The City of God, written in the aftermath of the Gothic sack of Rome in AD 410, is the most influential of Augustine's works, having played a decisive role in the formation of the Christian West. Gerard O'Daly's book is the most comprehensive modern guide to it in any language. O'Daly intends to provide a detailed yet accessible reading of Augstine's vast and complex masterpiece, directed at a wide group of readers who are not necessarily specialists. By taking up this task O'Daly fills indeed a gap in scholarship that was long overdue, and he is a scholar most apt for this task.