THE CITY OF GOD - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO - "HERE is a book that written over fifteen hundred years ago by a mystic in North Africa. Yet to those who have ears to hear, it has a great deal to say to many of us who are not mystics, today, in America... THE CITY OF GOD is the autobiography of the CHURCH written by the most CATHOLIC of her GREAT SAINTS....... THE CITY OF GOD, FOR THOSE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT CONTAINS THE SECRET OF DEATH AND LIFE, WAR AND PEACE, HELL AND HEAVEN." -
INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS MERTON - One of the great cornerstone in the history of Christian thought, The City of God is vital to an understanding of modern western society and how it came into being. Begun in A.D. 413 by Saint Augustine, the great theologian who was Bishop of Hippo, the book's initial purpose was to refute the charge that Christianity was to blame for the fall of Rome (which had occurred just three years earlier). Indeed, Saint Augustine produce a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. However, over the next thirteen years that it took to complete the work, the brilliant ecclesiastic proceeded to his larger theme: a cosmic interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil. By means of his contrast of the earthly and heavenly cities-the one pagan, self-centered contemptuous of God and the other devout, God-centered, and in search of grace - Saint Augustine explored and interpreted human history in relation to eternity. After you finish The City of God it becomes clear why some have suggested that most of Western thought could be read as "a series of footnotes to Augustine." This edition of City of God, in the Marcus Dods translation, is complete and unabridged. The introduction is by Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and author of The Seven Storey Mountains and The Waters of Siloe.
In the world. "The City of God" is a monumental theology of history. It grew out of Saint Augustine's meditations on the fall of the Roman Empire. But his analysis is timeless and universal. That is to say, it is Catholic/Universal in the etymological sense of the word. It is also Catholic in the sense that Saint Augustine's view held by the Catholic/Universal Church, and by all Catholic tradition since the Apostles. It is a theology of history built on revelation, developed above all from the inspired pages of Apostle/Saint Paul's epistles and Apostle/Saint John's Apocalypse.
To those who do not know Saint Augustine, the figure of the great Bishop of Hippo (the modern name of the city is Bona) may seem quite remote. And to one who attempts to make his first acquaintance with Augustine by starting to read "The City of God" from the beginning without a guide, the saint may remain an unappealing personality and his book may appear to be nothing more than amaze of curious, ancient fancies.Saint Augustine of Hippo stands as one of the greatest and most influential of Christian theologians. "It may be safely predicted that while the mind of man yearns for knowledge, and his heart seeks rest, the Confessions will retain that foremost place in the world's literature which it has secured by its sublime outpourings of devotion and profound philosophical spirit."
It should be borne in mind that the Confessions was not intended to be an intellectual exercise, removed from the everyday realities of life. In it, Saint Augustine seeks to lay bare his heart, his soul - before God and before his fellowmen. It is an honest book and a book that speaks to the heart first of all.
We, moderns may find some difficulty in his allegorizations, especially those found in the last three books. But one translator aptly remarked, "Where the strict use of history is not disregarded, (to use Augustine's expression) allegorizing by way of spiritual meditation, may be profitable." Certainly his insights are not to be despised!
Born in 352, in a small city of Tagaste, Africa (in what is now Algeria) Augustine lived in the time of the growing ascendancy of the Christian Church and the growing decline of the Roman empire. It was scarcely a quarter of a century earlier that the great Council of Nicaea had been held, and there were heresies and schisms throughout the Christian world that still held sway over hearts and minds. Donatists continued to hold that many Catholic Orders were invalid because they came through 'traditori'
It should be borne in mind that the Confessions was not intended to be an intellectual exercise, removed from the everyday realities of life. In it, Saint Augustine seeks to lay bare his heart, his soul - before God and before his fellowmen. It is an honest book and a book that speaks to the heart first of all.
We, moderns may find some difficulty in his allegorizations, especially those found in the last three books. But one translator aptly remarked, "Where the strict use of history is not disregarded, (to use Augustine's expression) allegorizing by way of spiritual meditation, may be profitable." Certainly his insights are not to be despised!
Born in 352, in a small city of Tagaste, Africa (in what is now Algeria) Augustine lived in the time of the growing ascendancy of the Christian Church and the growing decline of the Roman empire. It was scarcely a quarter of a century earlier that the great Council of Nicaea had been held, and there were heresies and schisms throughout the Christian world that still held sway over hearts and minds. Donatists continued to hold that many Catholic Orders were invalid because they came through 'traditori'
(those who had denied the faith during the severe persecution and had later repented and been restored to the Church).
In his later years, Saint Augustine would spend much effort in fighting for the unity of the Church against their schismatic beliefs. Arianism (denying the full divinity of Christ) succeeded in winning the allegiance of the Emperor and his mother, and echoes of that threat to the peace and unity of the Church continued to resound throughout Augustine's lifetime. But for Augustine personality, his sojourn among the Manicheans gave the background for much of the material we find in the Confessions. After his schooling under a harsh tutor in Tagaste, he was sent to Madaura for a short time. Family finances forced his return home and resulted in an idle year, 369-370. He was then sent to Carthage, to what would be equivalent to a University, where he distinguished himself in the rhetorical school. His father died in 371, but his mother continued to support his schooling with the aid of a wealthy patron, Romanianus. It is evident that he continued to cherish high ambitions for his worldly success. While at Carthage, Augustine came under the influence of the Manicheans and took a mistress, to whom he was faithful for fifteen years. To them was born one son, Adeotus.
After some years of teaching at Carthage, Augustine decided to go to Rome. His mother opposed the idea, but could not dissuade him. After a brief stay in Rome, he was appointed in 385 as Public Teacher of Rhetoric at Milan, where he first came under the influence of Saint Ambrose. In 385-386, the Empress Justina demanded the surrender of two churches to the Arians. Saint Ambrose led his people in a refusal to surrender the churches, even when confronted by military force. Augustine was aware of this crisis, but he was not personally involved.
Ten years spent with the Manicheans had brought Augustine many intellectual difficulties with their system. Although they had encouraged his own sceptical approach to the Sacred/Holy Scriptures, they had not satisfied his thirst for sure knowledge nor his growing uneasiness with his disorderly life. With his mother's help, Augustine's mistress was dismissed and arrangements were made for his marriage, which had to be postponed because his intended was underage. But his struggles with the flesh resulted in his taking a new mistress because he felt morally incapable of making a better choice. He chronicles the inner struggles which led, with timely help from Ambrose, to his departure from the Manicheans and his conversion to the Catholic faith. He was baptized at Easter, 387, along with his son, Adeotus. Having resigned his position as professor of Rhetoric, he and his company were waiting for a ship to make their way back to Africa when his mother suddenly became ill and died at Ostia, the port of Rome.
The next year, having returned to Tagaste and sold his property there, Augustine set up a monastic kind of community with a few friends, continuing his writing. In 391, with much misgiving on his part, he consented to be ordained presbyter at Hippo, a nearby city of about 30,000. The Church was not strong there, its population being a mixture of pagans, Jews, several schismatic sects, and a large group of Donatists. In 395 (in violation of the eighth canon of Nicaea) he was made assistant bishop to the aged Valerius, and succeeded him as bishop the following year.
It was not long after his election as bishop that he began the Confessions, completing them probably in 398. Thus they represent his thought and the account of his life in its midstream. He wrote this book "at the request of friends who begged him to commit to writing those recollections of his former life to which he often referred in private conversation. He consented for the characteristic reason that he desired his friends to mourn and rejoice along with him as they followed his retrospect of past years, and on his behalf to give thanks to God."
Augustine's years as bishop involved struggles with errors he believed to be a threat to salvation and to the welfare of the Church on several fonts: Manicheans, Donatists, Arians and Pelagians. In addition to these very real battles, the Roman empire itself was under mortal assault. It is one of the great ironies of history that as Augustine finished his immortal City of God in the quiet of his monastic residence, the Vandals were pillaging the countryside of North Africa. "While the Vandals besieged Hippo, Saint Augustine died (August 28, 430) in the sanctity and poverty in which he had lived for many years. Shortly afterward, the Vandals destroyed the city, but left his cathedral and library untouched."
Sending the Confessions to a friend, Augustine wrote, "In these behold me, that you may not praise me beyond what I am. Believe what is said of me, not by others, but by myself."
Saint Augustine began to write this book three years after Rome first collapsed and opened its gates to a barbarian invader. Alaric and his Goths sacked the city in 410. Rome had been the inviolate mistress of the world for a thousand years. The fall of the city that some had thought would stand forever demoralized what was left of the civilized world. Those who still took the pagan gods seriously - and it seems they were not a few - looked about them for a scapegoat upon which to lay the guilt for this catastrophe. The Christians had emerged from the catacombs and had been officially recognized by the converted Emperor Constantine.
Nevertheless Christianity remained the object of superstitious fear on the part of many, and it was inevitable that the bad luck that had befallen the Empire should be blamed on the Catholic Church. St. Augustine took up his pen in 413 and set about proving the absurdity of such a charge. This furnished him with the subject matter for the ten books of "The City of God" - a work that was written slowly, and appeared in installments over a period of thirteen years.
But the topic that first engaged his attention - Christianity versus the official pagan religion of imperial Rome - is not one that will strike us, today, as a living issue. Nor was it altogether worthy of the genius of Augustine. After several years of writing he abandoned this aspect of the problem, and left it to be disposed of by a certain Orosius, who will probably never find his way into the catalogue of the Modern Library. We owe him at least a debt of gratitude for having set Augustine free to write about the problem that really interested him: the theology of the "two cities" and of the intervention of God in human history.
The saints does not settle down to treat the real theme of his work until he reaches Book Eleven. And even then, he takes such a broad view of his subject that his approach to the main point seems to us extraordinarily unhurried. He pauses to solve many questions of detail. He embarks on a historical exegesis of the Old Testaments in order to show how the "two cities" have entered into the very substance of sacred history.
Finally he completes this extraordinary panorama with a view of the final end of the two cities, and of their respective fates in eternity. How many peoples will have the patience to follow him through all of this? Those who do so will certainly find themselves profoundly changed by the experience, because they will have been exposed to a summary of Christian dogma. It is an exposition that can only be fully appreciated if it is read in the spirit in which it was written. And "The City of God" is an exposition of dogma that was not only written but lived.
Nevertheless Christianity remained the object of superstitious fear on the part of many, and it was inevitable that the bad luck that had befallen the Empire should be blamed on the Catholic Church. St. Augustine took up his pen in 413 and set about proving the absurdity of such a charge. This furnished him with the subject matter for the ten books of "The City of God" - a work that was written slowly, and appeared in installments over a period of thirteen years.
But the topic that first engaged his attention - Christianity versus the official pagan religion of imperial Rome - is not one that will strike us, today, as a living issue. Nor was it altogether worthy of the genius of Augustine. After several years of writing he abandoned this aspect of the problem, and left it to be disposed of by a certain Orosius, who will probably never find his way into the catalogue of the Modern Library. We owe him at least a debt of gratitude for having set Augustine free to write about the problem that really interested him: the theology of the "two cities" and of the intervention of God in human history.
The saints does not settle down to treat the real theme of his work until he reaches Book Eleven. And even then, he takes such a broad view of his subject that his approach to the main point seems to us extraordinarily unhurried. He pauses to solve many questions of detail. He embarks on a historical exegesis of the Old Testaments in order to show how the "two cities" have entered into the very substance of sacred history.
Finally he completes this extraordinary panorama with a view of the final end of the two cities, and of their respective fates in eternity. How many peoples will have the patience to follow him through all of this? Those who do so will certainly find themselves profoundly changed by the experience, because they will have been exposed to a summary of Christian dogma. It is an exposition that can only be fully appreciated if it is read in the spirit in which it was written. And "The City of God" is an exposition of dogma that was not only written but lived.
Heaven is a word that expresses several distinct concepts in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible:
1. - As used in a physical sense heaven is the expanse over the earth. The tower of Babel reached upward to heaven. God is the possessor of heaven. Heaven is the location of the stars as well the source of dew. - Genesis 1:8, 11:4, 14:9, 1:14, 26:4, 27:28 -
2. - Heaven is also the dwelling place of God. It is the source of the new Jerusalem.
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Truly, Yahweh is in this place and I never knew it!' He was afraid and said, 'How' awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than a house of God; this is the gate of heaven!' - Genesis 28:16-17 -
And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him. Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, "Victory and power and empire forever have been won by our God and all authority for his Christ now that the persecutor who accused our brothers day and night before our God has been brought down.
They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the witness of their martyrdom because even in the face of death they would not cling to life. Let the heavens rejoice and all who live there but for you, earth and sea, trouble is coming because the devil has gone down to you in a rage knowing that his days are numbered." - Revelation 12:7-12 -
The city prepared and built by God for those who are faithful to Him. Known as the heavenly Jerusalem this is the city that is to come. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God. - Hebrews 11:10 - They can hardly have meant the country they came from since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. - Hebrews 11:15-16 - These references in Hebrews find their fulfillment in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. The New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory of God. It serves as the dwelling place of God among His redeemed forever.
3. - Because of the work of Christ on the Cross, heaven is, in part, present with believers on earth as they obey God's commands. - John 14:1-4 - The word heaven also used as the name of God, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven are often spoken of interchangeably. - Luke 15:18; John 3:27; Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15 -
At the end time a new heaven will be created to surround the new earth. This new heaven will be the place of God's perfect presence.
For now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered , and will come no more to men minds. Be glad and rejoice forever and ever, for what I am creating because I now create Jerusalem "Joy and her people Gladness". I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult in my people. - Isaiah 65:17-19 -
For as the new heavens
and the new earth I shall make
will endure before me
it is Yahweh who speaks
so will your race and name endure
From New Moon to New Moon,
from sabbath to sabbath,
all mankind will come to bow down
in my presence, says Yahweh.
And on their way out they will see
the corpses of men
who have rebelled against me,
Their worm will not die
nor their fire go out;
they will be loathsome to all mankind. - Isaiah 66:22-24 -
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bridge all dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.' - Revelation 21:1-4 -
A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven. - John 3:27 -
I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you - Luke 15:18, 21 -
And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. - Revelation 12:7-8 -
At the end of time, a new heaven will be created to surround the new earth. This new heaven will be the place of God's perfect presence. Then, there will be a literal fulfillment of heaven on earth. Heavenly City - the city prepared and built by God, for those whom God's loves and who are faithful to Him. It is also known as the heavenly Jerusalem, this is the city that is to come. The New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory of God. It serves as the dwelling place of God among His redeemed for ever and ever. New Heaven is a term which, when used with new earth refers to the perfected state of the created universe and the final dwelling place, for those whom God's loves and of the righteous one.
For now I create new heavens and new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men's minds. Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever for what I am creating - Isaiah 65:17 -
They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God; but in fact, they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them. - Hebrews 11:10, 16 -
But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a 'first-born' and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect - Hebrews 12:22-23 - Revelation 14:1, 21:10 -
Rooted deep in Jewish thought was the dream of a new heaven and a new earth, a recreation of the universe that would occur following the Day of the Lord. - Isaiah 13:10-13; Joel 2:1-2, 30-31 - The concept of a recreated universe is closely related to the scriptural/biblical account of the Creation and the Fall. - Genesis 1:1 - and the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. - Genesis 3 - It is because of their sin, "the creation was subjected to futility and the bondage of corruption." The need for a new heaven and a new earth arises from man's sin and God judgment, not from some deficiency or evil in the universe.
God created Adam as a pure contemplative. Material creation was subject to Adam's reason, and the soul of Adam was perfectly subjected to God. United to God in a very high degree of vision and love, Adam would have transmitted to all mankind his own perfection, his own liberty, his own peace in the vision of God. In Adam all men were to be, as it were, "one contemplative" perfectly united to one another in their one vision and love of the One Truth.
Original sin, an act of spiritual apostasy from the contemplative vision and love of God, severed the union with God that depended on the subjection of Adam's will to the will of God. Since God is Truth, Adam's apostasy from Him was a fall into falsehood, unreality. Since God is unity, Adam's fall was a collapse into division and disharmony.
All mankind fell from God in Adam. And just as Adam's soul was divided against itself by sin, so all men were divided against one another by selfishness. The envy of Cain, which would have been impossible in Eden, bred murder in a world where each self-centered individual had become his own little god, his own judge and standard of good and evil, falsity and truth.
Saint Augustine traces the history of this divided city of conflict and hate through all history from the fall of Adam to the end of time and even into eternity. But at the same time he contemplates and exposes to our gaze the history of that other City, planned by God to repair the work that Adam's sin could not be allowed to ruin. It was in the "new Adam," Christ, that man was to be raised again to the friendship and vision of God - not indeed the contemplation Adam had enjoyed in Eden, still less the clear vision of beatitude: but heaven was to begin on earth in faith and charity/love. God would be "seen" but only in darkness and man would be united in "one Body" but only at the cost of struggle and self-sacrifice.
The whole of history since the ascension of Jesus into heaven is concerned with one work only: the building and perfecting of this "City of God". Even the wars, persecutions, and all the other evils which have made the history of empires terrible to read and more terrible to live through, have had only this one purpose: they have been the flails with which God has separated the wheat from the chaff, the elect from the damned. They have been the tools that have fashioned the living stones which God would set in the walls of His city of vision.
The difference between the two cities is the difference between two loves. Those who are united in the City of God are united by the love of God and of one another in God. Those who belong to the other city are indeed not united in any real sense: but it can be said that they have one thing in common besides their opposition to God: each one of them is intent on the love of himself/herself above all else.
In Saint Augustine's classical expression: "These two cities were made by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self unto the contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God unto the contempt of self." (Book 14, c. 28) The earthly city glories in its own power, the heavenly in the power of God.
The saints does not settle down to treat the real theme of his work until he reaches Book Eleven. And even then, he takes such a broad view of his subject that his approach to the main point seems to us extraordinarily unhurried. He pauses to solve many questions of detail. He embarks on a historical exegesis of the Old Testaments in order to show how the "two cities" have entered into the very substance of sacred history.
1. - As used in a physical sense heaven is the expanse over the earth. The tower of Babel reached upward to heaven. God is the possessor of heaven. Heaven is the location of the stars as well the source of dew. - Genesis 1:8, 11:4, 14:9, 1:14, 26:4, 27:28 -
2. - Heaven is also the dwelling place of God. It is the source of the new Jerusalem.
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Truly, Yahweh is in this place and I never knew it!' He was afraid and said, 'How' awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than a house of God; this is the gate of heaven!' - Genesis 28:16-17 -
And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him. Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, "Victory and power and empire forever have been won by our God and all authority for his Christ now that the persecutor who accused our brothers day and night before our God has been brought down.
They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the witness of their martyrdom because even in the face of death they would not cling to life. Let the heavens rejoice and all who live there but for you, earth and sea, trouble is coming because the devil has gone down to you in a rage knowing that his days are numbered." - Revelation 12:7-12 -
The city prepared and built by God for those who are faithful to Him. Known as the heavenly Jerusalem this is the city that is to come. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God. - Hebrews 11:10 - They can hardly have meant the country they came from since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. - Hebrews 11:15-16 - These references in Hebrews find their fulfillment in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. The New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory of God. It serves as the dwelling place of God among His redeemed forever.
3. - Because of the work of Christ on the Cross, heaven is, in part, present with believers on earth as they obey God's commands. - John 14:1-4 - The word heaven also used as the name of God, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven are often spoken of interchangeably. - Luke 15:18; John 3:27; Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15 -
At the end time a new heaven will be created to surround the new earth. This new heaven will be the place of God's perfect presence.
For now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered , and will come no more to men minds. Be glad and rejoice forever and ever, for what I am creating because I now create Jerusalem "Joy and her people Gladness". I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult in my people. - Isaiah 65:17-19 -
For as the new heavens
and the new earth I shall make
will endure before me
it is Yahweh who speaks
so will your race and name endure
From New Moon to New Moon,
from sabbath to sabbath,
all mankind will come to bow down
in my presence, says Yahweh.
And on their way out they will see
the corpses of men
who have rebelled against me,
Their worm will not die
nor their fire go out;
they will be loathsome to all mankind. - Isaiah 66:22-24 -
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bridge all dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.' - Revelation 21:1-4 -
Heaven is the dwelling place of God. The word heaven is also used as a substitute for the name of God, especially to the pagans. God is the possessor of heaven. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are often spoken of interchangeably and it is because of the work of Christ Jesus on the Cross, heaven is, in part, present with believers on earth.
A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven. - John 3:27 -
I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you - Luke 15:18, 21 -
And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. - Revelation 12:7-8 -
At the end of time, a new heaven will be created to surround the new earth. This new heaven will be the place of God's perfect presence. Then, there will be a literal fulfillment of heaven on earth. Heavenly City - the city prepared and built by God, for those whom God's loves and who are faithful to Him. It is also known as the heavenly Jerusalem, this is the city that is to come. The New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory of God. It serves as the dwelling place of God among His redeemed for ever and ever. New Heaven is a term which, when used with new earth refers to the perfected state of the created universe and the final dwelling place, for those whom God's loves and of the righteous one.
For now I create new heavens and new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men's minds. Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever for what I am creating - Isaiah 65:17 -
They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God; but in fact, they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them. - Hebrews 11:10, 16 -
But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a 'first-born' and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect - Hebrews 12:22-23 - Revelation 14:1, 21:10 -
Rooted deep in Jewish thought was the dream of a new heaven and a new earth, a recreation of the universe that would occur following the Day of the Lord. - Isaiah 13:10-13; Joel 2:1-2, 30-31 - The concept of a recreated universe is closely related to the scriptural/biblical account of the Creation and the Fall. - Genesis 1:1 - and the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. - Genesis 3 - It is because of their sin, "the creation was subjected to futility and the bondage of corruption." The need for a new heaven and a new earth arises from man's sin and God judgment, not from some deficiency or evil in the universe.
It may come as a surprise to some to learn that St. Augustine quite spontaneously regarded contemplation as a communal endeavor. Solitude may be necessary for certain degrees of contemplative prayer on earth, but in heaven contemplation is the beatitude not merely of separate individuals but of an entire city. That city is a living organism whose mind is the Truth of God and whose will is His Love and His Liberty.
God created Adam as a pure contemplative. Material creation was subject to Adam's reason, and the soul of Adam was perfectly subjected to God. United to God in a very high degree of vision and love, Adam would have transmitted to all mankind his own perfection, his own liberty, his own peace in the vision of God. In Adam all men were to be, as it were, "one contemplative" perfectly united to one another in their one vision and love of the One Truth.
Original sin, an act of spiritual apostasy from the contemplative vision and love of God, severed the union with God that depended on the subjection of Adam's will to the will of God. Since God is Truth, Adam's apostasy from Him was a fall into falsehood, unreality. Since God is unity, Adam's fall was a collapse into division and disharmony.
All mankind fell from God in Adam. And just as Adam's soul was divided against itself by sin, so all men were divided against one another by selfishness. The envy of Cain, which would have been impossible in Eden, bred murder in a world where each self-centered individual had become his own little god, his own judge and standard of good and evil, falsity and truth.
Saint Augustine traces the history of this divided city of conflict and hate through all history from the fall of Adam to the end of time and even into eternity. But at the same time he contemplates and exposes to our gaze the history of that other City, planned by God to repair the work that Adam's sin could not be allowed to ruin. It was in the "new Adam," Christ, that man was to be raised again to the friendship and vision of God - not indeed the contemplation Adam had enjoyed in Eden, still less the clear vision of beatitude: but heaven was to begin on earth in faith and charity/love. God would be "seen" but only in darkness and man would be united in "one Body" but only at the cost of struggle and self-sacrifice.
The whole of history since the ascension of Jesus into heaven is concerned with one work only: the building and perfecting of this "City of God". Even the wars, persecutions, and all the other evils which have made the history of empires terrible to read and more terrible to live through, have had only this one purpose: they have been the flails with which God has separated the wheat from the chaff, the elect from the damned. They have been the tools that have fashioned the living stones which God would set in the walls of His city of vision.
The difference between the two cities is the difference between two loves. Those who are united in the City of God are united by the love of God and of one another in God. Those who belong to the other city are indeed not united in any real sense: but it can be said that they have one thing in common besides their opposition to God: each one of them is intent on the love of himself/herself above all else.
In Saint Augustine's classical expression: "These two cities were made by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self unto the contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God unto the contempt of self." (Book 14, c. 28) The earthly city glories in its own power, the heavenly in the power of God.
But the topic that first engaged his attention - Christianity versus the official pagan religion of imperial Rome - is not one that will strike us, today, as a living issue. Nor was it altogether worthy of the genius of Augustine. After several years of writing he abandoned this aspect of the problem, and left it to be disposed of by a certain Orosius, who will probably never find his way into the catalogue of the Modern Library. We owe him at least a debt of gratitude for having set Augustine free to write about the problem that really interested him: the theology of the "two cities" and of the intervention of God in human history.
The saints does not settle down to treat the real theme of his work until he reaches Book Eleven. And even then, he takes such a broad view of his subject that his approach to the main point seems to us extraordinarily unhurried. He pauses to solve many questions of detail. He embarks on a historical exegesis of the Old Testaments in order to show how the "two cities" have entered into the very substance of sacred history.
Finally he completes this extraordinary panorama with a view of the final end of the two cities, and of their respective fates in eternity. How many peoples will have the patience to follow him through all of this? Those who do so will certainly find themselves profoundly changed by the experience, because they will have been exposed to a summary of Christian dogma. It is an exposition that can only be fully appreciated if it is read in the spirit in which it was written. And "The City of God" is an exposition of dogma that was not only written but lived.
Although it is sufficient, in the abstract, to divide the Catholic religion into three aspects and call them creed, code and cult, yet in practice, the integral Christian life is something far more than all this. It is more than a belief; it is a life, that is to say, it is a belief that is lived and experienced and expressed in action. The action in which it is expressed, experienced and lived is called a mystery. This mystery is a sacred drama which keeps ever present in history the Sacrifice that was once consummated by Christ on Calvary.
In plain words - if you can accept them as plain - Christianity is the life and death and resurrection of Christ going on day after day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society.
It is this Christ-life, this incorporation into the Body of Christ, this union with His death and resurrection as a matter of conscious experience, that Saint Augustine wrote of in his "Confessions." But Augustine not only experienced the reality of Christ living in his own soul. He was just as keenly aware of the presence and action, the Birth, Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of the Mystical Christ in the midst of human society.
And this experience, this vision, if you would call it that, qualified him to write a book that was to be, in fact, the autobiography of the Catholic Church. That is what "The City of God" is. Just as truly as the "Confessions" are the autobiography of Saint Augustine, "The City of God" is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints.
That is the substance of the book. But how is the average modern people going to get at that substance? Evidently, the treatment of the theme is so leisurely and so meandering and so diffuse that "The City of God", more than any other book, requires an introduction. The best we can do here is to offer a few practical suggestions as to how to tackle it.
The first of these suggestions is this: since, after all, "The City of God" reflects much of Saint Augustine's own personality and is colored by it, the reader who has never met Augustine before ought to go first of all to the "Confessions". Once he gets to know the saints, he will be better able to understand Augustine's view of society. Then, no one who is not a specialist, with a good background of history or of theology or of philosophy, ought not to attempt to read the City, for the first time, beginning at page one.
The living heart of the City is found in Book Nineteen, and this is the section that will make the most immediate appeal to us today because it is concerned with the theology of peace. However, Book Nineteen cannot be understood all by itself. The best source for solutions to the most pressing problems it will raise is Book Fourteen, where the origin of the two Cities is sketched, in an essay on original sin.
Finally, the last Book (twenty-two), which is perhaps the finest of them all, and a fitting climax to the whole work, will give the reader a broad view of Augustine's whole scheme because it describes the end of the City of God, the communal vision of the elect in Paradise, the contemplation which is the life of the "City of Vision" in heaven and the whole purpose of man's creation.
What do we mean when we say that Augustine lived the theology that he write? Are we implying, for instance, that other theologians have not lived up to their principles? No. That possibility is not what concerns us here. It is more than a question of setting down on paper a series of abstract principles and then applying them in practice. Christianity is more than a moral code, more than a philosophy, more than a system of rites.
Although it is sufficient, in the abstract, to divide the Catholic religion into three aspects and call them creed, code and cult, yet in practice, the integral Christian life is something far more than all this. It is more than a belief; it is a life, that is to say, it is a belief that is lived and experienced and expressed in action. The action in which it is expressed, experienced and lived is called a mystery. This mystery is a sacred drama which keeps ever present in history the Sacrifice that was once consummated by Christ on Calvary.
In plain words - if you can accept them as plain - Christianity is the life and death and resurrection of Christ going on day after day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society.
It is this Christ-life, this incorporation into the Body of Christ, this union with His death and resurrection as a matter of conscious experience, that Saint Augustine wrote of in his "Confessions." But Augustine not only experienced the reality of Christ living in his own soul. He was just as keenly aware of the presence and action, the Birth, Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of the Mystical Christ in the midst of human society.
And this experience, this vision, if you would call it that, qualified him to write a book that was to be, in fact, the autobiography of the Catholic Church. That is what "The City of God" is. Just as truly as the "Confessions" are the autobiography of Saint Augustine, "The City of God" is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints.
That is the substance of the book. But how is the average modern people going to get at that substance? Evidently, the treatment of the theme is so leisurely and so meandering and so diffuse that "The City of God", more than any other book, requires an introduction. The best we can do here is to offer a few practical suggestions as to how to tackle it.
The first of these suggestions is this: since, after all, "The City of God" reflects much of Saint Augustine's own personality and is colored by it, the reader who has never met Augustine before ought to go first of all to the "Confessions". Once he gets to know the saints, he will be better able to understand Augustine's view of society. Then, no one who is not a specialist, with a good background of history or of theology or of philosophy, ought not to attempt to read the City, for the first time, beginning at page one.
The living heart of the City is found in Book Nineteen, and this is the section that will make the most immediate appeal to us today because it is concerned with the theology of peace. However, Book Nineteen cannot be understood all by itself. The best source for solutions to the most pressing problems it will raise is Book Fourteen, where the origin of the two Cities is sketched, in an essay on original sin.
Finally, the last Book (twenty-two), which is perhaps the finest of them all, and a fitting climax to the whole work, will give the reader a broad view of Augustine's whole scheme because it describes the end of the City of God, the communal vision of the elect in Paradise, the contemplation which is the life of the "City of Vision" in heaven and the whole purpose of man's creation.
In Saint Augustine's classical expression: "These two cities were made by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self unto the contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God unto the contempt of self." (Book 14, c. 28) The earthly city glories in its own power, the heavenly in the power of God.
*** Nevertheless, the facts that the two cities are opposed to one another does not mean that they cannot peacefully co-exist here on earth. It does not mean that they should agree upon a modus vivendi. They can come to terms, and it is well that they should do so. The temporal advantage of worldly society is well served when the citizens of heaven still living in the world are protected by the temporal power. And although the Church as a whole can only profit by persecution, nevertheless temporal peace is a greater blessing, and one to be prayed and worked for, since it provides the normal condition under which most men can safely expect to work out their eternal destiny.
Was Saint Augustine planning a temporal theocracy, a Holy Roman Empire in The City of God? It is abundantly clear that the City he described is the Kingdom of Christ which, as Jesus told Pilate, is "not of this world." Nevertheless, that does not mean that Augustine would necessarily have frowned upon a temporal theocracy. But it certainly entitles us to suppose that he would have placed very high hopes in one.
The real value of this book, then, is not to be found in the help it may offer in solving immediate problems of policy in the world. What it offers us is something far more important. It opens our eyes to the deep and vital view of history which is the Christians and mystical view, the vision of Saint Paul and of the Evangelists who knew that Christ had come into the world to "draw all things to Himself" - John 12:32 - and who saw that "all things worked together for the good of them that love God" - Romans 8:28 - because all the good and evil of history, all the prosperity and adversity which come upon the saints in this life serve only to forward the growth of the Mystical Christ "unto a perfect man and unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ" - Ephesians 4:13 - This eschatological view of history contemplates with joy the running out of the sands of time and looks forward with gladness to the Christ." The City of God, for those who can understand it, contains the secret of death and life, war and peace, hell and heaven.
*** Abbey of Gethsemani - January 4, 1950.
- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 -
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -
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