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.
The Creation of the Angels
Though Genesis does not explicitly name angels, their creation is implied by the statement that God rested from all His works on the seventh day. Scripture elsewhere confirms that angels were created before the stars, who praised God at their creation. Therefore, the angels must be identified with the light of the first day, illuminated by the eternal Light of the Word. By participating in this uncreated Light, they became light themselves. Some angels, however, turned away and became darkness—not by nature but by privation of the good they had lost.
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