Digital Logos Edition
New City Press is proud to offer the best modern translations available of Saint Augustine. Augustine’s writings are useful to anyone interested in patristics, church history, theology, and Western civilization.
In 1990, New City Press, in conjunction with the Augustinian Heritage Institute, began the project known as The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century. The plan is to translate and publish all 132 works of Saint Augustine, his entire corpus, into modern English. This represents the first time in which the works of Saint Augustine will all be translated into English. Many existing translations were often archaic or faulty, and the scholarship was outdated. The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century will be translated into 49 published books. To date, 44 books have been published by NCP containing 93 of his works. The complete Works of Saint Augustine will total 132 works in 49 volumes.
Maria Boulding’s version of The Confessions is of a different level of excellence from practically anything else on the market. She has perfected an elegant and flowing style.
—Archbishop of Canterbury
Augustine was surely larger than life and this translation matches him.
—Richard Rohr, O.F.M.
The monumental City of God has astonishingly relevant things to say to an age of postmodernism, secularism, multiculturalism and globalization. This affordable new translation with useful notes will make this masterpiece accessible to the 21st century reader.
—Karla Pollmann, University of St. Andrews
New City Press and the Augustinian Heritage Institute have undertaken a monumental and immensely valuable project.... I am already grateful that I can recommend the excellent edition of The Trinity to my students with its detailed introduction, extensive critical notes, scriptural and general indexes and above all, its fine translation.... It supersedes all other English editions in every respect....
—Dr. Carol Harrison, University of Durham, England
Written probably at the very end of the fourth century, the Answer responds to a certain Faustus, a Manichean bishop, who objects to the Old Testament and questions how Christians can claim it for themselves.
Augustine’s Answer to Faustus, a Manichean is the most extensive attack on the Manichean religion that the early Church produced. Since Augustine himself had been associated with Manicheanism for nearly a decade before his conversion, his writing displays an insider’s knowledge of Manichean teaching.
Augustine cites Faustus’ arguments at length, thus giving the reader a useful insight into the Manichean mentality. The Answer is valuable for its reasoned and still-relevant defense of Hebrew Scripture and of its patriarchs and prophets, and also for the opportunity that it gives Augustine to draw connections between the Old and the New Testaments and to show how, in Christian eyes, the latter is the fulfillment of the former.
What we call the Pelagian heresy actually took many forms, and had multiple proponents at different stages before it was officially condemned. Augustine, as bishop of Hippo, saw that these teachings were dangerous and set out to address them by explaining the true Church doctrine on these subjects. He first denounced the heresies verbally, in sermons and conferences. When a friend asked him to clarify the Christian doctrines contradicted by certain heresies, Augustine wrote down his rebuttal at length. Over time he wrote nearly a dozen distinct texts in direct answer to the various Pelagian heresies.
This volume contains six works of Augustine of Hippo, all dealing with the topic of heresy, along with two works by other authors to which Augustine is replying. Some of the works address the topic generally, such as Heresies, in which Augustine outlines the principal promoters and errors of 83 heresies from the apostolic era through his own lifetime. Others, such as Answer to an Arian Sermon and Answer to an Enemy of the Law and the Prophets, address specific heresies and how they diverge from the truth of Church teaching. The works span his time as bishop of Hippo.
Includes: Heresies, Memorandum to Augustine, To Orosius in Refutation of the Priscillianists and Origenists, Arian Sermon, Answer to an Arian Sermon, Debate with Maximinus, Answer to Maximinus, Answer to an Enemy of the Law and the Prophets.
As the psalms are a microcosm of the Old Testament, so the Expositions of the Psalms can be seen as a microcosm of Augustinian thought. In the Book of Psalms are to be found the history of the people of Israel, the theology and spirituality of the Old Covenant, and a treasury of human experience expressed in prayer and poetry. So too does the work of expounding the psalms recapitulate and focus the experiences of Augustine’s personal life, his theological reflections and his pastoral concerns as Bishop of Hippo. The full set of 6 Volumes of the Expositions of the Psalms is translated by Maria Boulding.
Saint Augustine’s ten homilies on the First Epistle of John are among his greatest and most influential works. John and Augustine both develop the same central theme love and in these homilies Augustine uses John's epistle as a point of departure for exploring the meaning and implications of love with his customary profundity, passion and analytic rigor. As with John, a context of dissension and conflict within the Christian community (the Donatist breakaway from Catholic unity), gives his preaching a tone of urgency and poignancy. Anyone who reads these homilies, universally viewed as classics, cannot fail to be moved and challenged both intellectually and emotionally.
Few ancient Christian authors attempted anything like a complete commentary on the Gospel of John, among them Origen, John Chrysostom and Augustine. Of these, Augustine’s must count as the greatest. Unlike Origen’s, it has come down to us in its entirety, and of the others that remain it is certainly the most theologically profound. John’s gospel allows Augustine to range broadly over themes that were his life’s work —the Trinity, the person of Christ, the nature of the Church and its sacraments, the fulfillment of the divine plan.
The 124 homilies that constitute Augustine’s commentary, however, are masterpieces not only of theological profundity but also of pastoral engagement. In the question-and-answer style that he frequently employs, for example, one can sense Augustine’s real awareness of his congregation’s struggles with the gospel text. And the congregation's response to Augustine, which he frequently alludes to, is an indication of the success of his dialogical preaching style.
The Johannine literature drew out the best in Augustine. The Homilies on the Gospel of John are the indispensable complement to The Homilies on The First Epistle of John, published in this series, and they should be a part of any serious theological library.
The letters of Saint Augustine are an invaluable source of information in the areas of church history, liturgy, spirituality, theology, civil history, etc.
The correspondence of Augustine includes 308 letters: 252 that he wrote himself, 49 that others sent him, and 7 letters that others sent to a third party (29 additional letters were added by Professor Divjak in 1981). Some can actually be classified as books as Augustine notes in his Revisions. Each letter is preceded by its own introduction in which the translator offers valuable information about the persons, content, and background pertinent to the letter.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the letters is not so much the great variety of themes and persons, but the personality of Augustine himself that emerges.
The reader comes to know a very human and affectionate Augustine, especially in his writings to Nebridius and other friends. We see Augustine the reconciler, the man of justice and mercy, the healer. While he is steadfast in his many ideas and opinions, he also shows flexibility and a penchant for listening. Certainly, from these letters the reader will learn much about history and church history of that era and will gain insights into church teaching, law, and liturgy. Without a doubt one will encounter and be fascinated by the multifaceted Augustine.
This volume presents new translations of five of Augustine’s works: The Excellence of Marriage, Holy Virginity, The Excellence of Widowhood, Adulterous Marriages, and Continence. These works discuss marriage, sexuality, procreation, and virginity (or celibacy) and their place in Christian life and salvation.
As is often the case, the specific content and direction of these works is guided by Augustine’s desire to address and correct what he saw as errors propagated among Christians at the time. Some of these errors promoted marriage over celibacy; while others insisted celibacy is the superior path to holiness. Overall, Augustine strove to highlight the goods of both states of life, and to emphasize that while celibacy might be the “greater good,” practicing it does not automatically make one a better person or Christian than someone who is married.
Augustine’s opinions and beliefs on these subjects changed over the years before, during, and after his conversion. Presenting his works in chronological order in this volume, therefore, allows the reader to follow the development of his thinking.
This volume presents new translations of five of Augustine’s works: The Excellence of Marriage, Holy Virginity, The Excellence of Widowhood, Adulterous Marriages, and Continence.... The volume is to be commended on several points. The translation itself is in eminently readable, clear English that should be accessible to anyone interested in Augustine.... The general introduction does an excellent job of placing these works in the context of Augustine’s career, showing how Augustine reacts to controversies with the Manichees, Jovinian, Jerome, and the Pelagians, while maintaining a commitment to the threefold goods of marriage procreation, fidelity, and sacrament. This is a wonderful collection that allows readers to see the complexity of Augustine’s thought on a difficult topic.
—Kim Paffenroth, Journal of Early Christian Studies
New Testament I and II contains the translations of four works, all of which are exegetical treatises of one sort or another. Each of the four works is accompanied by its own introduction, general index, and scripture index. For all those who are interested in the greatest classics of Christian antiquity, Augustine’s works are indispensable. This long-awaited translation makes his monumental work approachable. The Lord’s Sermon on the Mount discusses chapters five through seven of Matthew’s Gospel. Augustine’s explanation of the Sermon is more a charter of Christian morality and spirituality than mere exegesis of the text and brings a unity to the lengthy discourse that goes far beyond a simple account of what the text says.
Augustine wrote Agreement among the Evangelists in 400, contemporaneously with the composition of his Confessions (397–401). This treatise is an attempt to defend the veracity of the four evangelists in the face of seeming incompatibilities in their record of the gospel events, especially against some pagan philosophers who raised objections to the gospel narratives based on alleged inconsistencies.
Questions on the Gospels is a record of questions that arose when Augustine was reading the Gospels of Matthew and Luke with a disciple. The answers to the questions are not intended to be commentaries on the Gospels in their entirety but merely answer the questions that arose for the student at the time.
Seventeen Questions on Matthew is similarly in the question-and-answer genre and is most likely by Augustine, but it includes some paragraphs at the end that are certainly not his.
The seven works of Saint Augustine in this volume all deal with the problem of faith in God. They were written over the course of about three decades, beginning with True Religion (390) and extending to The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Charity (c. 421). Therefore, this selection of writings provides an impressive insight into the intellectual and spiritual development of one of the greatest of all Western minds, as it grappled with a question that has never ceased to preoccupy and stimulate Western thought: Is it reasonable to believe in God, and what form might such belief take?
This volume presents new translations of True Religion, The Advantage of Believing, Faith and the Creed, Faith in the Unseen, Demonic Divination, Faith and Works, and The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Charity.
This volume contains three works on the Book of Genesis: On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees, Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis, and the third and longest, The Literal Meaning of Genesis.
This volume contains three books: Miscellany of Eighty-Three Questions, Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician, and Eight Questions of Dulcitius.
The Miscellany of Eighty-Three Questions was compiled over the course of several years and deals with philosophical, theological and exegetical matters that had been raised in the religious community that Augustine founded and headed. Some of these matters are handled very briefly, some at great length. Augustine’s exegesis is particularly interesting.
The Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician was written at the request of the saintly bishop of Milan who followed Ambrose in that role. This work, in the form of two books, is crucially important for understanding Augustine’s theology of grace and how he arrived at his position on this issue, which is certainly his most important contribution to Western theology, but the questions are not limited to a discussion of grace.
Finally, The Eight Questions of Dulcitius includes responses to questions in which, uniquely, Augustine quotes himself at length.
Revisions, like many of Augustine’s works, has a singular purpose. Composed in his old age, he reviews nearly all his writings, summarizing and correcting and even expressing regret. The Revisions is important not only for establishing the chronology of Augustine’s works but also for providing insight into his own thought and self-evaluation. The Latin title for this work is Retractationes and the Indiculum of Possidius is included in the Appendix.
This Set includes:
The English reads smoothly and clearly. The sermons have helpful subdivisions in the contents as well as the text. Highly recommended.
—Library Journal
This work is intended to help preachers present biblical teachings in an effective manner.
De Doctrina Christiana is one of Augustine’s most important and abidingly influential works. Essentially it is an exegetical manual or outline for an encyclopedic educational program for understanding, teaching and preaching the scriptures.
—Catholic Library World
Along with his Confessions, The City of God is undoubtedly St. Augustine’s most influential work. In the context of what begins as a lengthy critique of classic Roman religion and a defense of Christianity, Augustine touches upon numerous topics, including the role of grace, the original state of humanity, the possibility of waging a just war, the ideal form of government, and the nature of heaven and hell. But his major concern is the difference between the City of God and the City of Man–one built on love of God, the other on love of self. One cannot but be moved and impressed by the author’s breadth of interest and penetrating intelligence. For all those who are interested in the greatest classics of Christian antiquity, The City of God is indispensible.
This long-awaited translation by William Babcock is published in two volumes, with an introduction and annotation that make Augustine’s monumental work approachable.
City of God is the longest text centered on a single argument to have survived from Greco-Roman antiquity. The challenges of translating such a work arise not just from the brute size of the task, but also from the variety of topics Augustine treats, the complexity of his Latin, and the intricacy of his argument. It is thus no small accomplishment—and service—that William Babcock has rendered Augustine’s prose with such skill, vibrancy, and verve. This new translation will deservedly become the standard for many years to come.
—Gregory W. Lee, Wheaton College, Illinois
Augustine undertook this greatest piece of writing with the conviction that God wanted him to make this confession. The book in fact is an extended poetic, passionate and intimate prayer. Second Edition includes an annotated bibliography by William Harmless, SJ.
Maria Boulding’s version is of a different level of excellence from practically anything else on the market. She has perfected an elegant and flowing style.
—Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Augustine’s writings against the members of the “Donatist” church in North Africa contain his mature thought on the nature of the sacraments, the morality of the clergy, and the importance of mercy and charity in maintaining church unity. This volume contains the first new English translations of Augustine’s writings against the Donatists in more than 100 years, and in the case of at least one writing there has never been an English translation until now. Augustine’s responses to conflicts within the North African church remain surprisingly relevant to contemporary crises in Catholicism.
This volume contains 8 works: The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life, The Two Souls, A Debate with Fortunatus, a Manichean, Answer to Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani, Answer to the Letter of Mani known as The Foundation, Answer to Felix, a Manichean, The Nature of the Good, and Answer to Secundinus, a Manichean.
Eight works countering the Manichean religion, three of which have never been translated into English. Augustine's writings on this subject provide a major source of information on and a fascinating look within a system of thought that during much of the third and fourth centuries challenged orthodox Christianity for dominance in the Roman Empire and beyond. Augustine addresses not only the Manichean understanding of the source and nature of evil, which furnished a basis for its intellectual attractiveness, but also the sects highly unusual customs and practices.
In the first seven books Augustine searches the scriptures for clues to understanding the Trinity and then defends the orthodox statement of the doctrine against the Arians. In the last eight books Augustine seeks to understand the mystery of the divine Trinity by observing an analogous trinity in the image of God, which is the human mind; and in so doing, he also suggests a program for the serious Christian of spiritual self-discovery and renewal.
What Father Hill has provided is a splendid translation, made from a trustworthy Latin text, of what is for some of us the foundation work of Christian theology. He has fitted out his translation, clearly the best of the four that have been made into English, with notes that go well beyond the perfunctory and a 38-page introduction that is a delight to read.
—Barry Ulanov, Journal of Religion and Health
In the writings gathered here, Augustine clarifies difficult passages in the Old Testament, from the building of Noah’s ark to the struggles of Job, and addresses common questions from the members of his congregation. Each work is introduced and annotated by modern scholars who provide context for Augustine’s life and thought at the time of his writing.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the Western world. After he converted to Christianity he became bishop of Hippo in North Africa, where he was influential in civil and church affairs. His writings have had a lasting impact on Western philosophy and culture.
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Amilton Goncalves
12/28/2024
Mathew Haferkamp
12/14/2023