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Civitas Dei. See De Civitate Dei

Fishburn and Hughes: "The City of God: St Augustine's main theological work. Written between 413 and 425, it consists of 22 books in which Christianity is presented as a growing civic system in the face ofthe decaying Roman Empire.

With reference to the belief that events recur 'at the centuries' end', Borges has observed that several chapters of book 12 of Civitas Dei try to refute the theory of cyclical time. The controversial passage which was read as if propounding, rather than refuting, this theory occurs at the end of chapter 14, where Augustine refers to Solomon's observation that 'there is no new thing under the sun' (Ecclesiastes 1:10). Augustine, however, explains that these words do not mean, as has been said, that Plato will come back 'at long but fixed intervals' to teach 'in the same city, in the same Academy and to the same students'. Such a doctrine would be totally against the Christian faith, for once 'Christ dies for our sins.. .he dieth no more'. The chapter ends with a quotation from the Psalms condemning outright anyone who believes in cyclical return: 'The wicked walk in a circle' (12:8). The reference to Augustine's statement that 'Jesus is the straight path' paraphrases another passage in the same chapter in which he condemns the 'false, circuitous ways' of 'treacherous and false teachers' and invites Christians not to stray from the right path but to follow the true doctrine (bk. 12, ch.14, para. 1)." (48)