Augustine’s City of God stands as one of the masterpieces of Late Latin literature, and one of the classics of Christian literature. The book itself is many things, and is sometimes derided for its systematically unsystematic nature – that is, Augustine is talking about too many things in the book all at once which makes it difficult to follow. He talks, for instance, about politics and philosophy, about myth and poetry, about virtue and vice, time and history, hypocrisy and gratefulness, justice and injustice, and often all within the same single book too! Nevertheless the work stands as a timeless classic read in philosophy, political theory, and religious studies. Just as we have examined parts of Augustine’s Confessions, we’ll turn to the more political aspects of City of God before turning our attention at a later time to other aspects of City of God.
The composition of the City of God began after the Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths in 410. The sack of the city sent shockwaves across the Roman Empire, both east and west. As St. Jerome wrote in the east, “The city that had taken the world captive was now captive.” The sack also brought distraught to Pagans and Christians alike. Pagans blamed Christianity and the Christian god for the disaster that befell the city and the onslaught of Barbarian invasion and pillaging that was occurring, and Christians who had embraced the idea of the imperium Christianum (the “Christian empire”) that saw Rome as God’s divine agent of spreading Christianity were also brought to shock with the rapture of Rome.
Augustine composed the City of God in response to both of these parties, though he more heavily leans on an explicit critique of the Pagans while the work carries with it a more implicit critique of the idea of sacred imperium that had been embraced by many of his fellow Christians. Book I outlines the general theme of Augustine’s political thought, and Book I also is a longwinded commentary over the nature of gratefulness and ungratefulness, as well as hypocrisy, virtue, and suicide. Albert Camus, the great French existentialist writer of the 20th century, who called Augustine “The Bishop of all North African writers,” was also influenced – though he was an atheist – over Augustine’s stringent anti-suicide attitudes and commentary. In essence, Augustine was a humanist who wanted to affirm the goodness and positivity of life and being in a time when it was becoming increasingly hard to affirm the positivity of life and being as the world seemed to be crashing and burning all around.
I. Libido Dominandi and the City of Man
The most famous motif of the City of God Against the Pagans is the two cities dichotomy: the city of Man and the city of God. This motif has generally been misunderstood since there’s only one city we actually live in (the city of Man) but the dichotomy is used by Augustine to delineate the priorities of the life lived by citizens of the civitas terrena. The city of Man is premised on the “lust for domination” (libido dominandi), violence, and pride, while the city of God is premised on blessedness, compassion, justice, and gratefulness.
For Augustine, the problem with life is the haughtiness of pride which leads to the quest for power as he outlines in his preface. One city is built on pride and power, the other on humility and gratefulness. The end result is that the city of Man “aims at domination, which holds nations in enslavement, but is itself is dominated by the lust for domination.” In this manner, we should not be surprised by the Roman Empire, which brought forth conquest and domination of others throughout the Mediterranean world, was now suddenly suffering from its prescriptions so to speak.
This sets the stage for the one theme that does run throughout the City of God, the nature of our lust for domination and how power, and political power in particular, seeks this lust for domination and enslavement of life and humanity for the insatiable desires of power and domination in-of-itself. Part of the problem for Augustine is that true justice is only to be found, if it is to be found at all, “in that republic whose founder is Christ” (e.g. the city of God). All politics and political life on earth is never destined for utopia, but fated for the ongoing struggle between pride-fullness and humility, of domination and love, of power and compromise, the unfolding of the two loves: caritas and cupiditas, and nothing more than this. All history is struggle for Augustine, and he is the first major philosopher to see history and human nature as principally as a struggle.
For Augustine, he already sets out in the preface and the first book of City of God the view that the “justice” of the city is really a form of domination. It is the domination of one group taking from another and giving to itself and calling that “justice.” He goes into further in Book IV, where he explains that cities or kingdoms that operate like this are like “criminal gangs.” The opening preface sets the stage and tone for one of Augustine’s most important contributions to philosophy, anthropology, and politics, the problem of human lust for domination and how this interferes with the good life, justice, and the struggle that is the human condition.
II. Hypocrisy and Ungratefulness
In dealing with the sack of the city at the beginning of Book I, Augustine turns his attention to a commentary on the nature of the hypocrisy and ungratefulness of the pagans which runs throughout the pages of first book. We often forget that, while Christianity had recently become the established state religion of the empire by the decree of Emperor Theodosius (Constantine may have been the first Christian emperor, but he never made Christianity the official religion like most people wrongly think), Paganism was still more common than Christianity during Augustine’s time. As a result, the slight pagan majority (and Paganism was more prominently in the western half of the empire than the eastern half which was closer to the birthplace of Christianity in Palestine) attacked Christianity for the reason of the sack of Rome and the general problems that the empire was now facing.
Augustine took this moment to defend Christianity and expose the hypocrisy and ungratefulness of the pagans. During the sack of the city, pagans took refuge in Christian churches inside the city and were therefore spared. Alaric, the Visigoth chief, was an Arian Christian. And while there had been longstanding disputes between Arians and Nicene Christians, the Arian Barbarians generally treated Christian sanctuaries and houses of worship, and other places with care and respect (for instance, the Arian Vandals did not burn Augustine’s church and library when they sacked Hippo in 430, and thank goodness they didn’t since his library contained his writings and other ancient texts from Greco-Roman antiquity that we only have because of this). As a result, the only safe refuges to take in Rome when the Barbarians stormed into the city were Christian basilicas, churches, and other holy sites. Pagans, who had long been attacking Christianity, and then began attacking Christianity again after the fact, were spared only because they had fled into the arms of those whom they strenuously criticized for all the problems of the empire.
Meanwhile, the Christians did not turn the pagans away when they ran to the churches and sanctuaries for the preservation of their lives. Here Augustine turns to the nature of the ungratefulness of life in the eyes of the pagans. The pagans can only see “bad things” about life, and lash out about these bad things in life and even after Christians helped them during the sack, once the Visigoths left they returned to berating and complaining about Christians and Christianity. They are unable to pause and reflect on the good things in life, even in such troubling and dark times (like the fact that their lives were spared by fleeing into the churches and the arms of the very people they were blaming for the collapse of the empire). The pagans who sought life in the arms of the Christians did so with nothing but self-centered desire in hearts, and were unable to be moved by the experience itself and therefore, upon the leavening of the Visigoths, continued on criticizing Christ and Christianity despite the fact that the only reason why they are now able to continue criticizing Christianity was because Christians opened their doors to them in their time of need. As Augustine writes, “They were spared for Christ’s sake, pagans though they were; yet they scorn to acknowledge this.”
This is also telling of Augustine’s view of humans. While humans have an insatiable lust for domination and power, and are generally hypocritical and haughty, there is still something good about human life (a theological point Augustine is wedded to due to his Christianity). This is part of the tension of the nature of being, the dialectical conflict between grace and sin, cruelty and mercy, gratefulness and ungratefulness. It is really the dialectic of life, whether we can still see the goodness and beauty of existence or whether we “fall” into misery and anger over our lives.
In the sack of Rome the pagans show themselves for what they are: ungrateful, cruel, and sinful people who have no appreciation for the beauty and goodness of life. As Augustine comments on the classical problem of evil and theodicy, “why do bad things happen to good people,” something which Augustine answers very simplistically by saying that’s just how things work (because Augustine is a realist), he notes that our response to tragedy and calamity is telling of what type of humans we are. Being good doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s still better to try to be a good person anyway since it brings joy to ourselves and to others. The pagans grumble and complain while they saints pray and praise (1.8). This plays on the Biblical imagery and language about “he who has the eyes to see and the ears to listen.” Who can still see the goodness and positivity of life in the midst of turmoil and darkness is telling and very important to Augustine, since our reaction to this forms the basis of any humanism which affirms the positivity and goodness of creation and life itself. At the same time Augustine defends the Christians who helped the pagans in their moment of need as an act of true Christian charity and piety, even if the pagans do not reciprocate the gratefulness of the actions of their Christian saviors.
III. Suicide
The second half of Book I turns to a discussion on virtue, principally through the problem of suicide, which is really a commentary on the nature of life and whether we have anything to live for. As Albert Camus more recently expressed, all philosophy – since philosophy is about life – is really a question about suicide. Should we kill ourselves to escape the tragedy of life? If so, then that answer really tells us something about ourselves and our view of life (again, the running theme that unites all of the first book of the City of God is the question of the goodness and positivity of life and whether we can see this and appreciate this).
The center piece of Augustine’s commentary on suicide is his defense of Christian women who were raped and ravaged during the sacking (while the Visigoths didn’t attack Christian sanctuaries, anyone who was found in the streets was not spared because of their religious identity), in contradistinction to pagan women. This is actually a lengthy commentary on the nature of Roman virtue in which Augustine leans on the story of the rape of Lucretia as the ideal held up by the Romans in which Lucretia’s rape and suicide is seen as symptomatic of the Romans faux virtue and confusion over moral matters.
Lucretia, who was raped by Tarquin in the ancient Roman myths, subsequently commits suicide as Tarquin is chased out of the city of Rome for his actions. Lucretia is remembered as a martyr of sorts, for it is this action which dispelled the Tuscan monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic, which was always seen as the fount of true virtue in Roman philosophy (especially among the Stoic philosophers). But her suicide is a conundrum for Augustine. As he says, “If she is adulterous, why is she praised? If chaste, why was she put to death?”
The answer for Augustine was that the virtue of Lucretia’s suicide was no virtue at all, and that the fact that the Romans cheered on Lucretia’s suicide highlights the depravity of Roman virtue as being no virtue at all. Lucretia, in Augustine’s eyes, had done nothing wrong. Yet, in having done nothing wrong she took her own life. This was because, “although not adulterous, she had suffered an adulterer’s embraces, was due to the weakness of shame, not to the high value she set on chastity.” Chastity was always something highly prized in the ancient world. And the Romans eulogized Lucretia’s rape and suicide because of her supposed steadfast commitment to the virtue of chastity that was lost in the rape. Thus, the Romans really did she her as a pinnacle and angel of virtue because she lost her chastity and committed suicide as the “noble” response to this evil deed. On this note, contra Nietzsche, Christianity actually excoriates shame rather than embrace it. Shame is counter-productive to life and humanism. For Augustine, Christianity’s anti-shame attitudes is what helped many women overcome the trauma of the sack of Rome while the distorted ideal of chastity and virtue led many pagan women to commit suicide in the aftermath of the sack of Rome.
This returns us to the logical paradox Augustine sees in this story. “If she is adulterous, why is she praised? If chaste, why was she put to death?” The answer is that she was not chaste, she was adulterous, but in her adultery that was the product of a rape which took away her chastity Lucretia responded in the only way a good Roman woman should respond: her own death. Thus, Augustine sees Roman virtue as celebrating death rather than affirming life. The opposite is the case with Christianity in which Christian women were raped and lost their chastity, but rather than commit suicide remained wedded to “life in Christ” and therefore persevered despite all the problems they know will come with having lost their chastity during the sacking of Rome.
Suicide, as it was for Nietzsche, Spengler, and Camus, was the coward’s way out of the tragedies and problems of life. Nietzsche, Spengler, and Camus, as all philosophers and historians know – at least on this issue of suicide as a form of cowardice – are all Augustinian in their approach to life. The real tragedy for Augustine is that pagan women unnecessarily took their lives after having been raped by the Visigoth plunderers because they felt that they had no other option before them. They had been raised and installed with the same “virtue” as Lucretia, thus, boxed in with no exit, they committed suicide which was the celebration of the cult of death writ large. They had nothing more to live for in other words. They were all innocent, but in the twisted virtue of the Roman way, their innocence demanded their deaths.
Augustine’s treatment on suicide has been extremely influential down through history. As mentioned, his anti-suicide life ethos was informative, perhaps most ironically, on atheist humanists of the late 19th and early 20th century – especially among the existentialists. Nietzsche saw Augustine as promoting the first “transvaluation of values” on his commentary on suicide and whether something so terrible has happened to an individual that they ought to commit suicide as a “rational” response.
IV. Life and Humanism
While Augustine comments on many things throughout Book I, and we should return in time to discuss the nature of politics, power, and domination that is present throughout the book as well, the one theme that is present throughout is the question of life and our response to life. For Augustine, who, along with Cicero, is generally credited as being one of the fathers of humanism, the question of life looms large in his opening defense of Christians and Christianity against their pagan opponents and critics.
According to Augustine, the actions and responses from the pagans shows them for their true colors. This is not as much a commentary on the superiority of Christianity to paganism (though it obviously includes that) as much as it is a commentary on the nature of life and who can see the positivity and goodness of life even in the most dark times and trying of circumstances. Augustine is attempting to defend the goodness of life and creation in a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Not only are the pagans distraught over what is happening, but many Christians are equally distraught over what is happening.
Very briefly, I would be remiss not to point out – even though it is brief – a theme we find in the Confessions and Augustine’s general anthropology. Concerning the question of suicide and the ravaged body in Chapter 18, Augustine again is committed to the neo-Platonic or Aristotelian anthropological idea of the unity of body and mind, or of eros and logos. “Indeed, when the quality of modesty resists the indecency of carnal desires the body itself is sanctified.” The re-elevation of the logos, or the mind, with eros, or the body, is what brings about the sanctification of the body and of life. Nothing is so terrible as to destroy the goodness and possible sanctification of the body, which, according to Christianity through the writings of St. Paul, is the “new temple of God.” And this is what the pagans ultimately failed to grasp. The power of Christianity is its ability to see the goodness and beauty of life even the darkest of times – or so thinks St. Augustine.
In the end, Book I highlights the moral depravity and anti-humanist attitudes of the pagans. Rather than embrace life, they shun life. Rather than be grateful for life, they complain about what has transpired. Their virtue is no virtue at all, especially in the idea of noble suicide (epitomized by Lucretia and the responses of pagan women in the aftermath of the sack of Rome). If humanism is about the positive affirmation of life and the body, then the pagans, in their reaction and actions to the sack of Rome, are anti-humanists. Though there remains a certain irony in that figures like Nietzsche, Spengler, and Camus were among Augustine’s most ardent defenders in modernity despite their own atheisms.
At the end of Book I we can summarize that the city of Man is the city that celebrates death and domination, while the city of God is the ideal of working for life, compromise, and gratitude. No city is worth is worth defending if its premised on domination. But then all cities of men are rooted in the lust for domination. Thus it is the task of the citizen to tame the lust for domination and the celebration of the culture of death, which in the specific context of Book I, is suicide. At the same time as Augustine is defending the virtue and goodness of life, this is bound in his defense of Christianity against its pagan accusers and critics. Lastly, one of the other running themes of City of God begins to take shape in Book I: death, defilement, and destruction is not the end and out of the ashes there remains hope, beauty, and light.
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