For Augustine, virtue is the perfect love of God since virtues are supposed to lead us to the happy life.

Virtue is the beauty of love ordered toward God and in virtue, one loves what is morally desirable. To
live virtuously is to discern and to order love in accordance with the true worth. Hence, virtue is the art
of living healthy and rightly. Moreover, all virtues find their unity in the love of God. The cardinal virtues
such as prudence, temperance, courage, and justice have meaning only when put in their proper
standpoint that is the love of God. Augustine interprets them as an expression of the love of God
otherwise, they would only be vanity. For example, “temperance is described as love keeping itself
whole and incorrupt for God, and courage, as love bearing everything readily for the sake of God”. (slide
9) The love of God is also tested through charity, meaning the love of our neighbors. Augustine
illustrates the prime virtue of love by the double love command taught in the Bible. Jesus tells us to not
only love God but to also love our neighbors. Loving our neighbors entail not harming them, but to
rather promote their good. God will, therefore, judge us based on our reaction to this double love
command.

Augustine speaks of sin, redemption and grace and their relation to one another. Sin is the absence of
moral goodness or the act of failing to choose the ultimate good. There are three ways one can commit
sin; entertaining temptation to sin, taking pleasure in the thought of performing sin, and consenting to
perform the sinful act. The Original Sin had resulted from the first humans’ disobedience (Adam and
Eve) to God in the Garden of Eden. The fall of grace thus was the transition of the innocent image of God
to being a corrupted creature/nature. Man cannot redeem himself even if he attempts to pursue what is
good due to his fallen nature. Men cannot attain happiness, salvation or eternal life. However, Augustine
highlights that sin can be avoided if our corrupted nature is healed by God’s grace. Only God’s grace can
free our will from the domination of sin. It takes both grace and free will to overcome sin and to achieve
virtue. Grace is the aid granted by God to man with his free will. Grace does not replace free will, but if it
did, then there would not be anything to receive its aid. Therefore, the effect of grace is to help free will
achieve its purpose.

Augustine talks about the three types of vision which are as follow: the corporeal vision which is the
lowest type of vision, the spiritual vision which is the second type of vision, and finally, the intellectual
vision which is the highest plane of vision. The corporeal vision is the seeing of bodies through the
medium of the corporeal light and by means of the faculty of sight. The spiritual vision, also known as
cogitation or imagination, is the soul viewing images of bodily things. Lastly, the intellectual vision is
where the soul sees the intelligible truth without the help of any images. Furthermore, Augustine claims
that man is capable of imageless thought. He somehow emphasizes that we do not carry images, but
rather the things themselves. The higher visions (intellectual) do not depend on the corporeal and
spiritual visions. The intellectual visions come from above the soul and not from things below. The soul
functions on all three levels of vision as well as the will. Augustine claims that we see and hear because
we wish to do so. Therefore, one is held accountable for what he or she sees and that one can decide
not to look or to direct one’s mind to the thought of sin.

The two cities Augustine mentions are the Temporal cities and the city of God. All people, Christians, and
pagans live in Temporal cities. All Temporal cities form the Earthly city whose history begins with the
earliest days of mankind. Its citizens were united by their common desirable goods, such as peace, that
was necessary for the temporal life. On the other hand, Christians make up another city. They integrate
a single Heavenly City which is the city of God. Its people were those with the same faith and were
united by the common love of the same God. They are recruited among all Christians who lived in
temporal cities from any places and times in history. Men in the city of God lived according to God’s
laws. The two cities have existed side by side ever since the beginning. Just like the people in temporal
cities, men in the city of God also use earthly resources to attain peace. However, Christians only use
these goods. They do not enjoy them as the ultimate objects of their love. They live a spiritual life up
until the end of the world. On the day of judgment, both cities will be separated and be constituted
apart.