Book XXI. The End of the City of the Devil

[Nemo]

In the last two books of his magnum opus, Augustine discusses the end of the two cities, the city of the devil and the City of God, and the nature of eternal punishment and eternal happiness.

I have adopted this order, and preferred to speak, first of the punishment of the devils, and afterwards of the blessedness of the saints, because the body partakes of either destiny; and it seems to be more incredible that bodies endure in everlasting torments than that they continue to exist without any pain in everlasting felicity.  Consequently, when I shall have demonstrated that that punishment ought not to be incredible, this will materially aid me in proving that which is much more credible, viz., the immortality of the bodies of the saints which are delivered from all pain

[Nemo]

We've had many discussions about eternal punishment in this group in the past, and most recently after David Bentley Hart had published a book attacking it as immoral and unjust.

Augustine is one the most prominent expounders of the traditional doctrine of eternal punishment, and in Book XXI, he responds to and anticipates many modern objections to the doctrine.