City of God (Penguin Classics)

“Powerful people [are] still turning to [ City of God ] for guidance and insight. . . . The two most prominent American Catholics [JD Vance and Pope Leo XIV] have each been profoundly influenced by [it]. . . . The vice president has credited it with significantly informing his values, calling Augustine’s analysis of elite Roman decadence ‘the best criticism of our modern age I’d ever read.’ . . . The pope has drawn on City of God repeatedly, including in a recent Vatican document on the poor. . . . Such is the capaciousness and suppleness of City of God that it sustains opposing applications of the same concepts.” — The New York Times

St Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was one of the central figures in the history of Christianity, and City of God is one of his greatest theological works. Written as an eloquent defence of the faith at a time when the Roman Empire was on the brink of collapse, it examines the ancient pagan religions of Rome, the arguments of the Greek philosophers and the revelations of the Bible. Pointing the way forward to a citizenship that transcends the best political experiences of the world and offers citizenship that will last for eternity, City of God is one of the most influential documents in the development of Christianity.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.