About this title: Saint Augustine, who spent 14 years composing this Christian and literary classic, wrote "City of God" as a defense of Christianity in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire. "City of God" functions as a history of early Christianity, a critique of Roman polytheism, and a philosophy of history. Its central theme is the duality of good and evil. Augustine proposes a universal religious society, or "the perfectly ordered and harmonious communion of those who find their joy in God, and in one another in God."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: J M Dent & Sons Ltd., London
Date Published: 1945
Description: Good + No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. 444 pp. Small volume, bound in blue cloth boards, spine bumped, cover marked on the front. Pages sl. browned. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: DENT
Date Published: 1950
Description: Published by Dent in 1950. Hardback without Dust jacket. Condition: Very Good. May show some slight signs of wear. Volume II. Everymans Library No.983 Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. clean, straight, tight and unmarked, very little wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 551 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Image
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Good. Underlining on some pages. A good reading copy in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dust cover, if available). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels. All items will be shipped by the close of the next business day. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Doubleday & Co. Inc, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Good. 0385029101 Some underlining in first 14 pages, otherwise clean, minor shelfwear to covers, fading and rubbing to spine and tips. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Doubleday, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Fair. 551 pages, 1958 printing, "Abridged for modern readers by Vernon J. Bourke" book is aged but in decent shape, pages unmarked. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Image
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Good. Good softcover copy, publishing date states 1958, but I believe it is a later printing due to barcode on back cover. Light wear. For quick delivery, please consider Expedited shipping-standard delivery ranges from 4-19 business days. Thank you! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Image
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Good. --All NEW items are exactly as provided by the publisher. All USED items are in Good condition or better, and copies may contain store stickers, highlighting, etc from normal use by previous owner(s). One-time use supplements (e.g., access codes, tear-out flash cards, reference cards, etc) provided with new copies are NOT guaranteed. --Professional booksellers: inquiries always welcome. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BROADMAN PR
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780805493450ISBN:080549345X
Description: New. With full outlines of the text and brief but detailed commentary, these books give readers the upper hand in uncovering and clarifying the many nuances and complex theological points revealed in these religious masterpieces. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Good + Tight spine, previous owner's name and date inside front cover. Illustrated wraps, edges rubbed, corners slightly bumped, spine creased. Text has minimal underlining and only the paragraph headings, pages a little yellowed. 551 Pgs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Image
Date Published: 1958-02-01
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Good. Light edge and corner wear. Light creases to cover. Pages still clean and tight. All U.S. orders shipped wth tracking number and e-mail confirmation. read more
Edition: 40th Printing Thus
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Doubleday, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1958
ISBN-13:9780385029100ISBN:0385029101
Description: Very Good. 5 1/2 x 8 1/4" 0385029101 Abridged for mosern readers. read more
"It's not that Augustine doesn't have a great mind--it's just that this one is of little interest to me. I don't need to be convinced that the Romans were superstitious and that adopting Christianity did not bring about the sacking of Rome."
""City of God" by E. L. Doctorow (from inside flap) In his workbook, a New York city novelist records the contents of his teeming brain--sketches for stories, accounts of his love affairs, riffs on the meanings of popular songs, ideas for movies, obsessions with cosmic processes. He is a virtual repository of the predominant ideas and historical disasters of the age. But now he has found a story he thinks may become his next novel: The large brass cross that hung behind the altar of St. Timothy's, a run-down Episcopal church in lower Manhattan, has disappeared....and even more mysteriously reappeared on the roof of the Synagogue for Evolutionary Judaism, on the Upper West Side. The church's maverick rector and the young woman Rabbi who leads the synagogue are trying to learn who committed this strange double act of desecration and why. Befriending them, the novelist finds that their struggles with their respective traditions are relevant to the case. Into his workbook go his taped interviews, insights, preliminary drafts...and as he joins the clerics in pursuit of the mystery, it broadens to implicate a large cast of vividly drawn characters--including scientists, war veterans, prelates, Holocaust survivors, cabinet members, theologians, New York Times reporters, filmmakers, and crooners--in what proves to be a quest for an authentic spirituality at the end of this tortured century.
MY THOUGHTS: I tried really hard to read this book. But I just couldn't get into it. It is so, well heck, I can't seem to find the right word for this. To me it has no plot, it jumps from one subject to another without any warning. There are not chapters that begin or end. The subject can be on the cross on one paragraph and then jump to a story about a Holocaust Survivor. It's not organized right. You know what I mean? I am used to reading a book with chapters that have a beginning and an ending. With a plot that goes somewhere. But this book just doesn't seem to do that. I got about half way through the book and just couldn't go on."
"One of the great classics in all of Christian--no, check that--human history, The City of God presents two contrasting groups of people, or to use the imagery of the book, two contrasting cities: the earthly and the heavenly. Everyone in the world falls into either one city or the other, and Augustine painstakingly lays out their origins, their history, and their destiny.
This fifth century book was the classic Christian book throughout the church's history until the individualism of the Enlightenment finally overpowered it in the twentieth century. But what Augustine does here is what the individualism of the modern world claims it wants so badly: to find an identity. He defines Christian identity by placing it within the Christian community (both historically and in the present day). Augustine's implication is clear: one who identifies himself with Christ knows that through being identified with His people, the church.
This is certainly a difficult book to read, primarily for its imposing length, but also because so much of the history is so far removed from our everyday experience. That said, the theological narrative is clear throughout, and the hope that drives the work toward its conclusion makes it one of the most important books ever written."
"It is an embarrassment to rate The City of God like this, but it's all because of the translation. I slogged through it as long as I could, but then I had to go purchase a better version. I'm sure this newer version will rate better."
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