Imaginary Inpho

The City of God by Augustine - 19 - Happiness in the City of God

Book Nineteen

Quote

📝 If any man uses this life with a reference to that other which he ardently loves and confidently hopes for, he may well be called even now blessed, though not in reality so much as in hope. But the actual possession of the happiness in this life, without the hope of what is beyond, is but a false happiness and profound misery.

Notes

🔥 Augustine turns to look at what philosophers have said about happiness and the supreme good, and how their views compare with those offered by Christianity.

🔥 There is potentially a huge range of opinions among philosophers about how to live a good life. He gives an analysis of the work of the writer, Varro, who compared all the possibilities and narrowed them down to a few.

🔥 Man is both body and soul, and true happiness must consist of things that help both of those. Virtue is above all other things in contributing to happiness. It is a good unto itself and when combined with other things.

🔥 What distinguishes the city of God is that the supreme good is not ultimately found in this life. And the people of that city live by faith and rely on God, knowing that this life is only temporary. Suffering in life is unavoidable, no matter how wisely you may live. Augustine quotes from the Bible, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vain."

🔥 Philosophers deceive themselves thinking they can find happiness in this life. True happiness is in the hope of the hereafter.

🔥 We need community, too, though we know other people can bring great pain. Not to mention wars between nations who don't understand each other.

🔥 Even with your friends, they can suffer calamity or betrayal. Having people in your life is liable to bring some form of suffering.

🔥 Peace in eternal life is the final good, and everyone wants peace. Even people who make war are ultimately looking for some kind of peace in the end. Wicked men, too, are ultimately looking for peace, only in an unjust and wicked way.

🔥 Peace is a state of harmony and order within the self and between self and others. But the peace we can enjoy in this life is but a taste of peace in eternity.

🔥 It is right and just to punish sin or correct people who are sinning to help bring about peace, Augustine says. Even though the rule of people on earth is only temporary. People of the city of God know their end is not in this world, but are happy to obey the rules here for that greater end.

🔥 Our minds are limited, but that doesn't cast doubt on everything we experience in this life. Augustine says, "For if one who trusts his senses is sometimes deceived, he is more wretchedly deceived who fancies he should never trust them." Here he is arguing against the cynics who say we can't have certainty about anything.

🔥 He also addresses some of Cicero's writings about the Republic of Rome, and says that, contrary to Cicero's claims, Rome was not a true republic. Augustine says that only a republic that worships God and serves him can truly be a republic.

🔥 This is what ultimately differentiates the city of God from the city of men. Though both live together in this reality, the people of the city of God are living in a way that is guided by something beyond this life. "For as that gives life to the flesh is not derived from flesh, but is above it, so that which gives blessed life to man is not derived from man, but is something above him."

Reflection

💬 I've been struggling to see how this book fits in with the history book list I'm following, but maybe it fits here the same way that Plato's Republic does. It's not really a book about history, but more about political philosophy and how to understand the state. I don't really know, but it seems like there are some similarities between the two in terms of the questions they're addressing. And they were both written just after a calamitous time. For Plato, it was just after the Peloponnesian Wars. For Augustine, just after the fall of Rome. Plato wrote about justice as a harmony or proper order between the higher and lower classes in his republic. Augustine sees justice as coming from God alone and where our lives are lived in harmony with his rule, which we can understand from the Bible. Bit of a different take, but there you go.

#augustine #bookclub