The City of God, Volume I

The Threefold Division of Philosophy

Philosophers arrived at a threefold division of knowledge: natural, rational, and moral. This division mirrors the three aspects of reality that point back to God as Author of nature, Giver of intelligence, and Source of love. All human philosophy concerns itself with these three questions: the cause of things, the method of knowing, and the end of living.

The Image of the Trinity in Man

Human nature bears the image of the Trinity. In the mind, Augustine finds a trinity of existence, knowledge, and love. We are certain that we exist, that we know that we exist, and that we love this existence and knowledge. These three are interior, spiritual, and indubitable. Even if we are deceived about external things, we cannot be deceived that we are if we are deceived. This trinity in the soul is a vestige of the divine Trinity.

The Love of Existence and Knowledge

All beings naturally love their own existence. This is evident even in irrational animals and plants. Man uniquely loves knowledge and truth, preferring sane grief to deluded joy. This love of truth indicates a higher vocation, pointing beyond the material to the spiritual.

Loving the Love Itself

To perfect the image of the Trinity, we must not only love existence and knowledge, but also love the very love with which we love them. This reflexive love purifies our affections and aligns them with the divine love, which is the bond of the Trinity.

The Knowledge of the Holy Angels

Angels know creatures not primarily in themselves but in the Word of God, in the eternal art by which they were made. This is a “noonday” knowledge, clear and certain. They also have a “twilight” knowledge when they behold creatures in their own being, which is dimmer. Their primary joy is in beholding God.

The Perfection of the Number Six

The six days of creation signify the perfection of the works. Six is the first number that is the sum of its aliquot parts (1, 2, 3), symbolizing completeness. This numerical perfection reflects the completeness of God’s creative act.

The Seventh Day and Rest

The seventh day signifies rest and completeness. Seven is the number of the Spirit and of totality. God’s rest is not fatigue but the rest of those who are in Him. It prefigures the eternal Sabbath, where God’s people will rest from their labors in the perfect fulfillment of their being in God.

The Two Angelic Communities

The chapter culminates in the definitive statement of the two angelic communities: the holy angels, who are light because they abide in the truth and love God; and the fallen angels, who are darkness because they turned from the truth in pride. This separation, effected by God’s foreknowledge and decree, is the origin of the two cities. The holy angels are confirmed in blessedness; the fallen are reserved for judgment.

Timing of Angelic Creation

Augustine allows for the view that angels were created before the material world, interpreting “In the beginning” as referring to the creation of the spiritual realm through the Son. The Trinity is hinted at: the Father creates, the Son is the Wisdom through whom He creates, the Spirit broods over the formless deep.

Light and Darkness as Angelic Societies

The “light” and “darkness” of Genesis 1 are best understood as symbolizing the two angelic societies. The light is the City of God, the holy angels who praise God and reflect His glory. The darkness is the earthly city, the demons who rebel and seek their own glory. This separation is the primal event upon which all subsequent history is built.

Alternative Interpretations of Waters

Augustine concludes the chapter by addressing a specific, erroneous interpretation of the creation narrative that has arisen among some thinkers. Some have supposed that the angelic hosts are referred to under the name of “waters,” and that this is what is meant by the command, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” In this view, the waters above the firmament are understood to be the holy angels, while the waters below are interpreted as either the visible physical waters, the multitude of bad angels, or the nations of men. Augustine critiques this suggestion, noting that if this were the case, the text would not indicate when the angels were created, but only when they were separated.

More gravely, Augustine refutes the foolish and wicked opinion of certain heretics, specifically the Audians and Sampsæans, who have dared to deny that the waters were created by God. Their argument rests on the observation that nowhere in the Genesis narrative is it written, “God said, Let there be waters.” With equal folly, they might argue that the earth was not created by God, for nowhere do we read, “God said, Let the earth be.” However, Augustine counters, the opening declaration of Scripture—“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”—necessarily encompasses the waters. The sea is included in the work of God, as the Psalmist testifies: “The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.”

Furthermore, Augustine addresses the physical objections raised by those who would spiritualize the waters. Those who understand the angels by the waters above the skies often struggle with the specific gravity of the elements, fearing that waters, due to their fluidity and weight, could not naturally reside in the upper regions of the cosmos. Augustine exposes the inconsistency of this “world-weighing” logic by pointing to the human body. If these critics were to construct a man according to their own principles of physics, they would not place any moist humors—what the Greeks call “phlegm”—in the head, as water is heavy and belongs low. Yet, in God’s actual handiwork, the head is the seat of the phlegm, and most fittingly so. If these critics were unaware of this anatomical fact and were informed by Scripture that God placed a moist, cold, and therefore heavy element in the uppermost part of the human body, they would refuse to believe it. If confronted with anatomical reality, they would insist the text must mean something else. Augustine uses this analogy to affirm that God, as the Creator of all nature, has the authority to order the elements—whether in the cosmos or in the human body—according to His wisdom, not according to human presumptions about weight and place.

Thus, Augustine reaffirms the literal creation of the material elements. The waters are part of the physical creation, ordered by God’s command. While the spiritual meaning of the separation of good and evil angels remains the deeper truth conveyed by the narrative of light and darkness, the waters themselves are to be understood as created matter. Having clarified this point and defended the goodness and origin of all created things, Augustine brings the book to a close, having established the foundation of the two cities in the angelic division and prepared the way for the history of the earthly and heavenly cities in human affairs.