No. 313: The Flower of The Mature Mind of Augustine: The City of God

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The City of God and Confessions are two of Augustine's most famous and influential works. After reading the Confessions, if you do not read the City of God, it is equivalent to listening to the first half of the music and not listening to the second half of the music, which is very unfavorable for fully understanding the theme of the movement and understanding the essence of the movement. But if you can take a little free time every day, you should still make a pot of tea and sit quietly in front of the window to turn a few pages of "City of God".

Before analyzing the work, let's get to know the author. In the Roman Catholic system, Augustine was canonized as a saint and a holy teacher. For the Protestant church, especially Calvinism, his theories were the source of the Reformation's ideas of salvation and grace. As a revered theologian, his firm belief in Allah has touched generations of believers, bringing light and heat to their confused lives.

In the book "The City of God", Augustine tells the world that the destruction of Rome is self-inflicted and has nothing to do with Christianity through his commentary on the history of Rome, and expounds on the origin, development, and ending of God's creation and human beings, and praises God's great plan of creation and redemption.

When I saw the title of the book, the first thing I thought of was which city the city of God refers to? Where is it? Is there an old king with a long beard and gray hair?

Haha, think of it like walking into a fairy tale? As far as the author understands it, there is no city of God made of physical bricks and tiles in the world, it is just a dream city that can be built in people's hearts. In this city, the purity, kindness, joy and fraternity of people's hearts are stored, full of gentle eyes, kind tone, earnest attitude and inclusive mind. All those who have suffered in the world would rather give up the glory and wealth of the high-gated households and have a place in the city. In the City of God, deception and cunning are simply not tolerated, and all darkness and evil can only crawl and flee.

Corresponding to the City of God is naturally the City of the Devil. The City of the Devil is in opposition to the City of God, and only after sunset does it appear for a moment in the minds of those who are plotting against him. And in the eyes of those who are pure in heart, they cannot see the existence of the Devil's City. In the Devil's City, there has always been an atmosphere of slaughter, desolation, sadness and indifference, and people are busy with conspiracies and deceit, ridicule, and fights and other incidents from time to time. If you spend a day in peace and quiet, it is almost necessary to burn incense and worship the Buddha and celebrate with your family. People living in the Devil's City never think about tomorrow, because no one knows at what point they will lose their lives.

Don't be afraid, the above description of the two cities is just a kind of empty imagination for the author to read the whole book, which does not mean that the actual situation is like this, and I hope that readers and friends will maintain a rational and objective view. So, how does Augustine in the book view the City of God and the City of the Devil?

For Augustine, man and man (angels) are created, not omnipotent spirits, who exist on a real level, under an unchangeable and unique God, but above the essentially mutable, temporarily existing physical nature. The created spirits can turn to God through their will (conversion) and to the flesh (to turn away from God). In this way, the will has two different commitments or two kinds of love.

In other words, the created elves could both obey and resist God. Throughout the belief system, one can follow God for life to gain spiritual liberation and to use God as a patron to rely on at any time. At the same time, man can resist God, despise all supreme beings in the soul, make himself a solid dependent, and regard any attachment to God as a manifestation of spinelessness and dignity.

From this, the author thinks that the situation to be obtained, whether to live in the city of God or the city of the devil, is largely determined by the strength of man's own heart. The inner value judgment of external wealth, status, power, etc. determines the external behavior orientation and style of people. People who can take good care of their hearts can take root and grow even in the mire, and bloom in the wind and rain and sunshine.

Almost all philosophers have the understanding that a person is made up of two parts, body and soul. Therefore, the possibility of human happiness must come from one of these two constituent components, or a combination of the two components. And the ultimate good that makes one happy is the direction of the effort of all one's actions; apart from that, man no longer pursues other directions of effort.

Thus, those who are said to add "external" goodes such as fame, glory, wealth, etc. to this list of good deeds do not consider this good to be the supreme good that is sought for their own sake, but that it is nothing more than a relative good: good for good and bad for evil.

Therefore, those who try to find man's goodness in the human body or in the human mind or in the union of man's flesh and mind do not think that they must look beyond man himself. It is only that those who seek in the flesh are sought in the lower nature of man; those who seek in the soul are sought in man's higher nature; and those who are others are sought in the complete man; but in either case they are only looking for the supreme good in man himself.

If everyone can recognize themselves, understand themselves, and accept themselves, maybe there will not be so many people in the world who give up their lives at will, and there will not be so many people who do not know how to reconcile with themselves. Bless you who are reading this article, you can grasp your emotions and state of mind, not obsessed with the "City of God", nor afraid of the "City of the Devil", but to make your own small world into a bright and livable world.