"Nearly sixteen centuries ago, the city of Rome was sacked by German barbarian Alaric and his Goths-a blow to the very heart of the glorious empire. Rome had dominated civilization for over a thousand years, yet now this symbol of culture, commerce, and order was brought to her knees, and her citizens stripped of their homes, their belongings, their honor, and often, their very lives. In the wake of this shattering event, a mystic named Augustine, the bishop of Hippo in North Africa, watched his city swell with refugees fleeing the barbarians in Rome. The empire had been Christian for nearly a century, but now the foundations of their faith were shaken. As the disintegration of the empire created more doubt and despair, Augustine began to hear murmurings, blaming Christianity for the disastrous times. How could this happen? Could our old gods have saved us from destruction? The City of God is Augustine's response, focusing a new light on the actions of men and the events of history in order to draw a clear demarcation between the spiritual City of God and the material City of Man. This theology of history deeply influenced the thought and scholarship of the Middle Ages, ultimately becoming one of the core volumes in Western thought. Augustine's remarkable work does not limit itself to history however. It deals also with creation, time, and origin of evil, human freedom, divine knowledge of the future, the resurrection of the body, final judgement, happiness, the Incarnation, sin, grace, forgiveness, and more. The sheer scope of the work is impressive, and it is a key to understanding the formation of Western thought , right up to the present day."--