Often during Seminary, I heard people quote Augustine’s City of God. Never once was it required reading. When I read the following “Back Cover” synopsis on this abridged version I picked up a couple of weeks ago (unaware of its being abridged, not noticing that it says so on the front cover), I anticipate seeing if I can pick up the larger complete work at the library, or perhaps order a hardback copy from Amaazon ( I saw such a hardback copy at Borders a couple of days ago)

The back cover:

No book except the Bible itself had a greater influence on the Middle Ages than City of God. Since medieval Europe was the cradle of today’s Western civilization, this work by consequence is vital for an understanding of our world and how it came into being.

St. Augustine is often regarded as the most influential Christian thinker after St. Paul, and this book is his masterpiece, a vast synthesis of religious and secular knowledge. It began as a reply to the charge that Christian otherworldliness was causing the decline of the Roman Empire. Augustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Then he proceeded to his larger theme, a cosmic interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil: the City of God in conflict with the Earthly City or the City of the Devil. This, the first serious attempt at a philosophy of history, was to have incalculable influence in forming the Western mind on the relations of church and state, and on the Christian’s place in the temporal order.The original City of God contained twenty two books and fills three regular sized volumes. This edition has been skillfully abridged for the intelligent general reader by Vernon J. Bourke, author of Augustine’s Quest of Wisdom.

The heart of this monumental work is now available to a much wider audience.

(I wonder if Augustine would have a reaction to the phrase “skillfully abridged by the intelligent general reader”? It seems to border on a concept of “natural theology” ; an interesting question, it seems)

I have been reading with interest the reviews of a Complete, Hardback edition on Amazon here

After my last post in which I dove headlong in to a heart felt rant of disgust over the Busdh administration, I have been thinking a lot lately about this work of Augustine’s which I am about to start reading. Maybe I will get a flavor for it by starting with this abrdged version (but the cover kind of scares me when it says it is “Abridged for the Modern Reader”. What the hell is that about? That almost gives me pause, kind of like “The Bible: Abridged for the American Patriot”, or “The Bible: Chicken Soup For the American Soul”

I think, though, that it is a time for a study like this to take hold in today’s “Confessing Churches”. I also wonder, as I wrote that last line, what today’s conversation would be in working such a confession. There would be a mighty debate over the issue of language. But it seems to me that a statement of and by the American church as to its stance of loyalty to an American empire (ie. the repudiation of any talk of “loyalty” to the extent that it conflicts with a call to the gospel which transcends national boundaries, and knows no specific “American ethic or ethos”)