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 further addresses Hermes’ complaint that the land of Egypt would become full of sepulchres and dead men. He notes that pagans often accuse Christians of worshipping dead men in sepulchres, contrasting this with their own worship of gods in temples. However, Augustine demonstrates that pagan literature admits that many of their gods were once men to whom divine honors were paid after death. Hermes himself testifies that Aesculapius and Mercury were men who were worshipped as gods, and that their bodies lay in sepulchres while their “better parts” were said to have gone to heaven or to help mortals. Augustine argues that Hermes was thus compelled to confess that the land was already full of sepulchres and dead men who were worshipped as gods. The demons were sorrowing through Hermes because they foresaw their own punishment and the loss of their dominion over the worshippers.
Finally, Augustine clarifies the nature of Christian honor paid to martyrs. He insists that Christians do not build temples or ordain priests and sacrifices to martyrs, for the martyrs are not gods. The God of the martyrs is the God of the Christians. Honors paid at their tombs are memorials to holy men, not sacrifices to the dead. Sacrifices are offered to God alone at their tombs, giving thanks for the martyrs’ victories and stirring up imitators. Even if some Christians bring food to these places, it is to be sanctified through the merits of the martyrs and shared with the needy, not offered as a sacrifice to the martyr. Augustine contrasts this with the pagan rites, which often involve the abominable crimes of their gods, either real crimes committed when they were men or fictitious crimes invented for the pleasure of demons. He concludes that no wise man imagines demons are to be worshipped on account of a blessed life after death, and he prepares to examine the opinion that some demons are good and worthy of worship in the following book.
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