Where the pagan and the Christian culminate in the Ancient World
28 March 2013

Now this book is an absolute brick and even though I had decided that I would read it I questioned how long it would take for me to actually wade through it. As it turned out it was quite quickly, namely because there was a great deal of Roman History included which I find quite fascinating. The City of God traces the concurrent history of Israel and Rome and outlines the contrast between the city of men (as represented by Rome) and the city of God (as represented by Jerusalem). As is evident, Augusting is using Rome and Jerusalem metaphorically and in the book the history of Israel is not so much Judaism (Augustine was not a Jew) but rather the origins of Christianity as is represented by the city of Jerusalem.
This is an audacious work and is designed contrast the two camps that humanity falls into (as was evident to many early Christians). Rome represented the secular world, and this is also reflected in Revelation where the two cities that are represented are Babylon and Jerusalem. Jerusalem always represents the city of God's children in biblical literature, even though many of the prophets spoke against the inhabitants in the Old Testament. However it is clear that God held a special place in his heart for the city of Jerusalem (that being the inhabitants, not the buildings) as can be seen where Jesus weeps over the city when he arrives.
The view of Augustine no doubt will differ from the view of many of us moderns. In the days in which he was writing the esoteric literature (of which Augustine was very familiar with, particularly since he was trained in rhetoric, which was considered one of the highest skills in his day and would have put him on par with a professor of Humanities and Social Sciences mixed with training in Law) would have brought about a different reaction to the readers than would be these days. In Augustine's day these works were very popular and held in high regard by the intellectual elite of the Roman Empire. As such there was going to be a lot more of a rejection of them by the Christian writers of the day who did not want Christianity tainted by the religion of the people (not that it was a strict doctrinal religion like we have these days).
To us as moderns though the writings that have survived down to our days form the basis of our understanding of the culture from which Augustine came from. Mind you Augustine has been seen by some as to be the last of the true ancient writers, and that ancient literature came to an end with him. His compilation of the history of Rome can be seen to have been written from numerous sources which we no longer have (and some that we do). No doubt Augustine believed many of the ancient legends (such as Romulus and Remus) and writes his treatise as if it were fact. Basically anything written after Augustine most likely falls into the category of Medieval literature (though Augustine died about a year before the vandals sacked Africa, so it would probably more likely be the Dark Ages than the Medieval period). This is not surprising since Rome was coming to its last days at this time (and there was also a greater shift towards Christianity and a huge shift away from Paganism when certain emperors attained the throne).
This is a good book: I quite enjoyed it, but these days it really only works as historical value. I have known pastors who have read it, but there has been much more literature written that is more applicable to our times that while it is not obsolete, it would not necessarily be essential reading (though I come from a school in which the only 'essential literature' for Christianity is the Bible, and while other books serve a purpose, one should not necessarily accept them at face value). However, we must also remember that Augustine set the tone for Christianity for centuries to come, and it wasn't until Aquinas that Christian thought once again began to change.