Folio Society Published Works Number 2646
Saint Augustine - City of God
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Saint Augustine - City of God (Published in by The Folio Society in 2012. Introduced by Archbishop Vincent Nichols and the Right Reverend Richard Chartres. 2 volumes. Bound in cloth. Blocked with a design by Joe McLaren. Set in Palatino. 1,192 pages. Frontispiece in each volume. 56 pages of colour plates in total. Book size: 10" × 6.25". In the dying days of the Roman Empire, a bishop from Numidia (present-day Algeria) sat down to write a manifesto for Christianity. The result was City of God, a cornerstone of Christian philosophy and one of the most influential religious works ever written. Just three years after the sack of Rome by the Goths, Augustine refuted the claim that Christianity was to blame for this act, and wrote an eloquent and influential defence of his faith. He saw history as an age-old struggle between good and evil, symbolised by the pagan, earthly city of human desires and the City of God. Where then should Christians live and how should they live together? The answer, for Augustine, was not a utopia or a theocracy. No society on earth can ever be perfect; the true home for Christians is heaven, the City of God. 'There shall we rest and see, see and love, love and praise … For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?' Written in lucid, beautiful prose, and touching on matters ranging from Plato's philosophy to the Last Judgment, this extraordinary work bears witness to a seminal period of Christianity. Our edition has been designed to enhance the reading experience in every way. It uses the late 19th-century translation by the Reverend Marcus Dods, widely considered to be definitive. We have commissioned two new introductions from leading prelates of Britain's Catholic and Anglican Churches. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, explains the work's abiding theological influence while Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, shows how Augustine pioneered a new concept of history, which has shaped our view of time ever since. A structural synopsis provides a detailed breakdown of the matter of each book, and there is a comprehensive 36-page index. The illustrations have been selected from illuminated manuscripts of the work, notably from the late 15th-century copy in the Bibliothèque de Mâcon. )
