City of God by Augustine of Hippo

“Powerful people [are] still turning to [City of God] for guidance and insight. . . . The two most prominent American Catholics [JD Vance and Pope Leo XIV] have each been profoundly influenced by [it]. . . . The vice president has credited it with significantly informing his values, calling Augustine’s analysis of elite Roman decadence ‘the best criticism of our modern age I’d ever read.’ . . . The pope has drawn on City of God repeatedly, including in a recent Vatican document on the poor. . . . Such is the capaciousness and suppleness of City of God that it sustains opposing applications of the same concepts.” —The New York Times