The City of God
E90663
The City of God is a foundational Christian philosophical and theological work by St. Augustine that contrasts the earthly city with the heavenly city and profoundly shaped Western thought on history, politics, and religion.
All labels observed (28)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T739122 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The City of God Context triple: [St. Augustine, notableWork, The City of God]
-
A.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes
Epitome of the Divine Institutes is a concise abridgment of Lactantius’s major Christian apologetic work, presenting its theological and philosophical arguments in a shorter, more accessible form.
-
B.
Summa contra Gentiles
Summa contra Gentiles is a major theological and philosophical treatise by Thomas Aquinas that systematically defends Christian doctrine through rational argument, especially in dialogue with non-Christian thinkers.
-
C.
Cur Deus Homo
Cur Deus Homo is a theological treatise by Anselm of Canterbury that systematically explains why the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ were necessary for human salvation.
-
D.
De Opificio Dei
De Opificio Dei is an early Christian theological treatise by Lactantius that reflects on the creation of the world and the nature of God through philosophical argument.
-
E.
Sublimis Deus
Sublimis Deus is a 1537 papal bull by Pope Paul III that declared the indigenous peoples of the Americas to be rational humans with souls who must not be enslaved.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The City of God Target entity description: The City of God is a foundational Christian philosophical and theological work by St. Augustine that contrasts the earthly city with the heavenly city and profoundly shaped Western thought on history, politics, and religion.
-
A.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes
Epitome of the Divine Institutes is a concise abridgment of Lactantius’s major Christian apologetic work, presenting its theological and philosophical arguments in a shorter, more accessible form.
-
B.
Summa contra Gentiles
Summa contra Gentiles is a major theological and philosophical treatise by Thomas Aquinas that systematically defends Christian doctrine through rational argument, especially in dialogue with non-Christian thinkers.
-
C.
Cur Deus Homo
Cur Deus Homo is a theological treatise by Anselm of Canterbury that systematically explains why the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ were necessary for human salvation.
-
D.
De Opificio Dei
De Opificio Dei is an early Christian theological treatise by Lactantius that reflects on the creation of the world and the nature of God through philosophical argument.
-
E.
Sublimis Deus
Sublimis Deus is a 1537 papal bull by Pope Paul III that declared the indigenous peoples of the Americas to be rational humans with souls who must not be enslaved.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (70)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Christian philosophical work
ⓘ
Christian theological work ⓘ Latin literature ⓘ book ⓘ |
| argument |
earthly political orders are transient
ⓘ
history is directed by divine providence ⓘ true happiness is found only in the heavenly city ⓘ |
| author |
Augustine of Hippo
ⓘ
Augustine of Hippo ⓘ
surface form:
Saint Augustine
|
| centralConcept |
City of God
ⓘ
divine providence ⓘ earthly city ⓘ just war ⓘ ordered love ⓘ original sin ⓘ two cities ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Roman Empire ⓘ |
| dateWritten |
c. 413–426
ⓘ
early 5th century ⓘ |
| follows | Confessions ⓘ |
| genre |
Christian philosophy
ⓘ
apologetics ⓘ theology ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Book I
ⓘ
Book II ⓘ Book III ⓘ Book IV ⓘ Book 9 ⓘ
surface form:
Book IX
Book V ⓘ Book VI ⓘ Book VII ⓘ Book 8 ⓘ
surface form:
Book VIII
Book 7 ⓘ
surface form:
Book X
Book XI ⓘ Book XII ⓘ Book 13 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XIII
Book 14 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XIV
Book 19 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XIX
Book XV ⓘ Book 16 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XVI
Book 17 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XVII
Book XVIII ⓘ Book XX ⓘ Book 21 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XXI
Book 22 ⓘ
surface form:
Book XXII
|
| influenced |
Reformation theology
ⓘ
St. Thomas Aquinas ⓘ
surface form:
Thomas Aquinas
Western Christian theology ⓘ medieval political thought ⓘ philosophy of history in the West ⓘ political theology ⓘ |
| keyTheme |
contrast between earthly city and heavenly city
ⓘ
destiny of human societies ⓘ nature of true justice ⓘ relationship between church and empire ⓘ role of the Roman Empire in salvation history ⓘ |
| language | Latin ⓘ |
| numberOfBooks | 22 ⓘ |
| originalTitle |
The City of God
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
De civitate Dei
|
| structure |
first part critiques paganism
ⓘ
later books develop Christian philosophy of history ⓘ |
| subject |
Christian apologetics
ⓘ
Christian theology ⓘ church and state ⓘ eschatology ⓘ philosophy of history ⓘ political theology ⓘ problem of evil ⓘ |
| writtenInResponseTo |
pagan criticism of Christianity
ⓘ
sack of Rome in 410 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The City of God Description of subject: The City of God is a foundational Christian philosophical and theological work by St. Augustine that contrasts the earthly city with the heavenly city and profoundly shaped Western thought on history, politics, and religion.
Referenced by (68)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Book I (The City of God)
subject surface form:
Book I (The City of God)
subject surface form:
Book III (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
The City of God against the Pagans
subject surface form:
Book III (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
Book II (The City of God)
subject surface form:
Book III (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
Book I (The City of God)
subject surface form:
Book VI (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
Book 6 of The City of God
subject surface form:
Book VI (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
Book VII (The City of God)
subject surface form:
Book XII (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
The City of God, Book XI–XIV (creation and fall section)
subject surface form:
Book XVIII (The City of God)
subject surface form:
Book XVIII (The City of God)
this entity surface form:
De civitate Dei