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 then explores why the good are often chastised alongside the wicked. He offers several reasons. First, even the righteous have their sins, though they be slight compared to the enormities of the wicked, and these temporal corrections serve to purify them. Second, the good often fail in their duty to admonish and reprove sinners, shrinking from the labor or fearing to give offense, and thus they justly share in the temporal punishment of the community whose morals they might have helped to correct. Third, affliction serves to wean the soul from excessive love of this present life. Fourth, suffering proves the sincerity of faith, as in the case of Job, whose trials demonstrated that he loved God for God’s own sake and not for the gifts God had bestowed. The good man, therefore, ought not to murmur against God when he suffers with the wicked, but should examine his own conscience and accept the discipline as a means of purification.
Regarding the loss of temporal goods, Augustine argues that Christians have lost nothing of true value. Their faith, their godliness, the hidden man of the heart—these remain secure. The apostle Paul taught that godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and can carry nothing out. Those who used their wealth for good works, distributing freely and laying up treasure in heaven, have lost nothing that truly belonged to them; their treasure is safe where no thief can steal it. Those who hoarded their wealth have learned through the pain of loss to place their trust in the living God rather than in uncertain riches. Even those who were tortured to reveal hidden wealth learned that the desire for money, rather than its possession, was the true source of their torment. Augustine recounts the example of Paulinus of Nola, who, having voluntarily embraced holy poverty, prayed when the barbarians took him captive that he might not be troubled for gold and silver, for his treasure was laid up in heaven. The famine, too, served a providential purpose: those who died were delivered from the evils of this life, while those who survived were taught to live sparingly and endure hardship.
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