The City of God
Marcus Dods (1871)
Augustine of Hippo's City of God, written between 413 and 426 in response to the sack of Rome by Alaric's Goths, is the foundational work of Christian political theology. The first ten books refute the pagan charge that the Christianization of Rome caused its collapse; the final twelve trace the parallel histories of the earthly city and the heavenly city, two communities defined by what they love. The book set the terms of medieval debate about the relation between church and state, and its vision of history as the pilgrimage of the City of God shaped Western philosophy of history down to Hegel and beyond.
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