Creation, the Fall, and the Regime of the Passions

The chapter discusses Augustine’s presentation in Books 11–14 of the origins of the two cities, heavenly and earthly. The focus is on the creation of the universe, the angels and the rebellion of some of them, and Adam, Eve, and the Fall. Specific themes include: Genesis exegesis; the elaboration of the history theme, with good and bad angels as ‘prologues’ to the two historical human cities; good and evil in the universe; angelic rebels and the nature of the will; death and resurrection; Platonist and Christian views on the body; Pauline flesh and spirit; emotions and passions; sexual desire in paradise and since the Fall; love of self and love of God, and the application of this contrast to the two cities.

The Structure of the City of God, and a Summary of its Contents

The chapter discusses the presentation of the themes of City in the preface to Book 1, the articulation of the work’s subdivisions in 1. 35-6, and the later summaries and anticipations of the themes and argument throughout. It demonstrates Augustine’s varied success in keeping control of the copious material. It shows that Augustine, even as late as Book 14, was uncertain about the eventual length of the work: the symmetry of Books 11–22, four books per section, was achieved in the course of its composition. The overall structure also allowed for practical publication in five codices. In the second part of the chapter, there is an extensive book-by-book summary of City’s contents.

Influences and Sources

In the City of God Augustine uses a large variety of literary sources, and in a variety of ways. Some are cited in passing, others are repeatedly used; some are referred to by name, others may be inferred; in some cases, a specific use or influence is disputed by modern interpreters. This chapter collects and summarizes the literary influences upon Augustine in City, and the sources he used, often polemically. It contains sections on secular Latin writers, on Greek, mainly philosophical, writers in Latin translations, and on Jewish and Christian writers. The principal authors discussed are, in the first section, Varro, Cicero, Sallust, Virgil, and Apuleius; in the second section, Plato, Plotinus, and Porphyry; and in the third section, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome.

Final Destinations

This chapter discusses the themes of Books 19–22, which focus on the ends of life (in the sense both of overriding values and of final states) in philosophy and in Christian biblically determined belief. The principal themes discussed are: the concept of hierarchical degrees of peace and order; the question of the realization of justice and virtue in earthly historical societies; the definition, in dialogue with Cicero, of the res publica (state); the appropriate behaviour of Christians in the Roman state; God’s last judgement, and the biblical evidence for the doctrines of afterlife rewards and punishments; the plausibility of eternal bodily punishment; bodily resurrection, and Platonist objections to it; the eternal bliss of those humans who are predestined to be saved; what ‘seeing God’ might mean.

Varro, Platonists, and Demons

The chapter analyses Books 6–10, which engage in polemic against philosophically influenced interpretations of pagan religious beliefs. The principal themes are: criticism of pagan critics of traditional Roman religion, and of the attempt to develop a natural theology, focusing on Varro; continuation of polemic against polytheism in Roman religion; the value of some Platonist doctrines (on God and the soul) and the flaws of others (demons as intermediaries, reincarnation, lax monotheism); criticism of philosophical views (especially those found in the Neoplatonist Porphyry) on purification, mediation between the divine and the human, sacrifice, and the afterlife; Christians and permissible passions; pagan and Jewish-Christian views contrasted; the meaning of Christian sacrifice; Christ as the true mediator.

‘Where Were the Gods?’

The chapter analyzes Books 1–5, which are dominated by Augustine’s polemic against Roman polytheistic religion. Book 1 functions as an overture to central themes of the work, especially the contrast between the city of God, ‘an alien among the ungodly’, and the pride and desire for domination of the earthly city; it concentrates mainly on the moral and religious issues arising from Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410. The principal themes of these books are: pagan and Christian virtues; the moral deficiencies of Roman religion and the failure of the gods to protect Rome throughout its violent and disaster-prone history; God’s providential role in the success of empires, especially the Roman Empire; arguments against fate; Christian virtues and imperial rule.

The Theme of the Two Cities

The theme of the two cities before Augustine is discussed, and its occurrence in Christian Scriptures (especially the Book of Revelation), with their symbolic use of the Jerusalem–Babylon antithesis, outlined. The theme and its ramifications in Tertullian, Lactantius, and Ambrose, and the role of the Donatist Tyconius as an influence on Augustine, are discussed. The possible influence on Augustine of the concept of contrasting cities, real and ideal, in Plato and the Platonic tradition, of the Stoic cosmic city, of the best city of Cicero’s Republic, and of the Jewish-Christian catechetical tradition, is investigated. The two cities’ theme in other writings of Augustine is surveyed, with extended citations.

The Apologetic Tradition

The City of God is arguably the culmination of the Latin Christian apologetic tradition in antiquity, and Augustine’s work concludes a series of writings that begins in the late second and early third centuries with Tertullian and Minucius Felix. The Latin Christian apologetic tradition before Augustine and its themes are discussed, with extensive references, focusing on Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Arnobius, Lactantius, and Prudentius. The literary form and scope of key works—Tertullian’s Apologeticum, the Octavius of Minucius Felix, Arnobius’ Adversus Nationes, Lactantius’ Divine Institutes—are outlined, and the use in the Latin tradition of Varro and Cicero is briefly discussed. Similarities to, and differences from, Augustine’s apologetic are noted.

The History of the Two Cities

This chapter analyses Books 15–18, which present the two cities in history, stressing that two types of human being, self-centered or God-centered, may represent allegorically the two cities: Cain and Abel are human prototypes of the two cities. The Jews, a prophetic image of the city of God, are a part of the earthly city. Biblical history is selectively outlined, with concentration on texts that are prophetic (including the tower of Babel, the Flood, Isaac and Jacob narratives). Augustine’s synchronization of biblical and secular history, using Eusebius’ Canons and their continuation by Jerome, is examined. The sequence of empires, Assyrian (confused by Augustine with Babylon) and Roman, is traced, and the oddity of Sicyon as representative of Greece is explained. Jewish prophecies contrived to relate to Christ and the Church are highlighted. The concept of the Church as a ‘mixed body’ of true and false members becomes prominent.

The Making of the Book

This chapter discusses the occasion of the composition of City of God, Alaric’s Gothic sack of Rome in 410, and reactions to it. The theme of Rome’s fall, and its moral and religious implications, in Augustine’s sermons of 410–11, and in correspondence with prominent Roman political figures in the same period, is surveyed and linked to its treatment in City. The dates of composition of its various sections from 412 on (the work was completed by 426-7), and of their publication, are discussed, as well as the dedication of Books 1–2 to Flavius Marcellinus. Evidence is provided from Augustine’s correspondence on the format and dissemination of the work. The questions of its intended readership and of the possible revision of the work are discussed