Augustine of Hippo 354 AD

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Augustine of Hippo 354 A.D. – 430 A.D. North Africa • Perhaps the most influential African ever; born a pagan, chose Christianity after studying in different Roman cities; studied Cicero, and became a bishop. • His book The City of God was written in response to the pagans of Rome, who said that the pagans had been able to attack the city because the few Christians who lived their were not loyal to the pagan gods; Augustine argues that the Christians had actually prevented the destruction from being even worse. He points out that pagan gods were unable to save Troy, and unable to defend Rome against previous attacks. He used the metaphor “City of Man” to describe worldly politics, and “City of God” to designate spiritual and intellectual philosophy. The City of God is not the same as the church, because mere membership proves nothing. Both structures want peace, and can cooperate; but the City of God seeks spiritual peace in addition to earthly peace, which can be reached by living Christian societal involvement, and by spiritual reflection and rational contemplation. • He defends Christians who have been blamed for the fact that the Goths attacked Rome in 410 A.D.; the Roman polytheists said that the presence of Christians angered the pagan gods and weakened the city. The two cities are, of course, not actual physical cities, but symbols, for those who embrace Christianity as compared to those who cling to paganism. Augustine points out that the City of Rome would have been trashed even worse if the Christian churches hadn’t protected both the pagan and Christian citizens of Rome. He is realistic enough to say that you will never have a society which is 100% pagan or a society which is 100% Christian, so the two groups must cooperate, and they have common goals which will help them do this. He also says that simply being a member of the church doesn't guarantee that a person really has a Christian spiritual desire for peace. As part of the Christian tradition, he embraces the whole idea of God’s unearned favor toward people; nobody earns God's gifts, and the thing that will really get a person into trouble is if she or he thinks that he or she is good enough to earn God's favor. Admitting that you’re not perfect (says Augustine) is the basis for Christianity. Augustine criticizes the pagans for thinking that earthly peace can be achieved by human intellect and abilities. Rather, he says, peace has a spiritual origin beyond human beings. Human beings, trying to use their own powers, are imperfect and insufficient to create peace. Augustine points out the need the balance both the Christian impulse for societal involvement (helping the poor, founding schools, etc.) and the Christian impulse for meditation and contemplation: each is good, he says, but we need both. The future of human history is, then, societies continually trying to find peace and justice, and sometimes succeeding more, and sometimes succeeding less, depending on how the mix of people works together. • Augustine’s autobiography is entitled the Confessions – both in the sense of “admitting guilt” and “stating belief”. .

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