City of God

By Saint Augustine

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5

Enjoyability: 5 of 5

Having already read (and loved) some of Saint Augustine's other work, I had a feeling I'd really enjoy this one.  It is, after all, considered one of the most influential and famous works in the entire history of literature.  Even so, I was surprised by just how much I personally enjoyed it.

It's not enough for me to say that this book is totally, faithfully Catholic from start to finish, or to say that its reasoning is ironclad and compelling.  All of that is true, of course, but honestly, what I found most amazing about this book were two things.

First, Augustine chooses his terms much more carefully in this book than he did in "Confessions," which is good.  It helps to avoid confusion and ambiguity.  He's still not quite as precise in his wording as Saint Thomas Aquinas, but he is precise enough that almost anyone who wants to understand his words can, with a little effort.  The major obstacle to english-language theology is that so many words in english have numerous definitions, and can be interpreted in far too many different ways.  So, using very common words can lead people to draw false conclusions about what the theologian may be saying.  Almost never does that happen with this masterpiece.

Secondly, I found that the writings of this book reveal a clarity of thought and a very healthy world view on the part of the author, which I found very encouraging.  It's amazing how much you can learn about an author just from a study of their work, and it made me smile when Augustine spoke of human minds, hands, mouths, erectness of posture and so forth, describing man as the protagonist of the physical world, rather than a wretched thing that just wants to destroy everything else.  We get the opposite, and far less accurate view so often in modern culture, that even a short testimony to the contrary is a breath of fresh air.

Augustine's perspective on the world was a perspective on the world that he lived in (around the year 400,) but his explanations are clear enough, and his descriptions thorough enough that I never felt lost while reading about it.  In fact, if anything, I think Saint Augustine has helped me to learn a bit more about the days of ancient Rome.  I'll just add that to my list of things about this book that I was absolutely thrilled by.