In a collection of the best first lines in literature, Augustine's "The glorious city of God is the theme of my work" would surely be in the top ten.
The Pastoral Response to Calamity
In Book I, it is Augustine the bishop that we meet. He's dealing with theodicy - if there is a good God, why do bad things happen? - except that this isn't your normal abstract theological pondering. The people of his diocese have just been through a barbarian invasion, suffering death, rape, and kidnapping. This theological treatise is
pastoral.
Augustine writes, "though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer . . . the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked . . .
So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them." (emphasis mine.)
The Fear of Good Men
Then, interestingly, he goes off into a side channel and observes that good men often fail to comment on the behavior of the bad when they should, because they are afraid of losing the opinion of bad men. I admit that I found this very challenging. Christians are so often characterized as "hateful", and you don't want to be that, right? I want so much for non-Christians to understand that I don't hate them. I love them, and I disagree with them. But how often do I soft-pedal my disagreement not because I want to express my love, but because I'm afraid my disagreement will be taken as hate? But it isn't love to lie, it isn't love to withhold the truth. I think I need to meditate more on the Bible's exhortations not to be frightened with any fear. Love
and truth. Love and truth.
Quotables
A few short and pithy quotations from the middle of Book I:
For it was well that they who had so long despised these verbal admonitions should receive the teaching of experience.
For nothing could perish on earth save what they would be ashamed to carry away from earth.
Now the end of life puts the longest life on a par with the shortest.
For the body is not an extraneous ornament or aid, but a part of man's very nature.
Love of Others and Love of Self
There follows a very moving argument for why it is good to bury the dead, even though their souls are no longer with their bodies: it is a sign of our hope of the resurrection and our love for the people whose bodies we bury.
And then we come to Augustine's discussion of the rape of Christian women during the sack of the city. Some parts of it were very hard on my modern sensibilities - I'm still trying to think through all of his arguments - but this is very comforting for any victim of violence, I think, ageless advice and truth:
. . . nothing that another person does with the body, or upon the body, is any fault of the person who suffers it, so long as he cannot escape it without sin.
In other words: what someone else does to you is not your fault, it's his own. Augustine also argues against suiciding in order to escape violence, though he shows sympathy for those who took this route. He says that suicide is out because we aren't to commit the crime of murdering the innocent, and he adds that, "our love of our neighbor is regulated by the love of ourselves" - or, in other words, you are God's creature too, and you may not misuse His creation, even if that creation is you. You are to love others as you love yourself, so love yourself as God would have you do.
Corrupt Society - ancient and modern
It's also to be noted that Augustine thinks very badly of the theatre, finds it a morally corrupting influence. Roman theatre isn't the same as modern movies and television, of course, but you can't help but wonder what his judgment would be on our entertainments. I don't think he'd find most of them edifying.
It's also notable that he connects theatres to prosperity, and finds that prosperity is often morally disastrous. Earlier he says,
For certainly your desire for peace, and prosperity, and plenty is not prompted by any purpose of using these blessings honestly, that is to say, with moderation, sobriety, temperance, and piety; for your purpose rather is to run riot in an endless variety of sottish pleasures, and thus to generate from your prosperity a moral pestilence which will prove a thousandfold more disastrous than your fiercest enemies.
The Two Cities
Book One ends with Augustine announcing his purpose to go on comparing the City of God and the city of man. He says,
In truth, these two cities are entangled together in this world, and intermixed until the last judgment effect their separation. I now proceed to speak, as God shall help me, of the rise, progress, and end of these two cities; and what I write, I write for the glory of the city of God, that, being placed in comparison with the other, it may shine with a brighter lustre.
I'll have more when I finish Book II! For now, what stands out for you here? I'm pretty astonished at the broad range of topics he covers in just the opening book. And at how much here I found convicting - I think I found more convicting than puzzling/disturbing, which goes to show . . . well, that the faith is the faith. It's recognizable across the centuries.
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
