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The City of God is marked by people who forgo earthly pleasure to dedicate themselves to the eternal truths of God, now revealed fully in the Christian faith. The Earthly City, on the other hand, consists of people who have immersed themselves in the cares and pleasures of the present, passing world.
Apart from those, Augustine is probably best known for his Confessions, which is a personal account of his earlier life, and for De civitate dei (The City of God, consisting of 22 books), which he wrote to restore the confidence of his fellow Christians, which was badly shaken by the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410.
[14] Not only does Confessions glorify God but it also suggests God's help in Augustine's path to redemption. Written after the legalization of Christianity, Confessions dated from an era where martyrdom was no longer a threat to most Christians as was the case two centuries earlier. Instead, a Christian's struggles were usually internal.
The discussion of enjoyment and use leads to an extended reflection on motivation, word as flesh, and humanity as image of God. Book One concludes with a discussion of love: how humans ought to love God, how God's love is expressed in his use of humanity, and how people may appreciate God's love through the Scriptures, faith, and charity.
Pelagianism shaped Augustine's ideas in opposition to his own on free will, grace, and original sin, [67] [68] [69] and much of The City of God is devoted to countering Pelagian arguments. [70] Another major difference in the two thinkers was that Pelagius emphasized obedience to God for fear of hell, which Augustine considered servile.
Volume I. Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters; Volume II. The City of God, Christian Doctrine; Volume III. On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises On the Trinity. The Enchiridion. On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen.
His two major works, Confessions and City of God, develop key ideas regarding his response to suffering. In Confessions, Augustine wrote that his previous work was dominated by materialism and that reading Plato's works enabled him to consider the existence of a non-physical substance.
On the Trinity (Latin: De Trinitate) is a Latin book written by Augustine of Hippo to discuss the Trinity in context of the Logos.Although not as well known as some of his other works, some scholars have seen it as his masterpiece, of more doctrinal importance even than Confessions or The City of God.