The City of God (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

The City of God addresses the thorny but perennially relevant issue of how Christians are to live in this world, while preparing for the next. Augustine presents us with a model of two cities; the City of Man based on human self-love and the City of God based on grace, humility, and religious toleration. He claims that those who make judgments on other people's faith distance themselves from the City of God.

Augustine was born in 354 CE in the North African town Thagaste. His training at school was in rhetoric, and he went on to become first a priest, and then a bishop. He died from illness during the Vandal siege of the port city of Hippo in 430.