Student Question
What arguments did Augustine present in The City Of God?
Quick answer:
In The City of God, Augustine argues that Christians are not responsible for the fall of Rome to the Visigoths in 410. Rome fell due to the immorality of its citizens and not due to the failure to worship pagan gods. Augustine contrasts the City of God and the City of Man, which are intermingled on earth. The City of God will triumph in the end, and its citizens will attain eternal happiness.
In 410, Rome was a city under attack. The Visigoths under the leadership of Alaric had sacked the city, and its citizens were horrified. Those who still worshiped pagan gods were quick to blame the city's Christians for the devastation. The Christians, they said, drew people away from properly honoring the gods, and the gods were angry and punished the city.
The Christian theologian Augustine wrote The City of God to argue against this accusation. Christians are not at all to blame, he asserts, for the pagan gods are not gods at all and cannot punish or protect anyone. On the contrary, Rome fell due to the corruption and immorality of its citizens. Far from bringing about the downfall of the city, Christians actually contributed to its survival, for they kept Rome from declining into complete moral depravity and even provided safety from the Visigoths during the attack by allowing...
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Romans to take refuge in churches.
Later in the book, Augustine presents an argument that there are two “cities” that exist side by side, the City of God and the City of Man. The City of God is the heavenly city, the eternal city of God, a city of love and grace and faith and hope. It is manifested in the Christian Church but finds its completion only in Heaven. The City of Man, on the other hand, is the worldly city of unbelief, corruption, pride, immorality, and sin. These two cities continually intermingle on earth
Rome fell, Augustine argues, because it identified itself too much with the City of Man, yet it did not lose anything of real, eternal value because the City of God cannot be conquered by worldly powers. The City of God will, in the end, triumph over the City of Man, and the citizens of the City of God will attain eternal happiness.
References
What does Augustine mean by the "City of God"?
When tackling this question, it's important to understand that for St. Augustine, the City of God isn't an actual city, a city that has existed or ever will. Rather, it's a metaphor for the ideal Christian community. This is a community of the spirit, in which the faithful are bound together by their love of God. Joining the City of God involves directing one's love towards the Almighty instead of oneself.
The City of God is contrasted with another vivid metaphor, the City of Man. This is the spiritual condition of those who put self-love ahead of the love of God, who lead selfish lives in pursuit of earthly pleasures. Most people live in this “city” at some point in their lives, and yet they are never truly satisfied, no matter how much pleasure they may appear to derive. To paraphrase Augustine's famous words, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. It is in such a condition of permanent restlessness that the inhabitants of the City of Man find themselves.
Augustine argues strongly that we cannot attain true happiness in the City of Man. Such a blissful state can only be attained by entering the City of God, that spiritual community of godly Christians whose love is always fixed upon their divine creator. For Augustine, true happiness is eternal bliss, and as earthly joys by their very nature are temporary, the City of Man is not the place to experience true happiness. For that, we must become part of the City of God, which is eternal, not ephemeral.