To Be Catholic and American

John Courtney Murray

See Cover: The all-conquering barbarians were storming the gates of Augustine's city when the saint died in 430. The North African town of Hippo was one of the last imperial outposts to be attacked. Rome had already gone under. Only four years before, St. Augustine's City of God had laid the theological groundwork for the church to step into the void left by the collapsing Roman Empire Ever since, Western civilization and the Christian enterprise have been joined together for better or worse; the church has moved and countermoved, advanced backtracked, tottered and triumphed before the contingencies of history. And the...

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