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 provides a detailed analysis of Porphyry’s letter to Anebo the Egyptian, a document that reveals the philosopher’s deep ambivalence about theurgic practices. Writing in the character of an inquirer, Porphyry exposes the contradictions and absurdities of the magical arts. He expresses astonishment that sacrifices can compel the gods to do men’s bidding, that visible celestial bodies are considered divine despite being corporeal, that priests must avoid certain foods while the gods they serve are attracted by sacrificial fumes. He relates how a certain Chæremon described the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris as having such power that the gods could be coerced by threats—threats to divulge the mysteries or scatter the members of Osiris. Porphyry rightly marvels that men should utter wild and impossible threats against the heavenly gods and that these threats should prove effective. He concludes that such things must be the work of deceitful spirits who simulate gods and dead men but are in fact demons. Augustine commends Porphyry’s skeptical observations but laments that the philosopher did not take the final step of renouncing these practices entirely and embracing the worship of the one true God.
Having distinguished the true miracles of God from the deceptive marvels of theurgy, Augustine proceeds to elaborate on the ministry of angels and the providence of God. It has pleased Divine Providence that the law enjoining the worship of one God should be given through the disposition of angels. In this administration, the person of God Himself visibly appeared, not in His proper substance—which ever remains invisible to mortal eyes—but by infallible signs furnished by creation in obedience to its Creator. He made use of human speech, uttering words syllable by syllable, though in His own nature He speaks not in a bodily but in a spiritual manner, not to sense but to the mind. What He says is accurately heard by the mental ear of His ministers and messengers, who are immortally blessed in the enjoyment of His unchangeable truth. The directions which they receive in an ineffable manner, they execute without delay in the visible world. This law was given in conformity with the age of the world, containing at first earthly promises which symbolized eternal ones. These eternal blessings few understood, though many participated in the celebration of their visible signs. Nevertheless, both the words and the visible rites of that law enjoin the worship of one God—not one of a crowd of gods, but Him who made heaven and earth, and every soul and every spirit which is other than Himself. He created all things; all else was created; and, both for being and well-being, all things need Him who created them. Thus, the ministry of angels is the instrument by which God executes His providence in the world, guiding the education of the human race from earthly to heavenly things, and from the visible to the invisible.
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