The City of God: Book 2 (Modern, Updated Translation)

In Book One, Augustine answered the charge that Christianity destroyed Rome. In Volume 1, Book Two, he goes on offense. The pagan gods, he argues, didn't just fail to save Rome from the Goths — they were never going to save Rome's soul. Across this book, Augustine builds a devastating case: the gods of Rome commanded immoral worship. They required their own scandals to be re-enacted on stage. They offered no ethical teaching, no moral law, no path of virtue. The theatrical games — which the Romans now blame Christians for opposing — were not entertainment. They were demanded by the gods themselves, who insisted on seeing their adulteries and cruelties celebrated in public. And the most damning fact of all: Rome's moral decay began centuries before Christ ever walked the earth. The republic was already rotting when the temples were full and the gods were honored. So whose fault was that? This is the full unabridged audiobook for Volume 1: Book Two — modernized into clear contemporary English by Updated Works, preserving every argument and nuance of the original. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:45 Book Two begins 2:15 Ch 1. The limits of answering an adversary 4:46 Ch 2. Recapitulation of Book One 8:02 Ch 3. History shows Rome's calamities long before Christ 9:40 Ch 4. The gods never gave their worshippers moral precepts 13:15 Ch 5. On the obscenities of the rites of the Great Mother 16:16 Ch 6. How the pagan gods never taught holiness 18:28 Ch 7. Why philosophers' suggestions can't counter the gods' examples 21:30 Ch 8. Theatrical shows appeased the gods, not offended them 23:27 Ch 9. Greek poetic license vs. Roman restraint 26:53 Ch 10. How demons used true and false crimes against humanity 29:03 Ch 11. The Greeks admitted actors to public office 32:09 Ch 12. Romans more delicate about themselves than about the gods 34:02 Ch 13. Gods who demand obscene worship are unworthy of honor 37:55 Ch 14. Plato banned poets — yet the gods demanded plays 43:38 Ch 15. Empty pride, not reason, created some Roman gods 45:16 Ch 16. If the gods cared for righteousness, Rome wouldn't have borrowed her laws 46:51 Ch 17. The rape of the Sabine women, and Rome's "golden age" 51:27 Ch 18. What Sallust's history reveals about Roman life 57:41 Ch 19. Corruption ruined the republic before Christ ended pagan worship 1:01:05 Ch 20. The kind of life critics of Christianity actually want 1:04:49 Ch 21. Cicero's opinion of the Roman republic 1:09:48 Ch 22. The Roman gods did nothing to prevent moral ruin 1:11:54 Ch 23. Changing fortunes depend on God's will, not the demons 1:14:54 Ch 24. On the deeds of Sulla, and the demons' claimed credit 1:20:06 Ch 25. Evil spirits give wickedness a quasi-divine authority 1:24:15 Ch 26. Demons gave secret moral hints but public obscenity 1:28:39 Ch 27. Obscene plays consecrated to the gods destroyed public order 1:31:03 Ch 28. How the Christian religion brings healing 1:32:15 Ch 29. An exhortation to the Romans to renounce paganism 📖 READ THE MODERNIZED ENGLISH EDITION The City of God by Augustine of Hippo — every book translated into clear modern English. Read the entire work for free, or purchase a physical copy on Amazon: https://updatedworks.com/books/city-o... 🏛 ABOUT UPDATED WORKS We modernize the classics that shaped the Western mind — Augustine, Comenius, and more — so you can actually read them without fighting archaic prose. Every translation preserves the author's argument with scholarly fidelity, written in the English of today. Visit www.updatedworks.com to browse other modernized Christian works.