The City of God

“I have taken upon myself the task of defending the glorious City of God against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of that City. I treat of it both as it exists in this world of time, a stranger among the ungodly, living by faith, and as it stands in the security of its everlasting seat.”

This is part of Augustine’s opening statement to City of God, characterizing his task as a defense, which places it in the tradition of early Christian writings known as “apologies”—defenses of the faith. He portrays the community of the city of God as having a dual aspect: both existing in this world and having a settled citizenship in heaven.

“The Heavenly City outshines Rome, beyond comparison. There, instead of victory, is truth; instead of high rank, holiness; instead of peace, felicity; instead of life, eternity.”

Augustine uses this passage to encourage his readers to prize their citizenship in the city of God rather than in the earthly city. He uses a rhetorical trick here, declaring the relationship between the two to be “beyond comparison,” but then going on to list a series of comparisons to illuminate the contrast between the values of Roman society and the blessings of Christianity.

“I would therefore have our adversaries consider the possibility that to rejoice in the extent of empire is not a characteristic of good men. […] The empire would have been small indeed, if neighboring peoples had been peaceable, had always acted with justice, and had never provoked attack by any wrong-doing. In that case, human affairs would have been in a happier state; all kingdoms would have been small and would have rejoiced in concord with their neighbors.”

In this passage, Augustine is pushing back against a widely-accepted premise that the vast extent of the Roman Empire was self-evidently a good thing, a cause for patriotic pride. Augustine suggests that the growth of empires is a symptom of imperfect conditions, and perhaps even of malign intentions. A political state would be more deserving of pride if it lived in peace with its neighbors than if it perpetually extended its borders.