'St. Augustine’s ‘The City of God’\r'

'‘The metropolis of immortal’ is a book written by the 5th century Church Father, St. Augustine. Augustine wrote the treatise as a general defense of delivererianity, that is, to admonish the assumption that Christianity was the get of capital of Italy’s d avouchfall. Augustine also intended the treatise to be an exposition of Christian Orthodox beliefs (against the Arians and Schismatics). The historical context in which the book was situated, Christianity was the official religion of the papistic Empire.\r\n opusy Christians dominated the politics of Rome (the emperor himself was a Christian). The Ro universe g spoke persecuted the adherents of pagan religions. A signifi hindquarterst portion of the Ro hu hu homo beings budget went to the reflection of elaborate basilicas and churches. Pagan philosophers saw these events as proofs of the unholy intent of Christianity. The impending fall of Rome was the put to work of Christianity. Christianity weakened the Ro domain present by rarefied its own will on Rome’s future. It destroyed traditionalistic Ro art object virtues.\r\nIt replaced militant reputation of the Roman army by preaching the susceptibility of peace and universal love. Christianity, in general, put Rome into a show of anarchy and loss of patriotism. taking into account these facts, St. Augustine sought to establish a logical, incomprehensible approach in answering the criticisms of the pagan philosophers. He argued that the macrocosm of the Roman state is first and first off subject to augur will. check to him, the destiny of nations and states is set(p) by matinee idol, the source of legitimate semipolitical authority.\r\nNo nation, state, or even community could last for eternity. For Augustine, the populace of the state is transitory, for its elements are temporary, created by the minds of man †whose existence is also material. It was the destiny of Rome to fall at a lower place the hand s of the barbarians †a fact which cannot be savvy by the human mind. St. Augustine wrote, â€Å"Whether the same world system intact through step forward or whether it keeps setting into adjournment and ri unrighteousnessg into newness with each rotation of the wheel of time.\r\nWhereas, if integrity rejects the periodicity of identical patterns, one is left with an countless diversity of events which no knowledge or pre-knowledge could perhaps comprehend” (Curtis, 429). Thinkers such as Smith, Nietzsche, and Gibbons rejected the above-mentioned assumption of Augustine. These thinkers argued that it was clear that the fall of Rome was divulge-of-pocket to ‘the ineptness of the Christian religion, its impracticality as an imperial religion, and indecorum as a political and religious bm’ (Toynbee, 219).\r\nOne need not determine data-based data to prove Augustine’s thesis. Michael Schmaus argued that the fragile temperament of the state is d ue primarily to its instauration. The state is the aspect of man †a being whose existence is temporary. Hence, if a state is to last for eternity, according to Schmaus, it must be resistive to the weaknesses of man †from outright desire of the flesh, from political conflicts, from the intrigues of the human mind. Schmaus stated: â€Å"The term ‘eternity’, in essence, only refers to the betoken Being.\r\nThe state, in particular, is not in any way an everlasting entity, for it is wholly man’s creation †a derivation of man’s innate qualities. These qualities, we whitethorn describe, as momentary, capricious, and overtly devoid of divine significance. piece, by himself, cannot affect a change in the state of constitution, or his predilections adapted of uniting the elements of political life” (Schmaus, 57). St. Augustine based his designs on the notion that the state is a obligatory evil. Augustine derived this literary argume nt from basic theological truths. The first ‘truth’ manifest to the integrity of man before the fall.\r\nIn traditional Christian theology, the first human beings possessed, besides righteousness and holiness a genuine partnership with God, the alleged(prenominal) preternatural gifts (justitia inceptionalis), gifts of integrity, exemptdom from scummy and death, from inordinate appetites and ignorance. The hellhole of Adam greatly weakened these gifts. Man became indefensible to weakness, to death. Hence, according to Augustine death belongs to the nature of man. But as a result of sin it has the added character of penalty; that is to say, what belongs to the nature of man, his transitories, is now bound up with anxiety, distract and glaring absurdity.\r\nBecause the state is a necessary evil, thusly man itself is bound by such necessity. He must live in that necessity, and of course its consequences. A necessary evil man must endure, for it is his temporary re fuge. It is a temporary refuge from the ineptness of savagery, from irrationality, and from the affects of nature. The state was created as a temporary refuge of man †an entity which inhibits man’s innate savagery and irrationality †things which were consequential of the fall. The state, according to Augustine, is lead by assumption and flesh. The state is the embodiment of worldly desires and passions.\r\nAlthough it inhibits man’s lust for materiality, it is in itself the efficacy of such materiality. The state though is necessary because it enabled man to work in groups, to limit man’s obsession with himself, and to cling to man from the dangers of the natural world. The state, however, is not necessarily good. Man must endure the world of politics, deceitfulness, and outright political chaos. Hence, the state is a temporary state of nature. Again, Augustine’s argument makes sense because of the assumption that the state is a temporary ass ociation.\r\nPhilosophers like Aristotle, Hobbes, and Locke supported this argument. These philosophers agree that the state is a temporary refuge of man †that is, it was borne out of man’s own innate weakness. However, these philosophers disagreed on the nature of man’s weakness, whether any borne out of lack of faith on a Divine entity or just the condition of the state of nature. Augustine’s arguments were not immune to criticisms. One of the weakness of this argument is provided by Schoonenberg who argued that it is impossible to attach the social origin of the state with the theological origin of man.\r\nAccording to him, a distinction must be made betwixt what is political and what is epistemological (Schoonenberg, 58). Schoonenberg argued that the origin of Christianity is separate from the origin of the state, as far as orthodoxy is concerned. Here, it is possible that Augustine may have committed this particular mistake. Now, Augustine examined t he origin of man’s weakness in relation to Divine Providence. St. Augustine argued that the fall of man is caused by man’s desire to make himself an equal of God. The evil which befallen man is neither the work of God or nature; it is the work of man. Here, St.\r\nAugustine discussed the nature of evil and free will. According to him, evil comes into the world in a build of privation. Privation is desire for things which are less authentic and not good. Evil is love of the world of shadows and allusion †a perversion of Divine will. According to Augustine, the origin of sin is free will, that is, individual freedom. Free will presupposes that man is independent of God, which man, by his own nature, can succeed apart from God (Schoonenberg, 329). For Augustine, the arrogance of man is in itself the rejection of God and the acceptance of the ‘temporary state of nature. Man loves this arrogance because it increases his fidelity to himself; that is, arrogance is the fruit of deception †that man can wander by himself, that he can, apart from God, measure the knowledge and the inertia of God. Augustine wrote: â€Å"The unplumbed fallacy of these men, who prefer to walk in round about error rather than to keep to the swell path of truth, is that they have nothing further their own tiny, changing human minds to measure the divine mind, interminably capacious and utterly immutable, a mind that can count things without passing from one to the next…\r\nWithout having a notion of God, they mistake themselves for Him, and, instead of measuring God by God, they compared themselves to themselves” (Curtis, 415). St. Augustine argued that the end to man’s suffering is the establishment of the city of God, a place where Christ reigned. The City of God is synonymous with the Second advance of Christ, whose authority has no equal. Augustine spirit leveled that the founding of this city is irrelevant any other city on ear th. It is everlasting. It is immune from the intricate weaknesses of man †from his passion, idolatry, and irrational manifestations.\r\nThe City of God is the manifestation of God’s desire to free humanity from suffering and death. From an orthodox theological point of view, Augustine’s argument is consistent with the notion of a God-saving being, merciful, and full of inertia. Man’s choice is either to accept this promise or reject it. It may be impossible here to prove Augustine’s point, but from a Christian viewpoint, his argument seems to navigate on the ideas of Divine love and justice, which are limpid in the doctrinal conjugation of today’s Christian sects. In the Confessions, Augustine proudly asserts, â€Å"What then is my God, what but the skipper God?\r\nFor who is Lord but the Lord … sustaining and fulfilling and protecting, creating and nourishing … Thou owest nothing yet dost liquidate as if in debt to Thy creatu re” (Confessions, 24). Conclusion The ‘City of God’ is both a defense of orthodox Christianity from the attacks of pagan philosophers and a summary of primary Christian beliefs. Augustine dismissed the notion that Christianity was the cause of Rome’s downfall. In addition, Augustine stated that the state is a necessary object of man’s existence. Its origin lies altogether in the facet of individual social constructivism, not in the crucial malivolence of an evil entity.\r\n'