ABSTRACT
In this context, Augustine wrote the City of God to defend the Christian religion against the pagan accusation that Christianity deserved the blame for the decline of the Roman Empire and, in particular, for the “sack” of Rome itself by the Goths in 410 A.D.3 In his book, Augustine defends Christianity by arguing that the actual cause of the misfortunes that the Romans have experienced is not Christianity, but the absence of moral restraint on the part of the citizens and leadership of the Empire. “The lust that burned in their [Roman] hearts was more deadly than the flame which consumed their dwellings.”4
Moreover, Augustine says that pagan gods did nothing to “prevent the degeneration of traditional morality.”5 Augustine challenges Roman critics of Christianity “to quote injunctions against luxury and greed, given by their gods to the Roman people.”6 In contrast to pagan teachings, Augustine says Christian holy books are filled with “those uniquely impressive warnings against greed and self-indulgence, given everywhere to the people assembled to hear them, in thunder of oracles from the clouds of God.”7
