The City of God, written by St. Augustine in the fifth Century AD, is a massive five hundred thousand-word book. The massive tome is divided into 22 smaller books, with topics ranging from the history of Rome from a Christian perspective to what life will be like in heaven.
Augustine wrote the book to respond to pagans, who claimed that Rome being sacked resulted from the empire embracing Christianity. He showed that the Roman pantheon had failed to protect Rome at other times throughout its history. He began with this idea and expanded his discussions to include his thoughts on Roman history, church structure, free will, grace, and many other topics.
The City of God owes a debt to Plato, one of Augustine’s main influences. Plato’s Republic was a major influence on the structure of Augustine’s work. Plato’s Republic outlined his ideal society, where the government consisted of philosopher-kings. For Augustine, the government consisted of the Earthly City (Rome) and the Heavenly City. Both works also focus on themes of justice and virtue. Augustine recognized that these were essential qualities of The City of God.
Augustine, the Bishop of the North African city of Hippo, impacted Christianity in the West by fighting heretics of the age. His main opponent, Pelagius, taught that humanity had total freedom and that we could please God in our natural state. Meanwhile, Augustine recognized that humanity had fallen in Adam and we cannot please God in our natural state. Augustine’s arguments against Pelagius made his view of human nature dominant in Western Christianity.
Neoplatonism, a popular idea during Augustine’s time, influenced him in his youth. Neoplatonism was a rebirth of the ideas of Plato that stressed the transcendence of a supreme being and divine illumination.
Augustine’s belief in the transcendence of a supreme being greatly influenced The City of God. This idea came largely from his previous interest in Neoplatonism and his study of the scriptures. He recognized God as the ultimate source of all things and all perception. This influenced many other ideas throughout the Middle Ages, particularly Scholasticism.
Divine illumination defined Augustine’s doctrine of Grace. In his view, humans cannot respond to God unless God’s grace goes to them first. This view is nearly universal throughout Protestant denominations today. This idea is also supported by 1 John 4 “We love because he first loved us.” Augustine also applied this idea to our election as Children of God.
The City of God rippled spilled into Christian thought and teaching for the next 600 years. Augustine’s view of Human Nature and Free will dominated the Western World and impacted other important theologians. One of his teachings that had the biggest impact on European Politics for 1000 years was the idea of Just War.
Just war must meet several criteria. First, a legitimate authority must wage it. Second, the cause and the reason behind going to war must be legitimate. Finally, war must be a last resort.
City of God also gave Western governments the idea that people are sinful and must be governed to keep their sinfulness in check. City of God also contributed significantly to the idea of the separation of Church and State. City of God became a foundational document for many governments throughout the Medieval period.
B.B. Warfield states in his book Calvin and Augustine, “The Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine’s doctrine of grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the Church.”
By the Reformation period, Augustine’s view of human nature contrasted significantly with the view of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who modeled his life on the life of Augustine. Before assembling his 95 theses, Luther translated and annotated many of Augustine’s works, including The City of God. Martin Luther’s views on human nature, grace, predestination, and many other topics were influenced greatly by Augustine.
The City of God had a major influence on one of Luther’s works, On The Bondage of the Will. In this book, Luther argues that human nature, corrupted through the fall, is not free until Christ redeems it. Only in Christ can humans have true free will. Augustine also held this view and wrote on it in Book 5, Chapter Ten, where he argues that neither the Stoic view (that all things are meticulously predestined) nor the view of Cicero (that God has no knowledge of the future) could be held.
In a treatise on God and predestination, John Calvin said, “Augustine is so wholly within me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings.” This explains why Augustine is by far the most cited author in Calvin’s work. The City of God gave John Calvin the foundations of God’s effectual grace and the doctrine of predestination that came to define Reformed Christianity.
Augustine lays out his ideas in this order:
Book 1: Augustine contrasts the City of God with the earthly city, addresses the criticism that Christianity caused the fall of Rome, and lays out the scope and purpose of the work.
Books 2-10: Augustine engages with the pagan beliefs and myths of Rome, refutes their claims of divine protection, and highlights their moral failures. He argues that worshipping false gods cannot secure the state’s well-being.
Books 11-14: Augustine explores the origins and characteristics of the City of God and the City of Man. He presents them as two distinct societies with different goals, allegiances, and destinies. He emphasizes the superiority and eternal nature of the City of God.
Books 15-18: Augustine addresses various philosophical and theological topics, including the nature of evil, the origin of sin, free will, and the relationship between divine grace and human effort. He offers explanations for the existence of evil and the ways that God’s providence operates.
Books 19-22: Augustine focuses on themes that deal with the final destiny of humanity, discussing the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, and the eternal destinies of individuals in either the City of God or the City of Man. He concludes the work by reflecting on the City of God’s ultimate victory and its citizens’ eternal blessedness.
Because of its immensity and wide range of topics, there is no expectation that the average reader will finish The City of God in one sitting or read the entire book. It may best be treated as a reference book. It is fully available online here.
Even if most believers don’t read this massive book, we can still learn from it about how to engage with the culture around us. Augustine used arguments and ideas by his day’s popular authors, philosophers, and historians to expound the Gospel of Grace. We can pick up similar themes in philosophers, theologians, or podcasters today and use them to bring conversations with those around us back to Christ.
The City of God also helps us as believers today because of its period. It was written at the end of an empire that had stood in the West for nearly 500 years. Some have argued that the modern world is in a similar state. Augustine has much to teach about living in a crumbling world. He reminds us that this world is not our home, but we are citizens of the City of God first and foremost.
Augustine writes in book 14 chapter 28, “Two loves have made two cities: love of self, even to contempt of God, has made the earthly city; and love of God, even to contempt of self, has made the heavenly city.”
Modern society idolizes self-love at the expense of other things because it has become our driving force. Loving ourselves means minimizing the pain we feel in this life and pursuing pleasure wherever possible. As Christians, we can respond by saying that self-love will leave us empty because we cannot love other people or ourselves perfectly. Our main source of love should be from God, who loved us first. The contempt of self Augustine describes distinguishes itself from self-pity because it is only in comparison to our love for God that we have contempt for ourselves. This means that as believers, we can have more joy than anyone because we have a true hope that will last beyond this lifetime. The City of God is our true destination, and we should welcome all people to die to themselves and join us on the road there.
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Pierre Bamin
Ben Reichert works with college students in New Zealand. He graduated from Iowa State in 2019 with degrees in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and agronomy. He is passionate about church history, theology, and having people walk with Jesus. When not working or writing you can find him running or hiking in the beautiful New Zealand Bush.