J's Pages

by Saint Augustine

This is one of those classics that I felt obliged to read someday. I found a cheap copy and after a while I finally picked it up and plowed through it. It was rather interesting: in the early 5th century, Rome was sacked by barbarians from the north. Some folks tried to blame it on the Christians, saying that this was punishment for turning away from the old gods. City of God was Augustine's refutation of the accusation, and further exposition on the nature of those people faithful to the true God. The "city" of God, as he called it. Anyway, it had a lot of interesting ideas. Like any historical work, it was a kick to read something from the past. I was impressed by Augustine's sophistication (you'd think that by now I would have shed the modernist prejudice that our ancestors were a bunch of yokels) and was intrigued when he offhandedly referred to some of the Greek and Egyptian deities as historical people with inflated reputations. Oh, if I only had all the time in the world to investigate these things! Anyway, as enjoyable as this (abridged) version was, I'll have to rate it as very good waiting room material. It was a great read, but it really didn't change my life or even shake up my thinking for a bit. Guess I'm just too orthodox.