Showing results for "Cities of Gods" in Politics & Social Sciences

Written after the capture of Rome in 410 by Alaric, King of the Visigoths, St Augustine's City of God was intended as a response to pagan critics who blamed Christianity for this brutal defeat. Augustine attacks ancient pagan beliefs and relates the corruption and immorality that led to Rome's downfall, which began before Christ, before reaching his main argument: that the City of Man is perishing and only the Heavenly City of God will endure.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

How did the preaching of a peasant carpenter from Galilee spark a movement that would grow to include over two billion followers? Who listened to this "good news," and who ignored it? Where did Christianity spread, and how? Based on quantitative data and the latest scholarship, preeminent scholar and journalist Rodney Stark presents new and startling information about the rise of the early church, overturning many prevailing views of how Christianity grew through time to become the largest religion in the world.

In the wake of the devastating sack of Rome by the Goths under King Alaric, those who worshipped false gods began to blame the Christian faith for this calamity, launching a fierce wave of blasphemy against the true God. This sparked Augustines fervor to defend the City of God from the slanders and distortions of its adversaries. Over many years, he meticulously crafted this monumental work, comprising twenty-two books. The first five respond to those who claim that the prosperity of Rome was tied to its polytheistic traditions, while the next five address those who acknowledge the ...

'Unpredictable yet reliable, gentle yet powerful, authoritative yet humble, human yet divine.' Respected pastor and bestselling author Tim Keller takes a deep and thought-provoking look at the life of Christ. Drawing from Mark's gospel, he explains how Jesus' identity as king and his purpose in...

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This is the untold story of the rediscovery of the ancient City of David in Jerusalem and the powerful evidence that proves the Jewish people’s historical and indigenous connection to the Holy Land. Since the founding of Israel in 1948, the Jewish people...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A lasting work of social history’ THE TIMES ‘A genuinely new history of our nation’ DAN JONES ‘This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history’ SPECTATOR FROM THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING HISTORICAL NOVELIST COMES THE CULMINATION OF HER...