by St. Augustine

The City of God was written against the background of the fall of Rome to a barbarian force in 410.  Many Romans had attributed Rome's fall to the recent Christianization of the Roman Empire with a resulting loss of traditional Roman civic virtue.  To answer this charge, the future Saint Augustine, a Bishop in Africa, composed his masterpiece.  In this work, Augustine attempts to produce a philosophy of history.  He provides not only his views upon almost every important topic which occupied his thoughts, but also a compendious exhibition of the ideas which most powerfully influenced the life of that age.  All that was seen as valuable in the religion and philosophy of the classical nations of antiquity was reviewed.

However, the interest attaching to The City of God is not merely historical.  The fundamental lines of Augustinian theology are laid down in a comprehensive form.  Its impact on Western Christendom was immense and the work helped lay the foundation for the development of Western religious and legal thought.  The City of God is justly considered one of the greatest works ever composed and maintains its influence right up to the modern day.

This set has been photographically reproduced from the 1872 edition.

1,131 pages total in 2 leatherbound volumes