St. Augustine of Hippo Chapter 5: Building the City of God

Background On Augustine  354 CE – 430 CE  Augustine of Hippo was from Roman North Africa.  His father was a Roman pagan; his mother, Monica, was a Christian.  Left school at 16 because his father could no longer afford to send him. During his time away, he visited prostitutes, drank and gambled.  After returning to school, he studied to become a lawyer and eventually became a teacher at 18.  He also took a mistress, which was not uncommon among non- Christians at that time.

Slow Transformation  Augustine became a practicing Manichaean – they believed that there were 2 Gods; one god created good and one god created evil and therefore no one was responsible for their sins.  He then moved to Rome with his mistress and their son. A year later, he moved to Milan and became a teacher.  It was here in Milan where the two strongest influences in his life came into play: his study of the Greek philosopher Plato and his meeting Bishop Ambrose.

Slow Transformation  Through his study of Plato, Augustine became convinced that there is a single God and that humans have a spiritual side.  Plato taught that a world exists beyond what we humans see, and that human beings have a spiritual part beyond their body, and that God Himself is a spirit.  During this time, he also began attending Sunday Mass to hear Ambrose preach and began having conversations with Ambrose almost on a daily basis.  Between his mother and Ambrose, Augustine began to slowly reform his life; however, he relapsed and took another mistress.

Conversion To Christianity  At the age of 33, after having a personal revelation about his life and reading a passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (New Testament), Augustine was baptized by Ambrose and became a Christian.  He returned to his hometown of Hippo and organized a small monastery. He became a priest and remained single (even though at that time priests could get married). Eventually, he was elected Bishop by his congregation in Hippo.  He became a devout follower of Christ, read and studied the Holy Scriptures and dedicated his life to searching for truth and love.

Augustine vs. the Donatists  Donastists were Christians who had their own churches in Africa for almost 100 years.  Their separation from mainstream Christianity had to deal with the Apostates: They believed that the Apostates could never be forgiven, and the Bishops who had been disloyal or who cooperated with the Roman authorities could never again give real baptism.  Augustine’s Belief: Human beings are fallible; we sin and we are imperfect. It is only through God’s grace and power that we became whole and perfect. Therefore, it didn’t matter how supposedly “perfect” the priest or bishop was who was administering the sacrament, what matters is God’s grace.  Meaning: it is okay to have sinned or made a mistake, as long as the person is truly penitent.

Augustine vs. the Pelagians  The Pelagians believed that a person could make it to Heaven without God’s Grace.  They believed that all we need for salvation was to work hard enough at it and achieve it through our own efforts.  Their philosophy: people need to take responsibility for their own actions and not just “leave it all up to God” to fix it.  Augustine’s Belief: Human beings needed God’s Grace; it was impossible to be saved or reach Heaven without it. By our nature, humans are sinful creatures, and without God’s Grace, we will continue to sin and fall off the path to salvation.

“The City of God”  After the fall of Rome in 410 AD, many people blamed Christianity for the demise of Rome and the eventual fall of the Empire – “How could God allow this to happen? The old Roman gods had protected the city! Where is the Christian God in all of this?!?!”  In response, Augustine wrote his most important book, “The City of God.”  According to St. Augustine, the study of history could be understood as a battle between two sides: “the city of God” and “the city of Man”.  Essentially, it is a battle between the material world and the spiritual world; between those who pursue only self interests and those who place their faith in God and live in service and love.