The City of God

The City of God
Augustine · Public domain · source
Name	The City of God
Author	Augustine of Hippo
Original title	De civitate Dei
Country	Roman Empire
Language	Latin
Subject	Theology, Philosophy, History
Published	c. 413–426 CE

The City of God is a landmark work by Augustine of Hippo composed in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome and in the context of late Roman crises. It addresses questions raised by Romans after the sack and offers an extended defense of Christian doctrine through engagement with pagan writers, Christian apologists, and classical authorities. The work maps a dualistic vision of human societies by tracing the destinies of communities associated with temporal power and spiritual destiny.

Background and Context

Augustine wrote during the reign of Honorius and in the milieu shaped by the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric I, responding to criticisms from figures linked to Paganism, Pagan philosophers such as Cicero, Seneca the Younger, and Tacitus, and to Christian critics like Pelagius and Faustus of Milevis. The composition occurred in the province of Africa Proconsularis at Augustine's bishopric in Hippo Regius while the Western Roman world saw events including the fall of the Western Roman Empire and pressures from groups like the Huns led by Attila the Hun. Augustine engages authors across traditions such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Origen of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, and Eusebius of Caesarea. Intellectual currents from Neoplatonism, Stoicism, Aristotelianism, and Manichaeism inform the background, as do ecclesiastical controversies involving the Council of Nicaea legacy and debates with the Donatists.

Structure and Content

The work is divided into twenty-two books responding to urban and imperial crises, drawing on sources from Roman literature including Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Livy, and Suetonius as well as Christian scriptural exegesis from texts like the Book of Revelation and Pauline epistles such as Epistle to the Romans. Augustine frames a twofold history contrasting the loves that constitute two cities, invoking genealogies that relate to figures like Adam and Abraham, and citing legal and political authorities such as Theodosius I and Constantine the Great. He systematically critiques pagan theology via examinations of myths involving Jupiter, Venus, and Mars and dialogues with philosophical positions of Epicurus, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno of Citium, and Epictetus. Augustine integrates theological themes from Augustine's Confessions and engages exegetical methods found in Aurelius Victor and Ambrose of Milan.

Major Themes and Arguments

Central themes include the distinction between the earthly city associated with loves of self and the heavenly city associated with loves of God, debates on providence versus fortune connected to thinkers like Cicero and Seneca the Younger, and discussions of original sin in conversation with Pelagius and Mani. Augustine advances doctrines of divine grace informed by Pauline theology and counters ethical accounts from Epicureanism and Stoicism while appropriating concepts from Neoplatonism to articulate creation, will, and illumination. He addresses eschatology drawing on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and apocalyptic traditions linked to Daniel and John the Evangelist, and explores the relation of church and empire vis-à-vis emperors like Honorius and institutions such as the Roman Senate and Roman legions.

Historical Influence and Reception

The City of God shaped medieval political theology influencing figures like Thomas Aquinas, Anselm of Canterbury, Augustine of Canterbury, and later commentators in the Byzantine Empire and the Carolingian Renaissance including Alcuin. The work was received variously by medieval scholastics, monks in Cluny, canonists in the tradition of Gratian, and secular rulers including Charlemagne and Otto I whose use of Augustine informed imperial ideology. During the Reformation, interpreters such as Martin Luther and John Calvin engaged Augustine's doctrines of grace and predestination, while Catholic Counter-Reformation scholars like Cardinal Bellarmine and Francis de Sales debated his ecclesiology. Enlightenment critics referencing Voltaire and David Hume contested Augustine’s historicism, and modern political theorists including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau interacted indirectly with Augustine’s civic anthropology.

Theological and Philosophical Impact

Augustine’s synthesis influenced doctrine in councils and theologians such as Council of Chalcedon legacy, Gregory the Great, Bede, and Maximus the Confessor. His treatment of original sin, free will, and grace framed disputes with Pelagius and shaped doctrines formalized in scholasticism by Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and Peter Lombard. Philosophically, Augustine’s appropriation of Neoplatonism set a paradigm affecting Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and Islamic thinkers like Al-Farabi and Averroes through transmission in centers such as Cordoba and Toledo. His work informed debates on law and natural law later taken up by jurists in Corpus Juris Civilis reception and by political writers at Westminster and Avignon courts.

Modern Scholarship and Interpretation

Contemporary scholarship analyzes The City of God across fields with contributions from historians and theorists such as G. K. Chesterton in popular polemics, historians like Edward Gibbon and Peter Brown, theologians including Karl Barth and Jaroslav Pelikan, and philosophers like Leo Strauss. Studies assess Augustine’s rhetorical strategies via Classical philology and examine manuscripts preserved in libraries such as Vatican Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France, with textual criticism from scholars at universities like Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University, University of Paris, and University of Bologna. Recent work explores intersections with postcolonial theory, gender studies, and historiography in journals associated with Cambridge and Princeton.

Cultural Legacy and Adaptations

The City of God influenced literature and art appearing in works by Dante Alighieri, who echoes Augustinian motifs in the Divine Comedy, and in iconography in churches across Rome, Florence, and Canterbury Cathedral. Its themes appear in modern novels by T. S. Eliot and philosophical references in the writings of Leo Tolstoy and Hannah Arendt. Musical adaptations and liturgical uses have been noted in the repertoires of composers connected to Gregorian chant traditions and in art collections at institutions like the Louvre and the British Museum. The work remains central in curricula at seminaries such as St. Augustine Seminary and in departments at secular institutions like Yale University and University of Chicago.

Category:Works by Augustine of Hippo