Good translation of Augistine's City of God

[Dan_Daly]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a good translation of St. Augustine’s City of God?

I looked on Amazon, and the translation by Marcus Dods appears to be a common one. Digging around, it seems Dods was a Protestant minister. Does anyone know if that colors his translation or not? Any good ones done by Catholics?

Thanks and God bless.

Pax Christi

 

[ProVobis]

You can always compare. I don’t know what the criteria is for “good translation.”

The Latin:

thelatinlibrary.com/august.html

English Translations

The City of God against the Pagans. Translation by R. W. Dyson. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-521-46475-7

The City of God. Translation by Henry Bettenson. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1972.

The City of God. Translation by Gerald G. Walsh, S. J., et al. Introduction by Étienne Gilson. New York: Doubleday, Image Books, 1958.

The City of God. Translation by Marcus Dods. Introduction by Thomas Merton. New York: The Modern Library, a division of Random House, Inc., 1950.

The City of God. Translation by John Healey. Introduction by Ernest Barker. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1945.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_God_(book

 

[josephback]

I’ve been reading Dod’s translation and it doesn’t seem that bad. Then again I’m only in book six and can’t read Latin. Dod translates Augustine making a comment about how there is only salvation in the one church(as opposed to pagan religions), but I can’t remember whether it was specified as the Catholic Church or if Augustine even specified it(though Augustine did in other writings). The translation of Eusebius’ ‘History of the Church’ by Paul Meier says “universal and only true church”, while the Penguin Books translation says “catholic and only true church”. Catholic means Universal, but Eusebius was clearly intending the designation as a proper name. The City of God is a different work, but I don’t remember reading such a PC comment in Dod’s translation of Augustine. The second part of the work is where it would most matter and like I said haven’t got there yet.