This book attempts to give an introduction at first hand to St. Augustine’s. De Civitate Dei, which was written at a time not unlike the present and has deeply influenced Christian thought on religion and philosophy and politics.
Twenty extracts from the whole work and most of the XIXth book are presented in a fairly free translation, facing the original text. A running commentary takes for granted the reading of the text or translation and approaches the work from the standpoint of its own day rather than from that of a later age. It considers St. Auguistine’s own thought in relation to the classical thought which he inherited and admired, yed severely criticized.
For the book is written in the belief, first, that St. Augustine’s work has much of value for to-day, and, secondly, that in the teaching and learning of Classics there is need for a wider horizon which would embrace Christian writers whose debt to classical thought was great. At present classical studies are liable to lack a conclusion and the study of medieval time to lack a foundation.
The text and translation occupy about one-third, the commentary and appendices about two-thirs of the whole book.