Pilgrim City

R. W. Dyson is a former lecturer in Political Thought and the former Director of the Centre for the History of Political Thought at the University of Durham, England.

• Introduction. Part 1 Sin and human history - narrative texts: Good and evil; the fall and Original Sin; freewill and divine foreknowledge; freewill, predestination and grace; the two cities; the earthly church; human history. Part 2 The state in a sinful world -narrative texts: The sociable nature of man; natural law; the state as an expression of sin; the state as remedial community; the state as a means of discipline and punishment; the Roman commonwealth; Christian obligation. Part 3 Social institutions -narrative texts: Property as a source of sin, pain and fear; property rights and the law; righteous ownership; usury; slavery. Part 4 War - narrative texts: War and peace; the Roman experience of war - foreign wars, civil wars, the Sack of Rome; just warfare; the morality of military service. Part 5 Church and state - narrative texts: The spiritual and temporal spheres; the Christian ruler; religious persecution - Augustine's initial view, Augustine's justifications.

As complete a reconstruction as is possible of Augustine's thinking concerning sin and history, the state, social institutions, war, and the church amd the state... helpful to historians of the ancient world's political thought. THEOLOGY [from the perspective of a first-year history student, Dyson has put together] a useful collection of primary texts in translation.