The City of God is very wide in its scope, embodying cosmology, psychology, political thought, anti-pagan polemic, Christian apologetic, theory of history, biblical interpretation, and apocalyptic themes. This book, therefore, is about a single masterpiece, yet at the same time surveys Augustine's developing views through the whole range of his thought. It is written in the form of a detailed running commentary on each part of the work. Further chapters elucidate the early fifth-century political, social, historical, and literary background, the work's sources, and its place in Augustine's writings. The book should prove of value to Augustine's wide readership among students of late-antiquity, theologians, philosophers, medievalists, Renaissance scholars, and historians of art and iconography.