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.
Sallust distinguishes between the good man and the base man in their pursuit of glory, honor, and power. Both desire these things, but the good man seeks them by the true path—virtue—while the base man employs fraud and deceit. The Romans even built temples to Virtue and Honor, worshipping as gods the gifts that God alone can bestow. Cato, the exemplar of Roman virtue, observed that the republic grew great not through arms or wealth but through industry at home, just government abroad, and minds free from crime and lust—virtues that had disappeared by his own time. Yet even Cato’s virtue, impressive by human standards, fell short of true righteousness, for it was directed toward earthly glory rather than toward God.
Augustine clarifies that the love of human praise, though it restrained greater vices and enabled civil achievements, remains itself a vice. True virtue seeks the glory of God, not the approval of men. The Lord Himself warned that those who seek glory from one another cannot truly believe, for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. The apostles and martyrs, by contrast, did not rest in human acclaim but referred all glory to God, seeking to kindle in others a love for the One who had made them what they were. Nevertheless, for the Romans, who knew only the earthly city, the pursuit of glory was the highest motive available to them. God granted them empire and fame as their reward; in the Lord’s words, they have received their reward.
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