The City of God by Augustine - 23 - Conclusion
Conclusion (With Notes from the Introduction by Thomas Merton)
Quote
The City of God, for those who can understand it, contains the secret of death and life, war and peace, heaven and hell. - Thomas Merton
Notes
🔥 What is this book? It starts by defending some specific criticisms against Christianity by Romans after the fall of the Roman empire. Then it evolves into an attempt at a fully comprehensive explanation of life on earth and the history of humankind.
🔥 But there are also times where it's completely incomprehensible. Like all the places where Augustine is trying to make sense of strange, illogical things that exist in the Bible and make it seem like they're perfectly explainable.
🔥 This quote from Thomas Merton in the introduction resonates: "To one who attempts to make his first acquaintance with Augustine by starting to read The City of God from the beginning without a guide, the saint may remain an unappealing personality and his book may appear to be nothing more than a maze of curious, ancient fancies."
🔥 He continues to say how Augustine really takes his sweet time getting to the ultimate point of this book. It's not until Book 11 where he starts into what Merton says is the main content of the book. But, he says, those who have the patience to sit through it all "will certainly find themselves profoundly changed by the experience, because they will have been exposed to a summary of Christian dogma."
🔥 Christianity for Augustine is not just a set of beliefs or a way of looking at the world. It is a belief that is lived and experienced in action. It is about keeping alive the mystery of Jesus's sacrifice. It is the life of Christ going on every day inside the souls of individual men.
🔥 The City of God offers a perspective of history that's unified and ultimately concerned with one purpose — "the building and the perfecting of the City of God."
🔥 It's a view of history that is eschatological. Eschatology means the study of last things and it's a reference to the idea that there is an end of history. History is a true, and unified story that we all exist within. It's not just a random bunch of events.
🔥 Thomas Merton says you probably need a guide to understand The City of God. Or you should read Confessions first to better understand who Augustine is and where he's coming from. I didn't do either of these things. And maybe that's why I had the problems with this book that I did. But I'm not blind to the significance of the attempt at creating an understanding of history that's unified and whole.
🔥 Thomas Merton says The City of God "opens our eyes to the deep and vital view of history which is the Christian and mystical view." So just because it's unified and holistic, doesn't mean it's also perfectly comprehensible or even possible to completely understand.