Imperiumand the City of God: Augustine on Church and Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 46-70
Author(s):  
Gillian Clark
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Roman Africa ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City

In early fifth-century Roman Africa, Augustine faced pagan opponents who thought that the Roman empire was at risk because Christian emperors banned the worship of its gods, and that Christian ethics were no way to run an empire. He also faced Christian opponents who held that theirs was the true Church, and that the Roman empire was the oppressive power of Babylon. For Augustine, Church and empire consist of people. Everyone belongs either to the heavenly city, the community of all who love God even to disregard of themselves, or to the earthly city, the community of all who love themselves even to disregard of God. The two cities are intermixed until the final judgement shows that some who share Christian sacraments belong to the earthly city, and some officers of empire belong to the heavenly city. Empire manifests the earthly city's desire to dominate, butimperium, the acknowledged right to give orders, is necessary to avoid permanent conflict. Empire, like everything else, is given or permitted by God, for purposes we do not know.

Aspects of Mediaeval Thought on Church and State

1947 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhart B. Ladner
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Human Society ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City

“Two loves,” St. Augustine says in De Civitate Dei, “have made two cities, love of self unto contempt of God the Earthly City, love of God unto contempt of self the Heavenly City,” the City of God. These “cities”—civitates—are, of course, not states, but societies; St. Augustine himself tells us that the term civitas is an equivalent of the term society. They are societies, however, of a special kind. The Ciyitds Dei is a “mystical” society of all the elect, past, present and future. The Civitas Terrena, the Earthly City, is identical neither with the earthly state nor with any particular earthly state such as the Roman Empire, nor with any merely human society, it too is a “mystical” society, that of the impious, the damned.

Catholic Teaching on Politics and the State

2018 ◽  
pp. 456-476
Author(s):  
Chad C. Pecknold
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Early Church ◽  
City Of God ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
Political Realm

This chapter explores Catholic teaching on life in the political realm. It explores first how the contours of debate were set in the early Church. Augustine’s notion of the two cities’ provided a basic foundation for later Latin Catholic thought, presenting the city of God on pilgrimage towards the heavenly city—and yet united already to it as Christ’s body. The city of man is founded on humanity’s turn away from right desire for God, and it is from within the city of God that we learn to view the relative integrity and value of all other human social order. The middle sections of the chapter explore the development of this vision in the medieval period. Later sections examine transformations across the Reformation period, ending with a treatment of these questions at Vatican II and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Holy City

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Oldfield
Keyword(s):  
City Of God ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
Patron Saints ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
Holy City

This chapter examines praise of cities through the prism of their religious virtues. It does so through the two main, but interrelated, approaches within which the medieval city was linked to the sacred. The first embedded the role of the city within wider Christian narratives about man’s salvation. It was invariably rooted in biblical and other patristic texts (particularly St Augustine’s City of God) and later connected to medieval Christian thinking on Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, and the triumph of Christianity. The second approach drilled down onto specific manifestations of the sacred character of a particular city—its patron saints, its religious buildings and shrines, its religious officials, its place within the universal Church hierarchy, and its pious citizenry.

Introduction

2009 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Near East ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The State ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
City Of God ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City

This chapter provides an overview of Book V of Augustine's The City of God. It analyzes how Rome has extended her imperial sway throughout Europe and the Near East in spite of the moral bankruptcy of the Roman state. It also reviews the solution offered by some philosophers about the expansion and consolidation of empire as the outcome of chance or fate. The chapter discusses how providence has endowed Roman leaders with traditional virtues that the aims of glory and honour for the individual, and dominion for the state that are at odds with Christianity's application of the virtues. It reviews the key to Augustine's philosophy of history, in which the Roman empire has spread and is maintained in existence by divine providence.

scholarly journals Embracing a vision of the New Jerusalem (Rv 21:1−22:5) to impact on life and society

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin H. Pohlmann
Keyword(s):  
Primary Role ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church ◽  
Society Today ◽  
Holy City

Apocalyptic biblical literature has played a significant role in motivating and mobilising Christians. As part of this genre, the Apocalypse of John has played this mobilising role within the church throughout its history. Jerusalem is often incorporated into this genre to conjure up different emotions and images to impact many different people. For example, the Jew annually recites the words to fellow Jews at every Passover meal: ‘Next year in Jerusalem’. Most Christians know the hymn ‘The holy city’, originally penned by Frederic Weatherly in 1892. It lifts many a spirit as it conjures up the idea of a beautiful, perfect, heavenly city of God. However, there is more to this apocalyptic vision, which will be explored in this article. The city upholds the hope of decent godly living today. Whilst Jerusalem is a city with an extremely chequered history, it remains to be the launching pad of a dream that believers can embrace in order to impact society for the better. The vision in Revelation 21–22 is the launch of the ‘idea’ of God’s intention for society today, and the ‘implementation impetus’ is the primary role of the church. In the greater scheme of things, the world community is the target group for a better society for everyone.Aanneming van ’n visioen van die Nuwe Jerusalem (Op 21:1–22:5) ten einde ’n invloed op lewe en die samelewing uit te oefen. Apokaliptiese Bybelliteratuur het ’n beduidende rol in die motivering en aansporing van Christengemeenskappe gespeel. Die Openbaring van Johannes het hierdie motiveringsrol deurgaans in die geskiedenis van die kerkas deel van dié genre vertolk. Jerusalem is dikwels hierby ingesluit om ’n verskeidenheid van emosies en beelde op te roep ten einde ’n impak op ’n verskeidenheid mense te maak. Die Jood, byvoorbeeld, haal jaarliks die volgende woorde teenoor mede-Jode tydens die Paasmaaltyd aan: ‘Volgende jaar in Jerusalem’. Die meeste Christene ken die gesang ‘The holy city’ wat oorspronklik deur Frederic Weatherly in 1892 geskryf is. Dit hef menige gelowiges se gemoedere op omdat dit die beeld van ’n pragtige, perfekte stad van God oproep. Daar is egter meer aan hierdie openbaringsuitsig wat in hierdie artikel verder ondersoek word. Die hemelstad bekragtig die hoop vir ’n godvrugtige lewe vandag. Alhoewel Jerusalem ’n stad met ’n uiters veelbewoë geskiedenis is, is dit tog die beginpunt vir hierdie droom van gelowiges om die samelewing te verbeter. Die visioen in Openbaring 21–22 is die bekendstelling van die ‘idee’ van God se bedoeling vir ons hedendaagse samelewing en die ‘vervullende beweegkrag’ is die primêre rol van die kerk. Holisties beskou, is die wêreldgemeenskap die teikengroep vir ’n beter samelewing vir almal.

scholarly journals REGULACJE DOTYCZĄCE ODLEGŁOŚCI MIĘDZY BUDYNKAMI W PRAWACH ANTYCZNYCH

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Aneta Skalec
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Free Space ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
The Law ◽  
The City

LEGAL REGULATIONS OF THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE BUILDINGS IN ANCIENT LAWS Summary Regulations concerning the distance between the buildings can be already found in the law of the XII Tables, which prescribed that 2,5 foots of free space must be left around every house. That space was called ambitus. But most probably, it was the earlier law of Solon in Athens, that served as a model for Romans, and a few centuries later (III BC) was also applied in Dikaiomata – the law of the city of Alexandria in Egypt. As far as the Roman Empire is concerned, we can find series of constitutions issued by imperators, usually concerning the distance between public buildings, and, as regards the fifth century AD, also the distance between private buildings (the most important of them is the constitution of Zenon). This question was an object of interest also for the author of the compilation of local Palestinian laws – Julian of Ascalon, in whose Treatise the problem was regulated in very detailed way. Julian of Ascalon’s Treatise dealt also with the distance between private buildings and many types of workshops.

The Influence of Eusebius’ Chronicle on the Apologetic Treatises of Cyril of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-711
Author(s):  
MATTHEW R. CRAWFORD
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Cyril Of Alexandria ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
The City

In the early fifth century, both Cyril of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo used Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicle in the writing of their respective apologetic treatises – Against Julian for Cyril and The city of God for Augustine. The present study compares the use that these two authors made of their predecessor and argues for two continuities between these acts of reception: the use of synchronisms between biblical and non-biblical history and the tracing of Mosaic monotheism through time. In both these respects, Cyril and Augustine were carrying forward themes of Christian apologetic that reached back to the second-century apologists.

‘Where Were the Gods?’

2020 ◽  
pp. 96-123
Author(s):  
Gerard O'Daly
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
The City

The chapter analyzes Books 1–5, which are dominated by Augustine’s polemic against Roman polytheistic religion. Book 1 functions as an overture to central themes of the work, especially the contrast between the city of God, ‘an alien among the ungodly’, and the pride and desire for domination of the earthly city; it concentrates mainly on the moral and religious issues arising from Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410. The principal themes of these books are: pagan and Christian virtues; the moral deficiencies of Roman religion and the failure of the gods to protect Rome throughout its violent and disaster-prone history; God’s providential role in the success of empires, especially the Roman Empire; arguments against fate; Christian virtues and imperial rule.

Augustine: De Civitate Dei The City of God Books XI and XII

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Latin Text ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
The World ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City ◽  
The Universe

In books I–V of De Civitate Dei, St. Augustine rejects the claim that worship of the pagan gods had brought success in this life, and in books VI–X, the prospect of a happy afterlife. In books XI–XII, Augustine turns from attack to defence, for at this point he initiates his apology for the Christian faith. Books XI and XII document the initial phase of the rise of the two cities, the city of God and the city of this world, beginning with the Creation of the world and the human race. In Book XI, Augustine rejects the theories of Aristotle, Plato and the Epicureans on the creation of the universe and addresses the creation of angels, Satan, the role of the holy Trinity and the importance of numerology in the Genesis account. In Book XII, Augustine is chiefly concerned with refuting standard objections to the Christian tradition, returning to discussion of the Creation, including his calculation, based on the scriptures, that the world was created less than 6,000 years ago. This book is the only edition in English to provide not only a text but also a detailed commentary on one of the most influential documents in the history of western Christianity. It presents Latin text, with facing-page English translation, introduction, notes and commentary.

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