Genres

The City of God



Description The City of God


Rome having been stormed and sacked by the Goths under Alaric their king, the worshippers of false gods, or pagans, as we commonly call them, made an attempt to attribute this calamity to the Christian religion, and began to blaspheme the true God with even more than their wonted bitterness and acerbity. It was this which kindled my zeal for the house of God, and prompted me to undertake the defence of the city of God against the charges and misrepresentations of its assailants. This work was in my hands for several years, owing to the interruptions occasioned by many other affairs which had a prior claim on my attention, and which I could not defer.

However, this great undertaking was at last completed in twenty-two books. Of these, the first five refute those who fancy that the polytheistic worship is necessary in order to secure worldly prosperity, and that all these overwhelming calamities have befallen us in consequence of its prohibition. In the following five books I address myself to those who admit that such calamities have at all times attended, and will at all times attend, the human race, and that they constantly recur in forms more or less disastrous, varying only in the scenes, occasions, and persons on whom they light, but, while admitting this, maintain that the worship of the gods is advantageous for the life to come. In these ten books, then, I refute these two opinions, which are as groundless as they are antagonistic to the Christian religion.

But that no one might have occasion to say, that though I had refuted the tenets of other men, I had omitted to establish my own, I devote to this object the second part of this work, which comprises twelve books, although I have not scrupled, as occasion offered, either to advance my own opinions in the first ten books, or to demolish the arguments of my opponents in the last twelve. Of these twelve books, the first four contain an account of the origin of these two cities—the city of God, and the city of the world. The second four treat of their history or progress; the third and last four, of their deserved destinies. And so, though all these twenty-two books refer to both cities, yet I have named them after the better city, and called them The City of God. (Summary by the author in his Retractationes (ii. 43) as translated by Marcus Dods)

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Book I: Preface; Chapters 1-15Book I: Chapters 16-36Book II: Chapters 1-17Book II: Chapters 18-29Book III: Chapters 1-16Book III: Chapters 17-31Book IV: Chapters 1-18Book IV: Chapters 19-34Book V: Preface; Chapters 1-12Book V: Chapters 13-26Book VI: Preface; Chapters 1-6Book VI: Chapters 7-12Book VII: Preface; Chapters 1-17Book VII: Chapters 18-35Book VIII: Chapters 1-14Book VIII: Chapters 15-27Book IX: Chapters 1-12Book IX: Chapters 13-23Book X: Chapters 1-17Book X: Chapters 18-32Book XI: Chapters 1-9Book XI: Chapters 10-22Book XI: Chapters 23-34Book XII: Chapters 1-9Book XII: Chapters 10-18Book XII: Chapters 19-27Book XIII: Chapters 1-11Book XIII: Chapters 12-21Book XIII: Chapters 22-24Book XIV: Chapters 1-7Book XIV: Chapters 8-12Book XIV: Chapters 13-21Book XIV: Chapters 22-28Book XV: Chapters 1-7Book XV: Chapters 8-14Book XV: Chapters 15-21Book XV: Chapters 22-27Book XVI: Chapters 1-8Book XVI: Chapters 9-20Book XVI: Chapters 21-31Book XVI: Chapters 32-43Book XVII: Chapters 1-4Book XVII: Chapters 5-8Book XVII: Chapters 9-16Book XVII: Chapters 17-24Book XVIII: Chapters 1-11Book XVIII: Chapters 12-22Book XVIII: Chapters 23-31Book XVIII: Chapters 32-39Book XVIII: Chapters 40-47Book XVIII: Chapters 48-54Book XIX: Chapters 1-4Book XIX: Chapters 5-12Book XIX: Chapters 13-21Book XIX: Chapters 22-28Book XX: Chapters 1-6Book XX: Chapters 7-11Book XX: Chapters 12-19Book XX: Chapters 20-24Book XX: Chapters 25-30Book XXI: Chapters 1-6Book XXI: Chapters 7-14Book XXI: Chapters 15-24Book XXI: Chapters 25-27Book XXII: Chapters 1-7Book XXII: Chapters 8-9Book XXII: Chapters 10-19Book XXII: Chapters 20-25Book XXII: Chapters 26-30

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