The City of God, Volume I

In the aftermath of the Visigothic sack of Rome in 410 AD, the pagan intelligentsia revived a bitter accusation: the abandonment of the ancient gods for the worship of Christ had stripped the Empire of its divine protection. Augustine of Hippo responded to this charge with a monumental apologetic work designed to distinguish the eternal destiny of the City of God from the temporal vicissitudes of the Earthly City. In the first volume of this text, Augustine constructs his argument through a dual movement: first, a historical and philosophical refutation of paganism, and second, a positive exposition of the origins of the two cities from the creation of the world.

Augustine begins by censuring the pagans for attributing the disaster to Christianity, pointing out the moral inconsistency of their lamentation. He notes that the calamities of war affect the just and the unjust alike, and that the sanctity of Christian women who suffered violation remained intact, while the lust of their pagan attackers condemned them. Turning to history, Augustine surveys the calamities that befell Rome long before the incarnation of Christ, demonstrating that the pagan gods were impotent to prevent civil wars, plagues, and invasions. He argues that the gods did not preserve the city but rather corrupted its morals through the licentious theatrical displays required in their worship. The extent and duration of the Roman Empire, therefore, were not secured by Jove or the Capitoline deities, but were ordained by the one true God who governs all kingdoms according to His inscrutable judgment.

Having established that pagan worship fails to secure temporal prosperity, Augustine turns to the deeper theological claim that these gods can grant eternal life. He adopts Varro’s division of theology into mythical, natural, and civil, and proceeds to dismantle each. He shows that the civil theology—the state religion of Rome—worships ‘select gods’ like Janus, Jupiter, and Saturn, none of whom can purify the soul. Augustine then engages with the most formidable opponents of Christianity, the Platonists. While he acknowledges their superiority in understanding the immaterial nature of God, he refutes Apuleius and others who claim that demons should be worshipped as mediators between gods and men. Augustine argues that demons are impure spirits who delight in wickedness and theatrical deceptions; they are utterly unfit to mediate true blessedness.

In his refutation of Porphyry, Augustine insists that the good angels desire worship to be directed to God alone. He disputes the philosophical notion that the soul can be cleansed by its own power, emphasizing the necessity of Christ as the unique mediator who alone can deliver the soul from the bondage of sin and death. This leads to the second major section of the volume, where Augustine shifts from refutation to the positive exposition of the two cities. He traces the formation of these cities back to the angelic realm, interpreting the creation narrative of Genesis. The separation of the good and bad angels—caused by the defection of pride—marks the primordial origin of the City of God and the Earthly City.

Augustine inquires into the origin of good and evil wills, affirming that the angels were created good and endowed with free will. The misery of the fallen angels arose not from their nature but from their abandonment of the supreme Good. He then treats of the creation of man, affirming that humanity is not from eternity but created by God, and originally blessed with the ability not to sin. However, in Book Thirteenth, Augustine explains that death is penal and had its origin in Adam’s sin. He explores the nature of death, distinguishing between the death of the body—which is the separation of soul from body—and the death of the soul, which is the separation of the soul from God. Through this analysis, Augustine establishes that the suffering and mortality witnessed in Rome’s sack are not the result of Christian impiety, but the universal consequences of the Fall, affecting all members of the Earthly City until they are translated by grace into the City of God.