The City of God stands as Augustine's masterwork of theological defense and construction, written over thirteen years in response to accusations that Christianity brought ruin upon Rome. This first volume contains the first ten books of sustained refutation—demolishing pagan claims that traditional worship secured either temporal prosperity or eternal happiness—followed by the beginning of his positive vision in Books Eleven through Thirteen, where he traces the origin of two societal orders to the primordial division among the angels. What emerges is not merely an apology for Christianity but a philosophy of history that subordinate the fate of empires to the hidden providence of the one true God, whose sovereignty extends from creation through the fall to the final judgment.
Separation of Light and Darkness
Applying this to Genesis, the separation of light from darkness signifies the division between the holy angels (light) and the fallen angels (darkness). Only God could make this discrimination, for He alone foresaw the fall. The approval of the light (“God saw that it was good”) is not immediately attached to the separation, lest it seem to approve the darkness.
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