Work · Augustine
The City of God
413–426 CE · Twenty-two books
Rome has fallen and the pagans blame the Christians. Augustine answers with a vision of two cities — one built on love of God, one on love of self — running mixed through all of history.
22
Books
413–426 CE
Written
410 sack
Occasion
The two cities
The book’s whole vision in one contrast: two cities built by two loves — the love of self to the contempt of God, and the love of God to the contempt of self. They run mixed together through all of history and are sorted out only at the end, so neither one is simply Rome or the Church.
The shape of the argument
Books I–V
The pagan charge answered: the old gods never made Rome moral or kept it safe — and the barbarians spared those who fled to the churches.
Books VI–X
Nor can the gods give eternal life — not even the Platonists, who come nearest and still fall short of the Incarnation.
Books XI–XIV
The origin of the two cities: creation, the angels, the Fall, and the two loves that divide them.
Books XV–XVIII
Their history, intertwined from Cain and Abel down through Rome — the two cities running mixed through time.
Book XIX
The true highest good: peace as “the tranquillity of order,” and the limits of any peace on earth.
Books XX–XXII
How it ends: the Last Judgment, and the eternal City of God.
The cast
The City of God — the community bound by love of God — a pilgrim through history
The Earthly City — the community bound by love of self, driven by the lust to dominate
Pagan Rome — the defendant: the old gods who never protected Rome, yet blame Christ for its fall
The Platonists — the philosophers who come nearest the truth but lack the Incarnation
Cain & Abel — the two cities’ first citizens — Cain who built a city, Abel the pilgrim who built none
Marcellinus — the Roman official to whom Augustine addresses the whole work
The famous bits
Two loves, two citiesBook XIV
The one sentence that defines the work: two cities built by two loves, the love of self and the love of God.
“Great robberies”Book IV
A captured pirate tells Alexander they’re in the same trade — only the size of the fleet differs.
The philosophers came nearestBook VIII
The Platonists are brought to the very door of the Incarnation, and can’t walk through it.
The tranquillity of orderBook XIX
Augustine’s definition of peace — and the reason no peace on earth can ever be the whole of it.
Answering the sackBook I
The barbarians spared everyone who fled to the churches: Christ’s name shielded even pagans.