Brian Eshleman’s Reviews > City of God > Status Update

"'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,' (Genesis 12:1) means he (Abraham) should cast out his body from thence, for he had already done that, but that he should tear away his soul. For he had not gone out in mind, if he was held by the hope and desire of returning, – a hope and desire which was to be cut off by God's command and help, and by his own obedience."

"Continence is not a good thing, except when it is practiced in the faith of the highest good."

Indeed. Continence, or self-discipline, can lead to pride anymore judgmental attitude toward others unless we are humbly grateful for it as a reminder that Christ's righteousness on our behalf is perfect.

"Angry regret for another's goodness was charged by God as a great sin."

Augustine in City of God on Cain

"Even the righteous man does not live as he wishes until he arrives for he cannot die."

"The soul commends the body more easily than itself."

"By craving to become more, man becomes less."

"Obedience is the mother and guardian of all virtue."

"Man's nature was to be between angelic and beastial." City of God, Augustine

Going on the offensive against those who would deride Christianity because Christ's own were raped in Rome's fall, Augustine insists even here on the glory of God. It could be, he says, that even in these awful acts Christians came to treasure Him more, believing beforehand that their righteousness was in their technical status as chaste rather than in Christ' his own purity.

As Augustine seeks in City of God to learn the pattern of Scriptural reasoning rather than be swayed by potentially exceptional instances, he insists, "Sound judgment is to be preferred even to examples."