“CHAPTER IX: ST.

AUGUSTINE”

HISTORY - EARLSEN

We return to the time of the medieval period, the ten centuries between the fall of the Roman
empire (5th century) and the revival of ancient thought and learning (15th century), with focus
on the defeat of the Roman empire known as “The Sack of Rome” on Anno Domini 410. The
Visigoths achieved the destruction, but the Romans believed that Rome had already lost its
powers before the arrival of the barbarians leading to them pointing toward their perceived
culprit of the failure of Rome to stand against their invaders - Christianity. AD 313, Christianity
was tolerated in Rome, and 80 years later, it became the state's official religion in which the law
proscribed and prohibited paganism from flourishing.

Christianity’s qualities were the cause of Rome’s weakening. It observed an otherworldliness

attitude; taught meekness and pacifism to the Roman people; it was shown to disregard public
affairs; and Christianity disregarded the revered national deities of Rome. At the time, there
existed the Christian refusal to recognize “loyalty to Rome” as the “first loyalty”. It was allegedly
believed that Christianity attempted to build a state within a state - it seeped into every social
class without overt acts of force but by infiltration and ideological appeal.

After Rome was ravaged in AD 410, Christianity in Rome was questioned. “If Rome was not
strong enough to safeguard its own existence against heathen tribes, how could it be the source
of worldly power that the Church needed in spreading Christianity?” Amidst the fall of the
Roman empire and all this doubt about Christianity, an individual had a vision of a timeless
empire in which peace and justice would reign, a vision of the City of God. That individual is St.
Augustine of Hippo.

BACKGROUND OF PHILOSOPHER - ERICAH

St. Augustine of Hippo was born in AD 354 and died in AD 430. He was a native and lifelong
inhabitant of Roman North Africa with his parents being North Africans, his mother was a devout
Christian believer while his father never embraced the Christian faith. After many years of living
an active and sinful lifestyle, he converted to Christianity after being baptized in Italy in AD 387.
Once baptized, he rose quickly in the hierarchy of the Church and was made Bishop of Hippo in
AD 395 where he stayed until his death.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was a philosopher, theologian, and bishop in modern-day
Algeria, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time. St. Augustine wrote several books,
the most famous of which include Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, and The City of God. His
books were highly influential in Western philosophy and in the Christian religion. Augustine is
now recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church. Augustine was also influential for Protestants,
especially Lutherans and Calvinists, and was considered one of the fathers of the Protestant
Reformation.
St. Augustine was not a constitutional lawyer or political theorist, but a theologian, interested in
God, Faith, and Salvation. He wrote “The City of God (De Civitate Dei)” in AD 413 which was
consisting of 22 books and was finished in AD 426. He set out to answer two main questions
after the rising doubt about Christianity and Rome: (1) The pagan challenge to Christianity and
(2) the vision of the heavenly city, as contrasted with the earthly city.

St. Augustine wrote several books, which include:

Confessions: St. Augustine's best-known book. Although it is a work of theology, it is also an

autobiographical text, detailing Augustine's youth as a self-described sinner and his own
conversion to Christianity.

The City of God or On the City of God Against the Pagans: Augustine's response to the
claim that Christianity brought on the decline of the Roman Empire. Augustine argues that
Christianity was not responsible for Rome's decline, but was instead responsible for Rome's
success while it lasted. He also criticizes paganism in this text.

On the Trinity: Augustine's explanation of the trinity that makes up the Christian God (Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost or Spirit). Augustine argued that the three parts of the trinity are not
different, but share the same nature. He used the concept of love as a metaphor for how the
parts of the trinity relate to each other: one that loves, one that is loved, and love itself.

On Christian Doctrine: Consists of four books that teach the reader how to interpret and teach
the Biblical scriptures through preaching and rhetorical strategies. Augustine also offers advice
on how to defend the church's doctrine against argumentative interlocutors.

On Grace and Free Will: Augustine's text where he wrestles with the puzzle of whether humans
have free will, considering the absolute will of God. Augustine argues that the will of God is
necessary for the freedom of humans.

EXCERPT FROM “THE CITY OF GOD”

(1) JUSTICE - THE FOUNDATION OF THE STATE & (2) THE TRUE HAPPINESS OF THE
RULER (SERENE)

St. Augustine begins by comparing kingdoms to robberies. He describes the crew behind
robberies to be made up of men that have banded together by their pact of a confederacy, ruled
by the authority of a prince, and their stolen treasures are divided amongst them by the law they
have agreed on. Such an evil when increased to a large scale, taking in more people, robbers or
authorities, and victims, will form what we name as a kingdom - they take possession of cities,
hold these places under their power, and subdue the people living in them. Thus, St. Augustine
argues that Justice should be a core element of a kingdom or state in order for it to have a clear
divide between great robberies. He says, “Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms
but great robberies?”
The presence of Justice in a kingdom would mainly be attributed to its Ruler. St. Augustine says
that the ruler would truly be happy if and only if they rule justly, and he defines this as when they
make their power the handmaid of His majority by using it for the greatest possible extension of
His worship. When they fear, love, and worship God, they are slow to punish and ready to
pardon, apply punishment only necessary to the government and defense of the republic, and If
they do all these things through the love of eternal felicity, then they are destined to be happy in
the enjoyment of reality itself.

(3) THE EARTHLY CITY AND THE HEAVENLY CITY & (4) THE TWO TYPES OF MAN
(SERENE)

St. Augustine says that two cities have been formed, resulting from two loves existing within
man. The first city being the Earthly City formed by the love of self even to the contempt of God
- seeks only the glory derived from men and the city rules because of its love of ruling. The
second city being the Heavenly City formed by the love of God even to the contempt of self -
seeks the greatest glory which is God and the city serves one another through love. With the
two classifications of cities comes as well the two classifications of those who live according to
the cities’ natures, men who live according to man and men who live according to God.

St. Augustine states that the career of these two cities is that the dying will give place and those
who are born will succeed. When these two cities begin to run their course by a series of deaths
and births, the citizen of this world was the first born, and after him the stranger in this world of
men and evil, the citizen of the city of God. He analogizes this to the brothers Cain and Abel in
which Cain, being the first born, belonged to the city of men and Abel, the second, belonging to
the city of God. Every man is first of all born of this first evil and is only able to become good
afterwards because of the death of the first and that the next that will succeed will turn to God.
“No one will be good who was not first of all wicked.”

(5) CONFLICT AND PEACE IN THE EARTHLY CITY & (6) THE LUST FOR POWER IN THE
EARTHLY CITY (EARLSEN)

Focusing on the Earthly city in which men run rampant with their ruling and quarrels, such is
what keeps the city often divided against its own self. For victories attained through wars are
either life-destroying or only short-lived. However, St. Augustine states that it cannot justly be
said that the Earthly city’s desires are evil, for such a state or city desires something that is
better for all than all other individual human good. The Earthly city has these litigations, wars,
and quarrels in order to attain their peace. This earthly peace is for the sake of enjoying earthly
goods; however, if they neglect the better things of the heavenly city, then it is necessary that
misery will follow and continue to increase.

To discover the roots of these conflicts and the foundation of the Earthly city, St. Augustine
showcases a mythology of ancient Rome that of which the empire was built on a fratricide - “The
first walls were stained with a brother’s blood.” Remus was slain by his brother Romulus in order
to become Rome’s very first king and the only one to enjoy the throne. This quarrel over the
throne of Rome shows how the Earthly city is divided against itself. In contrast to the brothers
Cain and Abel, they illustrate the hatred that subsists between the two cities, that of God and
that of men. Cain and Abel were not animated with the same earthly desires as Remus and
Romulus, the murderer did not envy the other but was moved by that diabolical, envious hatred
with which the evil regarded the good.

(7) LIMITATIONS OF SOCIAL LIFE & (8) SHORTCOMINGS OF HUMAN JUSTICE (EMILIO)

We all understand how the life of a man is exactly to be social and the same applies to being a
wise man. In our social life, we can never avoid these experiences of suspicions, arguments,
and war which are obviously undoubted evils. Meanwhile, any peace we experience is good, but
a doubtful one. This could simply have been the result of what people have gone through in
their social life. In the words of Cicero, “There are no snares more dangerous than those which
lurk under the guise of duty of the name of the relationship… this hidden, intestine, and
domestic danger not merely exist, but overwhelms you before you can foresee and examine it.”

As human social life dictates the separation between those who are wise and those who do not
fit the description, these wise men hold power in court as judges. The same judges who will put
the accused to torture to discover whether he is truly guilty; And even though they could be
innocent, will still suffer most undoubted punishment for a crime that is still doubtful because it is
not ascertained that the accused did not commit it. When such torture elevates to a high degree
leading to the death of the accused, the judge would have both tortured an innocent man to
discover his innocence and has put him to death without discovering it first. These numerous
and important evils the judge does not consider as sins; the wise judge does these things, not
with any intention of doing harm, but because his ignorance compels him, and because human
society claims him as a judge.

(9) THE MISERY OF WAR & (10) THE OBJECTIVE OF WAR: PEACE (EARLSEN)

Now, it is discussed by St. Augustine that there exist three (3) circles of human society: First
being the House, Second being the City, and Third being the World. When two men, originating
from different cities and each ignorant of the other’s language, meet, their common nature is to
think not of being friendly when they are presented by the diversity of language. This leads to
the imperial city endeavoring to impose on other subject nations their language as a bond of
peace and unity. After this has been accomplished, the empire itself will produce wars of more
obnoxious descriptions called social and civil wars. For the wise man is compelled to wage just
wars because of the wrongdoing of the opposing party which compels the wise man to do such;
And when such wrongdoing does not give rise to war, it would still be a matter of grief because it
is man’s wrongdoing.
These wars, although violent, are waged by men for the objective of peace. There is no man
who does not wish to be joyful, and neither is there anyone who does not wish to have peace.
Thus, all men desire to have peace with their own circle with whom they wish to govern
themselves. For when those whom they make war against they wish to make their own, and
impose on them the laws of their own peace.

(12) RULERS AS SERVANTS OF THE RULED & (13) LIBERTY AND SLAVERY (EMILIO)

As the social life continues, a person finds three (3) things one has to love - God, one’s self, and
one’s neighbor for a person who loves God loves one’s self thereby. Due to this, the person
must endeavor to get his neighbor to love God since the order is to love one’s neighbor as one’s
self. This is the order of the concord, that a person, in the first place, injures no one; in the
second, do good to everyone that person can reach.

Even when a person becomes a ruler in the Earthly city, the same rule about love applies to
their position. This makes it so that those who rule will serve those whom they seem to
command. They rule not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others
and not because they are proud of authority, but because they have mercy, compassion, and
love. This makes the prime cause of slavery being sin which brings man under the dominion of
his fellow.

(11) THE TRANQUILITY OF ORDER IN THE UNIVERSE (EMILIO)

The peace of all things is the tranquility of order and this order is the distribution which allots
things equal and unequal, each to its own place. It is distributed across all levels of social life
and beyond in the following:

Peace of the body = duly proportioned arrangement of its parts

Peace of the irrational soul = harmonious repose of the appetites
Peace of the rational soul = harmony of knowledge and action
Peace of body and soul = well-ordered and harmonious life and health of the living creature
Peace between man and God = well-ordered obedience of faith to Eternal law
Peace between man and man = well-ordered concord
Domestic peace = well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who
obey
Civil peace = similar concord of domestic peace among citizens
Peace of celestial city = perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one
another in God

St. Augustine states that:

There may be life without pain, while there cannot be pain without some kind of life. There may
be peace without war, but there cannot be war without some kind of peace. Therefore, there is a
nature in which evil does not or even cannot exist; but there cannot be a nature in which there is
no good.
(12) EQUITABLE RULE

"Although our righteous fathers had slaves, and administered their domestic affairs so as to
distinguish between the condition of slaves and heirship of sons,byet in regard to the worship of
God, they took an equally loving oversight of all the members of their household" This implies
that even though the master/father treats his sons and slaves differently in the household, they
both shares the same equal position in regards of worshipping God.

Those who are true father's if their households desire and endeavor that all the members of
their household, equally with their own children, should worship and win God. Masters ought to
feel their position of authority a greater burden than servants their service.

Basically, this excerpt about Equitable Rule is self explanatory. In worshiping God, the master's
heir and servants should be treated equally. If any member of the household breaks any rule or
interrupts the domestic peace by disobedience, then they should be corrected through word or
blow or any legitimate punishment, according to the severity of disobedience, such as society
permits.

The house ought to be the beginning or element of the city, and the integrity of the city lies on its
element. Thus:
Domestic peace has a relation to civic peace.
The well-ordered concord of domestic obedience and domestic rule has a relation to the
well-ordered concord of civic obedience and civic rule. Therefore, the father of the family ought
to frame his domestic rule in accordance with the law of the city, so that the household may be
in harmony with the civic order.

(13) THE SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER OF THE HEAVENLY CITY ON EARTH

POSTVIEW SUMMARY (ERICAH)

St. Augustine was not a strict political theorist; what we have on his political ideas was taken
from larger writings but mostly revolves around the concept of the Two Cities. On one hand
there is the Earthly City, defined by earthly desires and actions. The other is the City of God,
defined by spiritual pursuits. Humans could only be citizens of one city, and their natural default
was to live in the earthly city (as a result of the Fall of Man).

From the start, we see something important in St. Augustine's philosophical worldview: the
world is imperfect. Even those who strive to live in the City of God must contend with the
realities of an imperfect world. The best they can do is to strive towards justice, an ultimate
Augustinian ideal. True justice defines the City of God, but earthly cities should be as just as is
possible considering the imperfect realities of their lives. As St. Augustine once wrote: ''Remove
justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?''

So, political states are imperfect, but they do serve a higher purpose. By creating laws and
maintaining order, they serve a divine mandate to protect humanity from chaos. Rulers,
therefore, have a natural right to create laws and punish law-breakers, and citizens have a
natural obligation to obey their rulers absolutely. But what if the ruler is unjust? Citizens still must
obey but must not contradict the laws of God. If an earthly law contradicts a heavenly law,
humans must break it, but still must accept the earthly punishment for doing so.