上帝之城

　　This is the first new renddition for a generation of The City of God.the first major intelectual achievement of Latin Christianity and one of the classic texts of Western civilisation.When he began to write The City of God in 413，St Augustine`s intention was to defendthe Christian Church against the charge of having brought about the Sack of Rome in 410.Ourgrowing this initial purpose，the word evolved into a detailed critique of the political and moral tradition of Rome and a synthesis of Platonism and Christianity which musy stand as one of the most significant achievements in Western intellectual history.Apart from its intrinsic interest ，the Christian account of social and political relations which Augustine gives was to furnish one of the most fertile sources of material for the controversial literanture in the Middle Ages.R.W.Dyson has produced a complete，accurate，authoritative and fluent translation of The City of God，edited together with full biographical notes，a concise introduction， bibliographical note and chronogy of Augustine`s life.The result is one of the most important single contributions to the Cambridge Texts series yet published，of interest to students of ecclesiastical history，the history of political thought，theology，philosophy and late antiquity.

　　R.W.DYSON is Lecturer in Politics the University of Durham.