Appian Way Press

The City of God, Volume One: The Refutation of Pagan Religion (Books 1–10)

by Saint Augustine

Written in the aftermath of Rome’s fall, Augustine’s City of God confronts the charge that Christianity was responsible for the empire’s decline and exposes the theological emptiness of pagan religion. In the first ten books of The City of God, Augustine addresses one of the central accusations of his age: that the abandonment of the traditional gods had brought disaster upon Rome. With historical argument, theological reasoning, and sharp rhetorical skill, he demonstrates that Rome’s gods neither preserved the city from calamity nor provided moral transformation or true happiness to their worshipers.