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.
Augustine transitions his argument from refuting the worship of gods for temporal advantages to addressing those who worship them for eternal life. He reviews the previous five books, asserting that reasonable readers will find his refutation of worshipping false gods for earthly gain sufficient, despite the obstinacy of critics who irrationally hate Christianity. Adopting Varro’s esteemed division of theology into mythical, natural, and civil kinds, Augustine prepares to demonstrate that neither the mythical nor the civil kinds can secure future happiness. He begins this new contention by citing the Psalms against vanities, distinguishing between the errors of the common people and the more tolerable philosophers who repudiate fables. Augustine then poses the critical question of whether one should worship the many subordinate gods created by the one God, rather than the Creator Himself, to attain the life after death.
Having posed the question of whether subordinate gods warrant worship for the sake of eternal life, Augustine now dismantles that proposition by exposing the absurd
Augustine begins his argument by exposing the fundamental irrationality of seeking eternal life from the multitude of minor deities to whom the pagans have assigned jurisdiction over the most trivial and temporal aspects of human existence. He employs a reductio ad absurdum, likening such requests to the foolishness of a theatrical mimic who asks wine from the Lymphs or water from Vulcan. If it is ridiculous to seek a specific earthly element from a god who presides over a different element, it is infinitely more absurd to ask these same impotent gods for the gift of immortality. Augustine emphasizes that these gods have already been proven incapable of granting even terrestrial kingdoms, a power far inferior to that of bestowing eternal life. Furthermore, he notes that these deities often fail in their own limited spheres of influence. He argues that if the worship of these gods actually produced the specific benefits they were thought to control, one might grant them some limited power. However, the reality is that the worshippers of the goddess Juventas do not necessarily possess remarkable vigor in their youth, nor do her despisers inevitably die young or succumb to premature old age. Likewise, the bearded Fortuna Barbata does not reliably bestow handsome beards upon her suppliants, nor does she withhold them from those who scorn her. Since their worship is demonstrably vain regarding the petty temporal advantages they are purported to control, it is the height of madness to trust they possess the power to grant the supreme good of eternal beatitude.
The original text of this work is in the public domain. This page focuses on a guided summary article, reading notes, selected quotes, and visual learning materials for educational purposes.