Augustine Book 19

The City of God

Augustine (354-430)

He gave the idea of a linear unfolding of time in Christiantiy

The City of God

Augustine is responding to the Visgoths sacked Rome, an unimaginable thing for Romans to believe was possible.

The Romans were mad and believed Christianity softened the Roman republic

Augustine is saying: All these political philosophies at the time agree that we are aiming towards happiness, however, there is political chaos.

He’s saying life in the world just sucks
Stuff is always going to happen and it’s going to hurt
Virtue is just there as weapons to fight against vices, the awfulness that surrounds us

We are aiming toward a world with no vice, where misery is not present

We desire it, so we preserve the soul and try to keep it’s light going long enough so when we die we get to live in eternal happiness

He says that these philosophers are stupid when they say we can be happy, when they too are mutilated and hurt. They still call it the happy life

So he’s saying why are we pretending that these ancient philosophers are right, Augustine thinks the world is awful.
Imagine that tomorrow God decides you are immortal, but then everyone and everything you know withers and dies

Death is actually the gift, whatever happiness you think you have is just the brevity

We are actually aiming for salvation

Philosophers can’t agree on anything because the end is not something natural, it is eternal life.

We can live peacefully with people who don’t believe this, but also understand we live in a world where we don’t belong.

The world sucks because of the fall

Community is based on what the people love

For Augustine, modernity is aimed at just the earthly city, not the heavenly one

Augustine vs. Moderns

Augustine agrees with Machiavelli that politics is about power, stability, and effectiveness