christianity led to the fall of Rome by depriving Rome of the protection of the gods. He describes some of the disasters that befell Rome before the spread of Christianity, such as the civil wars that led to the fall of the Republic. He argues that Rome suffered from a moral decline long before Christ was even born, alluding to passages from pagan writers like Cicero & Sallust to this effect.

- Augustine points out that the instances of mercy seen during the attack on Rome are due to the influence of Christianity: "...the strange clemency of those savage barbarians in setting apart & selecting the most spacious churches, where the people might find refuge, where no one should receive hurt or injury, where many through the compassion of their captors might be brought to freedom, whence no one through the cruelty of his foes might be led to slavery — that has been solely due to the name of Christ and the Christian age. Whoever thinks otherwise is blind…"

- Augustine rejects the criticism that the concept of the Incarnation demeans the idea of a powerful God: "such a master is despised by those proud ones, because ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ Such are not merely sick, they rejoice in their sickness, and are ashamed of the remedy; and their end will not be a higher rise, but a greater fall."

Augustine addresses the problem of evil in Book XII. He argues that allowing evil in some aspects of the world is necessary for good, although from the human perspective we can't have a complete understanding of how this works: "We can but see parts of God’s plan, and we cannot judge of the effect of the whole; what may seem defects to us may, all the while, be contributing to the beauty of the all."

- He then introduces what has been called the Augustinian view of evil (Ch. IX "On the Creation of Angels"). This is the view that evil doesn’t really exist; it’s the absence of good, in the same way that darkness is the absence of light. The enemies of God are so through voluntary sin, and not by nature: "For the true light which illumines every man that comes into the world, also lighteth the whole angelic host, so that it is not the light as in itself, but as in God ; from which if an angel turns aside, he becomes unclean, like the unclean spirits, who are no longer light in God, but darkness in themselves, being deprived of the participation in the eternal light. For there is no nature of evil, but the loss of the good is called evil."

I've started on vol. 1 of the unabridged edition.