Political Writings

This collection brings together thirty-five letters and sermons of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430 AD, that deal with political matters. The letters and sermons are both practical and principled and treat many essential themes in Augustine’s thought, including the responsibilities of citizenship, the relationship between the church and secular authority, religious coercion, and war and peace. These texts complement Augustine’s classic The City of God against the Pagans (also available in the Cambridge Texts series), and give students direct insight into the political and social world of late antiquity with which Augustine was immediately involved. The slave trade, tax collection, clerical harassment and murder are amongst the topics with which he deals. The volume contains clear, accurate modern translations, together with a concise introduction and informative notes designed to aid the student encountering Augustine’s life and thought for the first time.

• Anthology of Augustine’s political writings consists of original and wide-ranging selection of entire texts, many never before considered as political texts • Clear, modern accurate translations • Extensive introduction and notes designed to highlight and clarify issues in the texts for students and non-specialist readers

Introduction; Bibliography; Texts: 1. Christianity and citizenship; Letter 90; Letter 91; Letter 103; Letter 104; Letter 95; Letter 136; Letter 138; Letter 10*; Letter 250; Letter 1*; Sermon 335C; 2. Bishops and civil authorities; Letter 133; Letter 134; Letter 139; Letter 152; Letter 153; Letter 154; Letter 155; 3. Judicial authority; Commentary on the Gospel of John, 33; Sermon 302; Sermon 13; 4. The Donatist controversy; Letter 51; Letter 66; Letter 86; Letter 100; Letter 87; Letter 88; Letter 173; Letter 204; Letter 105; Letter 185; 5. War and peace; The sacking of the city of Rome; Letter 189; Letter 220; Letter 229; Bibliographical notes; Maps; Index of persons and places; Index of topics.

‘This is a valuable book, prepared by editors who clearly have a feel for their subject and Augustine’s language. They are to be congratulated on the high standard of their scholarship.’ R. W. Dyson, University of Durham

\'Atkins and Dodaro have done an outstanding job\'. Journal of Ecclesiastical History

‘The translations are new and lucid, the texts crucial, judiciously chosen by editors with an extraordinarily wide knowledge both of the immense corpus and of the scholarship. We are well served by an introduction which deals with the genres into which the texts fall, their contexts and Augustine’s methods.’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History