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Our religion is determined by where we seek our happiness. For instance, Augustine defines true
sacrifice as "every work performed in order to unite us in holy fellowship with God, aimed at the
ultimate goal of becoming truly happy" (10:6)
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3. This provides Augustine with a philosophical analysis of the nature of paganism. Paganism is not just
belief in many gods (for Christians too believe in many immortal beings: the angels, who are just like
what pagans call gods). Paganism is the inward worship of many gods, i.e., seeking one's ultimate
happiness from them.
4. This means that the interesting challenges Augustine must face are from non-Christians who seek their
happiness from the one Supreme God, i.e., from Platonists and Jews.
5. The Platonists (in the City of God as in the Confessions) are blamed for their intellectual pride, their
participation in pagan worship, and their refusal to embrace the humility of Christ (cf. books 8 10)
6. Augustine blames the Jews too for not believing in Christ, but he also retells their history in the Old
Testament as signifying the eternal life brought by Christ (in books 15 18). The Jews of the Old
Testament were the primary members of the City of God at that time.
C. The Roman virtue so admired by the pagans consisted of the lust for dom-ination and the desire for praise or
earthly glory (5:12 20) that was the common love that united Rome as "the capital of the Earthly City"
(15:5).
D. The peace of the Earthly City (City of God, book 19)
1. Peace is the ultimate goal of war, of all politics, indeed of all life (19:10-13): the ordered harmony of
body and soul and of mind with mind.
2. Conflict, wars, and violence inevitably arise in the Earthly City because it is a community in which
everybody loves private goods that cannot be shared (15:3 5), as opposed to loving God, who can be
shared by all with no loss to any.
3. The heavenly city seeks the peace of the Earthly City as a real but not ultimate good, promoting "the
compromise of human wills concerning things pertaining to this mortal life" (19:17). Hence Christians
are good citizens.
4. The City of God is a sojourner in its pilgrimage on earth, seeking eternal peace, being happy in its hope,
not in present reality (19:16).
5. Until the Last Judgment the two cities coexist on earth, mingled together, sharing the same temporal
goods but using them differ-ently. "As long as the two cities are still mixed together, we also make use
of the peace of Babylon" (19:26).
III. The City of God: the Church in history
A. The community of the predestined
1. The two cities have two different predestined ends: the one in condemnation and the other in eternal
life (15:1)
2. The City of God includes both the blessed angels and humans predestined to eternal life
B. The unity of humanity restored
1. In the beginning, humanity was united in Adam ("For we all were in that one man, when we all were
that one man" [13:14])
2. Adam's fall into sin is the source of all separation and conflict between human beings (that sinful love
or cupidity for things that can't be shared).
3. The blessedness of heaven will include the reunification of saved humanity. No longer divided by sin
and conflict of will and the opacity of mortal bodies, we will be able to see into each others' minds:
"our thoughts will be open and obvious to one another" (22:29).
C. The Body of Christ
1. As we were once united with Adam before sin, so in order to be redeemed from sin we must be united
with Christ
2. Humanity is united with Christ in the Body of Christ the Church, of which Christ is head
3. The Body of Christ is united as always by love, through which Christ shares human mortality and
humans share Christ's righteousness and blessedness. This is the blessedness that makes the City of God
happy in hope and the final reunification of the human race.
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IV. Some questions about Augustine's overall project
A. Does the Resurrection of the Body matter to Augustine as much as it should? He believes in it, to be sure,
but does it make any real difference to his understanding of final blessedness, which seems to be ultimately
a matter of the state of our souls?
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