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. ...
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Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover trimmed and stamp on edge, but no marks on pages. (Cf) Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 1152 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: 19th Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Viking Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780140444261ISBN:0140444262
Description: Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight/covers creased; a few small chips; moderate edge wear/ corners, spine hinge and spine creased/ several pages have underlining and margin notes/ several pages and page tips creased. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Penguin, New York
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780140444261ISBN:0140444262
Description: Very Good. 8vo. Li, 1097pp, index, further reading list. Card covers. Slight edge wear to covers, slight creasing to spine, light even toning to page edges and margins. Classic work of St Augustine translated by Henry Bettenson with a new introduction by John O'Meara. read more
Description: Acceptable. Good used book may contain highlighting and or some markings inside. Condition as would be found in your used bookstore. Ancillary items such as CDs not included unless noted. Satisfaction guranteed! read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 1152 p. Audience: General/trade. Used trade paperback in very good condition read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1984-05-01
ISBN-13:9780140444261ISBN:0140444262
Description: Good. Paperback. General paperback wear, bends in spine, possible bends from reading on the cover, and may have a bookstore stamp inside cover. Quick response! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Books, NY
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780140444261ISBN:0140444262
Description: Near Fine. No Dust Jacket. Trade Paperback. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Publisher's glossy wraps. 1097 pp. 8vo. A new translation by Henry Bettenson with an Introduction by John O'Meara. Former owner's name on fep, very minor shelf-wear, else fine. NEAR FINE. read more
Description: Good. 0140444262 Good condition. May have some markings & or shelfwear. All pages intact. Used items may not include extras such as infotrac, CD or other web access codes. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1984-05-01
ISBN-13:9780140444261ISBN:0140444262
Description: Good. Excellent customer service. May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability. Satisfaction guaranteed! ! read more
Description: New. 0140444262 Absolutely Brand New. No marks and in pristine condition. Used items may not include extras such as infotrac, CD or other web access codes. 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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