Selected Works of Augustine of Hippo Volume 3 “The City of God”

The Church of the 21st century faces a complex and difficult challenge: to reconcile the immutability of its message, its historical roots and its projection of the future with contemporary trends, new technologies and the relativism of current thought. The postmodern society of the 21st century poses specific moral and spiritual deficiencies that the Church must fill. It is no coincidence that one of the biggest bestsellers worldwide at the beginning of the third millennium, written by the New York philosopher Lou Marinoff, has a title as significant as: "More Plato and less Prozac;" it should tell us something. If we want our Christian message to have an impact on the social environment of the 21st century, we need to build a bridge between the two millennia that the turbulent history of Christian thought encompasses. It is urgent to recover the historical roots of our faith and expose them in the current environment as a guarantee of a hopeful future. To make known to the contemporary Christian world the works of the great Christian authors of the 1st to 5th centuries is the objective of the "Collection of Selected Works" of PATRISTICA. The task has not been easy. One of the difficulties we have faced in launching the project is that most of the works written by the great Christian authors are long and dense works, difficult to digest in the current environment of postmodern man, short of time, little given to philosophical reflection and accustomed to assimilating knowledge with minimal effort. Aware of this reality, we have arranged the texts in an innovative way so that, in addition to being accessible, they fulfill three practical functions: 1. Quick reading. Two columns parallel to the full text make it possible for all those who do not have enough time to, at least, get to know the author, get a clear idea of ​​his line of thought and read a summary of his best phrases in a few minutes. 2. Complete texts. The central body of the book includes a version of the complete text of each author, in an updated language, but with absolute fidelity to the original. This gives access to serious reading and in-depth research. 3. Index of theological concepts. A complete thematic index of theological concepts allows easy consultation of what each author thought about the main questions of faith. We are convinced that we have achieved a useful and effective tool that covers two essential objectives: to provide scholars with updated and reliable editions in Spanish of the texts of Christian patristics; at the same time, to introduce new generations to the knowledge and reading of this wealth of inspiration and doctrinal content that are the writings of the Fathers of the Church.

ROPERO BERZOSA, ALFONS

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