The City of God

City of God is a major fifth-century work of philosophy and theology by Augustine of Hippo, written in response to political and religious developments in the Roman Empire. Its original title is De civitate Dei contra paganos (“On the City of God Against the Pagans”), but it is conventionally referred to in English as City of God. The complete manuscript was first distributed in 426 CE, just four years before Augustine’s death, and it was quickly recognized as a seminal work in the Christian theological tradition. It reflects upon questions of good and evil, divine sovereignty and human free will, and the nature of true religion, all set against the backdrop of the Roman Empire’s transition from polytheistic paganism to Christianity. After the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 CE, some prominent voices in Roman society began asking whether the empire should return to its pagan roots, under which it was thought to have been stronger. Augustine’s City of God stands as a rebuttal to this line of thinking, demonstrating the fallacies inherent in Roman polytheism and arguing for the rational consistency and doctrinal beauty of the Christian tradition.

City of God is composed of 22 books arranged in two parts (Part 1 being Books 1-10, and Part 2 being Books 11-22). This study guide uses the unabridged version from Penguin Classics, translated in 1967 by Henry Bettenson and reissued in 2003 with an introduction by G. R. Evans.

In following Augustine’s usage, this study guide occasionally refers to God with male pronouns. It should be noted that within the Christian tradition, as in Augustine’s City of God, such use designates the personal nature of God but is not intended to serve as an exact analogy for human sex.

Summary

In his City of God, Augustine contrasts Christianity and Roman paganism. The result is a comprehensive treatise spanning 22 books, in which the disciplines of history, theology, and philosophy all play a major role. Augustine’s basic premise is that there are really only two groups in the world: the earthly city and the city of God. The city of God is composed of all those who receive God’s grace and are saved, and the earthly city is composed of all those who remain in sin.

These two cities are differentiated throughout history by their goals and their ultimate destinies. The earthly city prizes the goods that can be accrued in this life; they organize themselves into kingdoms and empires to chase after possessions, power, pleasures, or virtues in hopes of finding peace and happiness here. The city of God, by contrast, knows that its goal cannot be reached in this life alone. As such, it journeys on a pilgrimage through this world, growing in virtue and in submission to God’s ways, in view of the great fulfillment that it anticipates: an eternal life of endless joy in the presence of God.

Building on this foundational distinction, Augustine argues against Roman paganism (the main manifestation of the earthly city for Augustine) and in favor of Christianity. In Part 1 of City of God, Augustine goes on the offensive, making a comprehensive case against the polytheistic practices of Roman paganism. He begins with a historical argument (Books 1-3), in which he assesses the strength of the historical premise of his opponents and finds it lacking. Rather than showing that Christianity has caused Rome to suffer more setbacks than paganism, the historical record shows that catastrophic setbacks were a regular feature of Roman history from the beginning. Augustine also points out that the history of Roman paganism appears erratic and riddled with incoherencies, with pagans inventing new gods at random and seldom withdrawing worship from a god who had failed them in battle.

The second section of Part 1 (Books 4-7) moves from history to theology, analyzing the beliefs and practices of Roman paganism as described in Roman literary sources. Augustine examines the writings of Marcus Terentius Varro, a first-century BCE authority who had written a widely-regarded theology of Roman religion. Augustine bases his critique of paganism on Varro’s presentation, which divides pagan beliefs into “mythical theology” (the gods as portrayed in myths, poems, and plays), “civic theology,” (the cult of the gods as administered in civic life by the temple priesthoods), and “natural theology” (paganism as expressed in philosophical reflections). Augustine criticizes mythical theology for showing the gods to be depraved by human vices, and thus unworthy of worship. Against civic theology, he notes that the way it assigns identities and tasks to the gods appears to be random and redundant, essentially creating a reductio ad absurdum argument against itself and pointing to the commonsense reasonability of monotheism.

In the final section of Part 1 (Books 8-10), Augustine takes Varro’s category of “natural theology” and uses it to move his discussion from theology to philosophy. Here he interacts with the leading voices of the Greco-Roman philosophical schools, giving special attention to the followers of Plato, whom he sees as closest to the Christian position. He notes that Neoplatonism views God in a way similar to the biblical view, but that it has failed to take the next logical step and forego the worship of pagan gods. Arguing from the philosophers’ own principles, Augustine asserts that if other spiritual beings existed below the supreme God, they would not desire worship for themselves unless they were evil.

Part 2 (Books 11-22) is structured according to the history of the universe, from its beginnings to its end in the eternal state yet to come. Here Augustine directly addresses his premise of separating humanity into two societies, the earthly city and the city of God, and proposes to trace their development across the whole sweep of universal history. Whereas Part 1 had Augustine playing offense against his opponents, here he goes on the defensive, articulating a rational case for Christianity. He weaves his threads of history, philosophy, and theology tightly together in Part 2, using the historical framework as a structure by which to explore theological and philosophical questions. Two concerns predominate: first, the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, and second, an explanation of how evil came into the world if it was not caused by God.

The first major section of Part 2 (Books 11-14) concerns itself with the beginning of history, using the biblical account of creation to describe the origins of the two cities. Augustine believes that evil entered the world by the sin of creatures, not by the will of God, and thus it is attributable to our free will rather than to God’s design. Nevertheless, this does not throw God’s sovereignty into question, because our sins are fully contained within the scope of God’s perfect foreknowledge. The next section of Part 2 (Books 15-18) continues the examination of universal history by proceeding through the remainder of the biblical story and setting it alongside the history of the ancient world. Augustine emphasizes both the long antiquity of biblical faith and the many ancient prophecies that have found their fulfillment in Christ.

In the final section (Books 19-22), Augustine moves from the past to the future, examining that portion of universal history still to come. He offers an exposition of the biblical teaching on the day of judgment and the ultimate destiny of both the earthly city and the city of God. His closing presentation of the eternal life portrays the experience of heaven as the final summation of all that is good, beautiful, and true.