Who wrote “The City of God,” a key influence on medieval Christian thought?

The story behind the answer

He authored De Civitate Dei after the sack of Rome in 410 CE to defend Christianity against pagan critics. The work contrasts the “City of God,” defined by love of God, with the “earthly city,” driven by self-love, and presents history as guided by divine providence. This framework deeply shaped medieval views of politics, history, and the proper relationship between church and state.

In context, it was written in Latin between 413–426 and became a cornerstone of Western theology, influencing doctrines on grace, original sin, and just war that pervaded the Middle Ages. For contrast: Jerome produced the Latin Vulgate; Ambrose was a powerful bishop and moral teacher; and Thomas Aquinas, writing much later, built scholasticism around Aristotle in the Summa Theologiae.