Augustine’s City of God: History, Theology, and Philosophy
History and City of God
In City of God, Augustine writes for 15 years after the sack of Rome by Alaric (410), to defend Christianity against the charge of causing the fall of Rome. This work presents history from the Christian viewpoint, focusing on salvation history through God. The history is divided into three times: past (before Christ), present (in Christ), and future (from Christ until the final union with the kingdom of God).
The Greeks had a cyclic concept of history, eternal, unlike the Christian vision of linear time. From the beginning of history, there have existed two cities: the City of God and the earthly city, where each person belongs according to their loves. These cities are not represented by institutions. Final salvation will be found on the day God created.
Only a true Christian can see justice. Augustine argues against the intervention of Donatism in the upper church and society, which occurred during the age known as the Augustinian political media.
Faith and Reason
The relationship between faith and reason is the main theme of reflection in Augustine’s midlife. Augustine defended the uniqueness of truth, and that man must achieve it through faith and reason.
- Reason should help to attain faith.
- Faith enlightens reason, showing truths that it would not see by itself.
- Reason illuminates the truths of faith.
Augustine was against fideism, the belief that replaces intelligence, and supported that faith does not kill reason, but helps and encourages it. Everything is summed up in Augustine’s phrase: “I understand in order to believe, and I believe in order to understand.”
Theology
Augustine was forced to give arguments, a posteriori, for the existence of God:
- Noetic: From internalization, nature, God, ideas.
- Test of Consensus: All societies have had a religion; man is a religious animal.
- Cosmological Test: The cause of the order of the universe is God.
- Degree of Goodness: The existence of the empirical and varying degrees of good leads to the existence of a greater good: God.
We now know that God is there, but His essence is ineffable. It can be expressed but not known through acts like creation. Creation has two characteristics:
- Timeless: Time begins with creation; before there was no time, as God is eternal and timeless.
- Unique and Complete: All things exist from the beginning of creation. Some things exist in action, and others potentially, according to the doctrine of seminal reasons.
Anthropology
Augustine defended Plato’s dualism, but not that man is simply a soul served by a body. He adds value to the body, emphasizing the idea of an accidental union between body and soul. This goes against Christianity for two reasons: the reincarnation of the Son of God in the body of Jesus Christ dignifies the body, and the material created by God deserves respect.
In the soul, he distinguishes superior reason with knowledge of the empirical and lesser reason with knowledge of the ideas of God, through illumination.
Freedom and the Problem of Evil
Christianity is a saving religion, but freedom poses a problem. The use of human nature (original sin) and the strength of grace to do good seem to cancel freedom. For Augustine, evil is not a good; evil originates from a lack of good. It can be metaphysical, moral, or physical.