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The City of God: Books 11-22 (I/7)
Along with his Confessions, The City of God is undoubtedly St. Augustine's most influential work. Following Augustine's critique of the Roman religious, political, and intellectual tradition in Books 1-10, Books 11-22 set out his great vision of the origins, the histories, and the ultimate destinies of the two cities: the earthly city, rooted in love of self as expressed in the pride and lust for domination that shatter human society, and the heavenly city, rooted in love of God as expressed in the humility and yearning for the supreme good that unite humanity in a just social order. For all those who are interested in the greatest classics of Christian antiquity, The City of God is indispensable.
This long-awaited translation by William Babcock is published in two volumes, with an introduction and annotation that make Augustine's monumental work approachable. The INDEX for Books 1-22 (both volumes of The City of God) is contained in this volume.
1061 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 31, 1955
49 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Augustine of Hippo
3,312 books2,119 followersEarly church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical
Confessions
in 397 and the voluminous
City of God
from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.
An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.
People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."
The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."
Santo Agostinho
An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.
People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."
The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."
Santo Agostinho
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 19, 2023
What could I possibly say?
This is a masterful tome of Christian theology which meanders through philosophy, aesthetics, rhetoric, pagan theology, exegesis, hermeneutics, text criticism, church history, and much more. It is impossible to overstate its importance in church history—not to mention world history.
From the first book, there is a driving plot which works its way through world history, constantly resetting the timelines, adjusting them, plotting civilization on civilization. It is a work which takes learnedness and scripture seriously. Yet the consummation of all the work is XXII.30: the inexplicable bliss of eternal delight in God.
"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot
To have finished such a work is an accomplishment, a crown jewel of my seminary experience.
This is a masterful tome of Christian theology which meanders through philosophy, aesthetics, rhetoric, pagan theology, exegesis, hermeneutics, text criticism, church history, and much more. It is impossible to overstate its importance in church history—not to mention world history.
From the first book, there is a driving plot which works its way through world history, constantly resetting the timelines, adjusting them, plotting civilization on civilization. It is a work which takes learnedness and scripture seriously. Yet the consummation of all the work is XXII.30: the inexplicable bliss of eternal delight in God.
"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot
To have finished such a work is an accomplishment, a crown jewel of my seminary experience.
May 23, 2023
I already believe in God. Augustine helps me believe in theology.
February 28, 2026
Masterwork, but you must read it slowly
Take the time to work through the book. It’s excellent. Augustine was a smart dude, and this work reflects the depths of his knowledge and his love for his fellow men, but most of all for his desire for everyone to come to know and love God better.
The book is written for his time, but it is still relevant for today.
Take the time to work through the book. It’s excellent. Augustine was a smart dude, and this work reflects the depths of his knowledge and his love for his fellow men, but most of all for his desire for everyone to come to know and love God better.
The book is written for his time, but it is still relevant for today.
April 10, 2023
Finished Easter Sunday 2023. Books 16-18 are a slog, and one wishes for a longer Book 19, but it's easy to see why this has had such a lasting impact. I found allegations of Augustinian imperialism unwarranted, but his view of hell unconvincing.
July 19, 2022
I've been reading this over the past 8 months together slowly and discussing every couple of weeks with a friend. I took Thomas Merton's advice and read Books 11-22 first before returning to Books 1-10, and I think it was definitely the right decision for a first, slow read through. I had no idea of the breadth of subjects and topics that Augustine covers in this work, including biblical overview and commentary, political theory, theology of other religions and demonology, angelology, apologetics, death & martyrdom, moral philosophy, eschatology. It really is unsummarisable.
March 28, 2026
Finishing Books 11–22 of The City of God feels a bit like climbing a mountain that occasionally contains caves of hidden treasure, but has a lot of stuff only interesting to an historian.
The opening stretch of this second half is undeniably heavy going. Augustine turns his attention to the nature of God, time, eternity, and creation with such relentless thoroughness that even he seems to catch himself writing and he effectively admits, “I should probably stop before this looks like intellectual an showing off of his knowledge.”
Annoyingly in these books Augustine flattens a far more complex pagan religious landscape and morality into a single explanatory model. Pagan gods who may have begun as personifications of natural forces or abstract principles are ignored and treated as if they belong to the same category as historical rulers elevated to divine status (in fact he treats deified humans as the origin of nearly all gods). Still, his broader aim is to subordinate all pagan belief under a Christian historical framework, and this remains clear if sometimes a little unpersuasively argued.
in the final, eschatological books, Augustine defends against critics who don’t quite seem to understand the idea of omnipotence while also trying to give a Christian reader a vague notion of the afterlife. And so he ends up having to answer a multitude of objections, unimaginable to any apologetics dialogue in the 21st century. (“How can scattered ashes be reconstituted?” “What will bodies look like—fat, thin, complete?”) feel almost quaint today. Their very existence reflects a world in which belief in an all-powerful God was alien, and debate operated within a shared philosophical framework where an omnipotent god had as much validity as any other idea of what constitutes the nature of a god.
This makes parts of Augustine’s apologetic feel less urgent to a modern reader, even if they remain historically curious, because it’s simply not an argument anyone is having nowadays.
In spite of all this, his deeper insights still cut through, especially when he reframes the problem of evil, or when he explains divine immutability with the vivid illustration of the effects of the sun appearing harsh only to damaged eyes but delightful to healthy eyes. And in his treatment of the final judgment he grapples with something timeless: the scandal of a temporal world where the wicked prosper and the good suffer, which is to be resolved only in the final unveiling, when “the manifest wretchedness of the wicked and the manifest happiness of the good” will at last be made clear.
All in all, I actually found books 1-10 more interesting,l and enjoyable, but this is still worth reading. Especially if you’ve already read the first half as he does try to tie it all together.
The opening stretch of this second half is undeniably heavy going. Augustine turns his attention to the nature of God, time, eternity, and creation with such relentless thoroughness that even he seems to catch himself writing and he effectively admits, “I should probably stop before this looks like intellectual an showing off of his knowledge.”
Annoyingly in these books Augustine flattens a far more complex pagan religious landscape and morality into a single explanatory model. Pagan gods who may have begun as personifications of natural forces or abstract principles are ignored and treated as if they belong to the same category as historical rulers elevated to divine status (in fact he treats deified humans as the origin of nearly all gods). Still, his broader aim is to subordinate all pagan belief under a Christian historical framework, and this remains clear if sometimes a little unpersuasively argued.
in the final, eschatological books, Augustine defends against critics who don’t quite seem to understand the idea of omnipotence while also trying to give a Christian reader a vague notion of the afterlife. And so he ends up having to answer a multitude of objections, unimaginable to any apologetics dialogue in the 21st century. (“How can scattered ashes be reconstituted?” “What will bodies look like—fat, thin, complete?”) feel almost quaint today. Their very existence reflects a world in which belief in an all-powerful God was alien, and debate operated within a shared philosophical framework where an omnipotent god had as much validity as any other idea of what constitutes the nature of a god.
This makes parts of Augustine’s apologetic feel less urgent to a modern reader, even if they remain historically curious, because it’s simply not an argument anyone is having nowadays.
In spite of all this, his deeper insights still cut through, especially when he reframes the problem of evil, or when he explains divine immutability with the vivid illustration of the effects of the sun appearing harsh only to damaged eyes but delightful to healthy eyes. And in his treatment of the final judgment he grapples with something timeless: the scandal of a temporal world where the wicked prosper and the good suffer, which is to be resolved only in the final unveiling, when “the manifest wretchedness of the wicked and the manifest happiness of the good” will at last be made clear.
All in all, I actually found books 1-10 more interesting,l and enjoyable, but this is still worth reading. Especially if you’ve already read the first half as he does try to tie it all together.
March 22, 2025
Augustine penned it as Rome was crumbling apart, yet his words have far-reaching implications. He doesn't merely defend Christianity; he exposes the constant battle at the centre of human existence. There are two cities: the City of Man, based on pride and ambition, and the City of God, where true peace can be found. This wasn't the politics I knew—petty, performative, and tedious. Augustine pushes us to look beyond it and question where our hearts truly reside. Am i truly seeking the City of God, or am I still clinging to Babylon's ruins?
May 7, 2026
I read this for my theology reading group at my church. Since we were actually discussing an abridgement, I didn't read quite the whole thing but I intend to. It's a wonderful work in an incredible translation. (I have many other editions to compare it to.)
September 21, 2023
Augustine is a little long-winded sometimes, but his insights into Scripture, theology, history, philosophy, psychology, and every other field of human inquiry are worth any amount of effort or time.
May 16, 2024
Holy moly. There’s a good reason we’re still reading City of God. Truly epic.
July 22, 2025
Phenomenal. Giving thanks not to Augustine, but with him, to God. Amen. Amen.
December 20, 2023
Magisterial, and actually worthy of that description. It’s a challenge but reading through the entire work carefully is crucial for seeing what Augustine is doing. There is a lifetime of gold to be dug up in this work. Fantastic, and a true gift this translation is to the church.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews