The prenatal influence of visual impressions

[Pyrrho]

You are actually reading the City of God?  Why?  If you feel you must try some Augustine, he wrote some much shorter books that will give you the idea of how bad he is.

Since you seem to be a glutton for punishment, you should look forward to reading Aquinas when you get to his time period.  He is even worse than Augustine.

It seemed unavoidable. I'm trying to really cover all of the major points in my survey of the history of Western philosophy. I read the Confessions before this. Much better. City of God has some good moments, but far too much of it (and there's a lot) is like the above quote.

Here is the advice I gave previously about Augustine:

Will your reading of the great works of history eventually include authors such as Augustine, Aquinas and others who were thoroughly Catholic?

If he does, I can make some suggestions for him.  I have read some Augustine.  If he wants a brief introduction to his thought, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love is probably the best choice.  The Confessions is a popular choice, and one can read in it what a total asshole he was (both before and after he converted; for example, his attitudes toward women are appalling).  One should make sure one gets an unabridged version, as there is an interesting discussion of time in it that is worth reading.  It is theologically motivated, of course, but it is strikingly modern and interesting for his era.  The City of God is probably his most famous book, but it is long.  And that is a vice in a book by Augustine, as he has a tediousness about him that is hard enough to stomach [figure of speech intended] even in a short book.

One can find a list of his works here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_...bliography

Almost no one is going to read all of them.  And for the sane reader, all it will take is reading a couple of them to convince one not to try to read them all.

And once one has read some Augustine, if one wants worse, one can move on to Aquinas.

Of course, it is a question of what your goals are.  I have a couple of ethics textbooks that are anthologies that include excerpts from Augustine (along with many others) to give the reader the main ideas.  They chose to use excerpts from both The City of God and the Enchiridion.  Given that they were wanting to give an overview, and were not interested in complete works, that was probably their best option.

Do you plan on reading any more Augustine, or do you think the City of God will finish him off for you?

Although I have read a couple of books by Augustine, I do not plan on ever reading another one.  Nor do I plan on rereading any of those I have read.  Sure, if you want an overview of all of the major names in philosophy (both good and bad ones), you should read some of him, but I would not think that the City of God is strictly necessary.  But it is your life.  On the plus side, you seem to read rather quickly.