Saint Augustine’s Philosophy and Theology

Pure Philosophy

Saint Augustine (354-430), at most times, does not occupy himself with pure philosophy, but when he does he shows very great ability. He is the first of a long line whose purely speculative views are influenced by the necessity of agreeing with Scripture. This cannot be said of earlier Christian philosophers, e.g., Origen; in Origen, Christianity and Platonism lie side by side, and do not interpenetrate. The first point to realize is that creation out of nothing, which was taught in the Old Testament, was an idea wholly foreign to Greek philosophy. When Plato speaks of creation, he imagines a primitive matter to which god gives form; and the same is true of Aristotle. Their God is an artificer or architect, rather than a Creator. Substance is thought of as eternal and uncreated, only form is due to the will of God. As against this view, Saint Augustine maintains that the world was created not from any certain matter, but from nothing. God created substance, not only order and arrangement.

The City of God

When, in 410, Rome was sacked by the Goths, the pagans, not unnaturally, attributed the disaster to the abandonment of the ancient gods. So long as Jupiter was worshipped, they said, Rome remained powerful; now that the Emperors have turned away from him, he no longer protects his Romans. This pagan argument called for an answer. The City of God, written gradually between 412 and 427, was Saint Augustine’s answer; but it took, as it proceeded, as far wider flight, and developed a complete Christian scheme of history, past, present and future. It was an immensely influential book throughout the Middle Ages, especially in the struggles of the Church with secular princes. It contains a great deal that hardly anyone at the present day can accept, but the broad conception of a contrast between the City of this world and the City of God has remained an inspiration to many, and even now can be restated in non-theological terms.

The Book begins with considerations arising out of the sack of Rome, and designed to show that even worse things happened in pre – Christian times. Among the pagans who attribute the disaster to Christianity, there are many who, during the sack, sought sanctuary in the churches, which the Goths, because they were Christians, respected. In the sack of Troy, on the contrary, Juno’s temple afforded no protection, nor did the gods preserve the city from destruction. The Romans never spared temples in conquered cities; in this respect, the sack of Rome was milder than most and the mitigation was a result of Christianity.

Christians who suffered in the sack have no right to complain, if all sin were punished on earth, there would be no need of the Last Judgment. What Christians endured, if they were virtuous, turn to their edification, for saints, in the loss of things temporal, lose nothing of any value.

There is a very sympathetic account of Plato, whom he places above all other philosophers. All others are to give place to him, all these were materialists, Plato was not. Platonists are the best in logic and ethics, and nearest to Christianity.

The City of god is the society of the elect. Knowledge of God is obtained only through Christ. There are things that can be discovered by reason (as in the philosophers), but for all further religious knowledge we must rely on the scriptures.

If our first parents had not sinned, they would not have died, but, because they sinned, all their posterity die. Eating the apple brought not only natural death, but eternal death, i.e. damnation.

The City of God contains little that is fundamentally original. The eschatology is Jewish in origin, and came into Christianity mainly through the Book of Revelation. What Saint Augustine did was to bring these elements together, and to relate them to the history of his own time. The Jewish pattern of history, past and future, in such as to make a powerful appeal to the oppressed and unfortunate at all times. Saint Augustine adapted this pattern to Christianity, Marx to Socialism. To understand Marx psychologically, one should use the  following:

The Messiah = Marx

The Elect = The Proletariat

The Church = The Communist Party

The Second Coming = The Revolution

Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists

The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth

Source: Bertrand Russell. The History of Western Philosophy. 1945