Augustine of Hippo is famous as an otherworldly pessimist, a political thinker who finds nothing good in this life except a means of attaining the good in the next. But recent books call this pessimism into question. This week we consider the traditional view of Augustine as an unsparing political realist and the way he shaped the thought of Reinhold Niebuhr, the renowned professor of Christian ethics who taught for decades at Union Theological Seminary. How does City of God give us insights into the conflicts that embroil our world today? 

On Monday, November 20, join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside Institute) for a dinner seminar.