Summer Reading -- The City of God by Augustine

I am hoping to read through The City of God by St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo in north Africa (November 13, 354 – August 28 430).  It is considered a classic.  I fear my intentions will not measure up to my stamina.  I don't know if I enough time or ambition to read all 511 pages with small print, archaic translation, and heavy content.  Oh well, at least my summer reading title sounds impressive. 

Here is a brief snippet to start things off.  Something from Augustine on God's intentions in allowing suffering to come upon both the righteous and the wicked.

"Nevertheless does the patience of God still invite the wicked to repentance, even as the scourge of God educates the good to patience.  And so, too, does the mercy of God embrace the good that it may cherish them, as the severity of God arrests the wicked to punish them. ... But as for the good things of this life, and its ills, God has willed that these should be common to both; that we might not too eagerly covet the things which wicked men are seen equally to enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear from the wills which even good men often suffer."

-- The City of God: Book 1, paragraph 8.  

Page 5, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaaf.  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, MI. (c) 1956.