Essay on the Thoughts of Augustine in the City of God

The City of God is writing by Augustine of Hippo to defend Christianity after attempts by Roman pagans to defame it. After vandals attacked Rome and captured it, those of the empire that were adherents of the pagan faith presented a case against Christianity. The believers of the waning pagan faith were very quick to cast blame on the Christians, making dubious claims that the Roman gods had left Rome since the people in the city had taken a new faith. The section of Romans that comprised nonbelievers made claims that all Christians were not patriots since they asked individuals to be servants of God as opposed to the state and they asked for people to forgive their enemies (Mommsen, 83). Some pagans even went to the extent to blame the Christian God; that He had failed to offer protection to Rome as He ought to have done. This they said with respect to the fact that Constantine had declared the Christian God to be the one true God. The much debacle and wrangling that that ensued between the Christian community and the pagan community inspired Augustine of Hippo to start his writings on the city of God. In the past there were times Romans were attacked by rebel slaves; with such a disposition Augustine of Hippo poses a lot of questions regarding why the gods have had to leave the people of Rome for a period of time that is indefinite.

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Augustine happened to be an ardent writer of Christian philosophy subjects. The City of God, also known as the City of God Against the Pagans and it was such as good response to claims that the religion of Christians brought forth the advent of Romes fall and is deemed to be Augustine of Hippos most relevant piece of writing, juxtaposed beside other works such as On Christian Doctrine, The Enchiridion and On the Trinity. On a personal level, I deem Augustine to be a confident man whose conviction to the religion of Christianity was very strong; strong to the point of defending Christian beliefs vehemently. Many conflicting scholars of theology agree on the fact that The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, delving deep into a lot of queries that are related to theology; these include the reason why righteous individuals go through suffering, tribulation, and trail; the existence of evil, the doctrine of the original sin, divine omniscience, and free will. The sack of Rome was an unfortunate eventuality that caught Rome by surprise; the city fell to a foreign adversary that is the Visigoths who were led by King Alaric. When the Romans were attacked and defeated in combat by the Visigoths, friends and foes were shocked by the insurgency and rumor spread that the citys enemies succeeded because Romans had forsaken their traditional religion and abandoned the worship of their gods.

Augustine of Hippo did well to write The City of God because therein he presented an argument in defense of the truth that is characteristic of the Christian religion. Whats more, he came up with this piece so that disheartened Christians could regain their will to live and to remain in Christ. According to Augustine of Hippo, the earthly rule of Rome was imperiled but in the end, Christians would find joy and happiness since the City of God would be a safe haven. It is worth mentioning that the City of God is also known as the New Jerusalem. Regardless of the manner in which he criticized the accusations towards in his commentary; Augustine made a statement that said Christians and all people on planet earth ought to ignore the cares and the pleasures of this world since it is going to pass. What individuals should go after is the Kingdom of God; the New Jerusalem (the City of God) is much more worth it than the politics that had flooded the world at that particular point in time.

The literature did well to make a presentation of human history as one laden with a lot of disagreement and conflict; a war between what the author deemed to be the Earthly City (the city of man) and the divine City of God i.e., the New Jerusalem. With respect to the thoughts of Augustine of Hippo, in as much as a lot of conflict exists between the City of God and the city of man, there will be an eventual victory that will be realized by the City of God that is, the new Jerusalem. The downside of such notions as those held by the Romans is that they negated the importance and sacred nature of the Christian faith. In as much as Rome had stayed for over a century without any successful outside attacks; the adoption of Christianity in no way connoted the embracing of an ominous religion as the propagandists suggested. Augustine of Hippo was concerned with the Romans that had been recently converted to Christianity; he was afraid that their faith was newly found and corrupt, full notions would make them backslide.

The writing by Augustine of Hippo that is, the City of God was basically advice or act to beseech all that had the Christian faith within Rome to lend a deaf ear to the voice and claims of the individuals that looked to mar the image of Christianity. The Romans, prior to the advent of Christianity, were people that were deeply engrossed in the affairs of the gods, carving lifeless statues and believing in them (Fitzgerald and John, 55). Augustine has been known to create a theology of the self in his writing the Confessions, and in the City of God, he introduces a theology of history. He reveals an explanation of history that is wide-ranging and starts with the creation itself, goes through the upheaval and turmoil of states made by men(the City of the World), and goes on the realization of the City of God that is, the Kingdom of God. In essence, the City of God is a finishing point of the scheme Augustine began in The Confessions where he traced the progress of the self towards completion in the creator.

In the same way, human society finds completion in the realm of God. Along with a theology of Christian history, Augustine of Hippo looked to come up with a Christian philosophy of society. On the flip side, he presents the several areas that come with philosophical inquiry, such as politics and ethics, a union in the in the universality of the heavenly disclosure. Through the works of Augustine, it is evident that he makes history complete with respect to the divine law. The philosophers of old like Plato had at one point mentioned that an individual does not owe complete and full loyalty to a society that is earthly in nature, and Augustine of Hippo rigorously criticizes this ideology in relation to doctrines of Christianity. Augustine is of the opinion that the Scriptures only can give instruction to human beings regarding the highest degree of evil and the highest degree of good and minus this form of guidance, a human attempt is devoid of purpose.

In the City of God, what Augustine of Hippo actually does is to give a presentation of the four important elements of philosophy; these include the Church, the City of Heaven, the State, and the City of the World. The Church is established in a manner that is divine and directs human beings to goodness that is eternal, which is the creator (Saint Augustine, 06). The Roman state adheres to the virtues of the mind and politics, coming up with a political community. Both of the above-mentioned societies are visible and look to realize good deeds. Mirroring these two societies that are invisible; the City of Heaven, for the people, predestined for salvation, and the City of the World, for the people given eternal suffering. This grand scheme of things enables Augustine of Hippo to make an elaboration of his justice school of thought, which he posits emanates from the just and proper sharing of necessary aspects of life, in the same way, the creator accords us air, light, and air. According to Augustine of Hippo, human beings ought to look to enter the City of Heaven to realize maintenance of a proper sense of order, which in turn culminates to inner peace.

Overall, the City of God by Augustine of Hippo is a challenge to the human society to come up with which city it looks to be part and parcel of, and the author perceives his responsibility as concisely marking out the parameters of every choice. As a reader, I came to conclude that the main essence of Christian history is to highlight the unfolding of Gods plan, which is inclusive of promoting the city of heaven and making it be filled with deserving residents. For such a purpose, God came up with all of the creation itself. In such a grand scheme or design, the rise or the fall of Rome is insignificant. In the city of God, what Augustine basically says is that misfortune can happen to anyone and Christianity can never be the reason why Rome fell. Whats more, the fall of Rome was nothing new in human history; it was the norm for communities to conquer or be conquered. In the series of books that made up the City of God, St. Augustine was basically presenting a counterargument that posited Rome had earlier faced calamities even when the old deities were being worshipped in an active manner; worse still, those gods did not do anything to save Rome from the calamities in question. To take his point home, Augustine presented a valid argument in the third book of the city of God; this publication gives a chronology of unfortunate events that befell Rome, and the gods did nothing to do about it. So if the gods did not act in the past before the advent of Christianity, how would they have acted at the time Rome was attacked?

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Allan, and John C. Cavadini. Augustine through the ages: An encyclopedia. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.

Mommsen, Theodor E. "St. Augustine and the Christian idea of progress: The background of the City of God." Journal of the History of Ideas 12.3 (1951): 346-374.

Saint Augustine. The city of God. Vol. 1. New City Press, 2012.