In book 14 of City of God we read Augustine's famous words: “Two loves have made two cities. Love of self, even to the point of contempt for God, made the earthly city; and love of God, even to the point of contempt for self, made the heavenly city” (14.28). These two loves are the principles that Augustine uses to interpret human history, society, and power—all of which rise or fall not on the whims of gods and goddesses, nor on military power or political might. Rather, societies rise and fall on the quality of the decisions of the people who inhabit them. Human volition, aided by divine grace, can thereby make virtuous decisions that foster peace and justice. Human volition, resisting grace and ignoring God and the common good, reaps conflict and injustice.
In his preface Augustine called City of God a magnum opus et arduum—a long and difficult work. It is long in two ways. It consists of twenty-two books, running about a thousand small-print pages in most English translations. And it took Augustine thirteen or fourteen years (413–426) to write this indefatigable response to questions raised by pious pagans about Alaric's sack of Rome in 410. Augustine used the occasion to develop a Christian theology of history and human motivation.
Translating Augustine's tome is also a long and difficult task. Major English translations over the past 150 years include one by Marcus Dods, which first appeared around 1870 and was republished by Hendrickson in 2009 with some updating of the language. Henry Bettenson did a translation for Penguin Classics that was published in 1972 and reissued with a new introduction in 2003. R. W. Dyson produced Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans for the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought series in 1998. An English version of Augustine's work by various translators has also appeared in the long-standing Loeb Classical Library series over many decades, with the Latin text on facing pages.
William S. Babcock, a church historian and professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University, recently completed his new two-volume translation of City of God for New City Press. This translation was published under the auspices of the Augustinian Heritage Institute, which oversees The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century.
Babcock's skillful translation is distinctive for several reasons. First, it is part of the entire Augustinian Heritage Institute/New City Press project, so it benefits from the sustained attention to translation that the project's supervising board of editors and scholars provides. Second, Babcock's own linguistic and theological acumen, recognized and sought out by the project's editors, has produced an elegant, accessible translation that captures the subtlety and beauty of Augustine's Latin. Arabella Milbank of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, characterizes Babcock's translation as “lyrical without any sacrifice of sense,” and writes that “it compares consistently well with both Dyson and Bettenson and is certainly the most beautiful and up-to-date of the existing versions” (Marginalia [the journal of the Medieval Reading Group at the University of Cambridge] 16 [2011–2012]: 28).
Third, those familiar with other translations will notice that Babcock does not use the lengthy “titles” that were probably added to the chapters within each of the twenty-two books of City of God when it was first printed in 1467. Instead, Babcock provides a helpful introductory paragraph for each book in which he summarizes and contextualizes the content of that book. He then uses very short subtitles for most chapters. This creative innovation allows Augustine's text to flow more smoothly, uninterrupted by heavy chapter titles he himself never used.
Finally, when quoting Scripture Augustine made use of the many and diverse “Old Latin Bible” manuscripts that circulated in North Africa; Jerome's superior Vulgate only gradually became available in the early fifth century. Past translators of City of God “standardized” Augustine's scriptural quotations by using available English translations of the Vulgate instead of the actual Latin in Augustine's text. Babcock translates directly from Augustine's scriptural citations, allowing the color and diversity of the “Old Latin Bible” to enter English. This approach makes it easier to notice Augustine's fondness for rhetorical wordplay between Scripture as he knew it and his own text.
In addition to his superb translation, Babcock's fifty-three-page introduction and editor Boniface Ramsey's footnotes are a treasure trove of recent scholarship on Augustine's magnum opus. The era of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent decades have witnessed an explosion of research in the field of Augustine studies. This scholarship enriches Babcock's translation, informs his general introduction and his introductions to each of the twenty-two books, and distinguishes his work among all those available.
In the introduction Babcock discusses several important word choices. He presents theological, linguistic, and cultural rationales for his translations of Latin words such as peregrinus (pilgrim), significare (to signify), beatitudo (happiness), res publica (the common good of a people—a significant change from other translations), and dilectio/amor/caritas (love). Babcock's attention to such key concepts shows the depth of his theological appreciation of Augustine's thought, and highlights his keen attention to the fifth-century literary and social contexts of the bishop of Hippo's own care for words, those “finely-wrought, precious vessels” (Confessions 1.16.26).
