Translated by MARCUS D. D. DODS With an Introduction by THOMAS MERTON
Publication Information : Book Title : The City of God. Contributors : Saint Augustine – author, Marcus D. D. Dods – transltr. Publisher : Modern Library. Place of Publication : New York. Publication Year : 1950.
INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS MERTON
Here is a book that was written over fifteen hundred years ago by a mystic in North Africa. Yet to those who have ears to hear, it has a great deal to say to many of us who are not mystics, today, in America. The City of God is a monumental theology of history. It grew out of St. Augustine’s meditations on the fall of the Roman Empire. But his analysis is timeless and universal. That is to say, it is Catholic in the etymological sense of the word. It is also Catholic in the sense that St. Augustine’s view of history is the view held by the Catholic Church, and by all Catholic tradition since the Apostles. It is a theology of history built on revelation, developed above all from the inspired pages of St. Paul’s Epistles and St. John’s Apocalypse.
To those who do not know St. Augustine, the figure of the great Bishop of Hippo (the modern name of the city is Bona) may seem quite remote. And to one who attempts to make his first acquaintance with Augustine by starting to read The City of God from the beginning without a guide, the saint may remain an unappealing personality and his book may appear to be nothing more than a maze of curious, ancient fancies.