City of God

One of the hardest books I have ever read, and also one of the most meaningful, the unabridged City of God is Saint Augustine’s answer to the charge that Christianity was leading to the Fall of the Empire.  (Gibbon’s libel against Christianity was very much in the mouths of the pagans of Saint Augustine’s time.)  912 dense pages in a modern edition, Saint Augustine reveals that he had mastered the history and the culture of the Roman Empire,  perhaps more so than any other man, as he skillfully refutes the charge that Christianity was the cause of the current plight of the Empire.  He breaks free of the cyclical concept that had dominated much of the historical thought of the Greek and Romans, and views history as a linear progression with Christ’s Return as the goal of all history.  In the second half of the work he details the City of Man and the City of God, their histories and their destinies.  I found making my way through this vast tome, a few pages each day, one of the more beneficial intellectual and spiritual experiences that have fallen to me.  I highly recommend it, but it is not for the faint of heart or of mind.