Description
“The City of God” (De Civitate Dei) is one of St. Augustine’s most important and influential works, written in the early 5th century, primarily in response to the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 CE. The book spans 22 books and addresses a variety of theological, philosophical, and historical topics. Its overarching purpose is to contrast the “City of God” with the “City of Man,” and to explain the role of Christianity in the world, especially in the face of the fall of the Roman Empire.
The immediate catalyst for The City of God was the criticism that Romans were leveling against Christianity after the fall of Rome. Many pagan Romans believed that Christianity was to blame for Rome’s decline, arguing that the abandonment of traditional Roman gods had left the empire vulnerable to destruction. Augustine wrote this work to refute these claims and to present a Christian understanding of history and the purpose of human life.
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