Well known as it is, Augustine wrote his "De Civitate Dei" in the evening of the Roman Empire, as the particular need of the moment called for his words. Even though he is never rigorously consistent in his political theory, he insists always on Divine Providence in Human History. Then, it would be needful for him to explain the miserable human status in the light of his Christianity. In this way, his "De Civitate Dei" is not only an apologia, but a persuasion of his christian thought. Needless to say, Augustine's Christian thought of History found the real sources in the Bible. It is the doctrine of two cities representing itself again and again in his work, for example "Civitatem Dei dicimus, cuius ea scriptura testis est, quae non fortuitis motibus animorum, sed plane summae dispositione providentiae super omnes omnium gentium litteras omnia sibi genera ingeniorum humanorum divina excellens auctoritate subjecit. Ibi quippe scriptum est: Gloriosa dicta sunt de te, civitas Dei; et in alio psalmo legitur: Magnus Dominus et laudabilis nimis in civitate Dei nostri, in monte sancto eius, dilatans exultationes universae terrae; et paulo post in eodem psalmo: Sicut audivimus, ita et vidimus, in civitate domini virtu turn, in civitate Dei nostri; Deus fundavit earn in aeternum; item in alio: Fluminis impetus laetificat civitatem Dei, sanctificavit tabernaculum suum Altissimus; Deus in medio eius non commovebitur. His atque huius modi testimoniis, quae omnia commemorare nimis longum est, didicimus esse quandam civitatem Dei, cuius cives esse concupivimus illo amore, quern nobis illius conditor inspiravit (De Civitate Dei, XI, 1). Saint Augustine expressed already his historical idea in his De Vera Religione about 390 A. D., there-after repeating it many times in his other works, so that we could not look upon this historical work as a "livre de circonstance". Saint Augustine's originality lies in the ambivalent theory of Love, in accordance with that which every one could choose his way (to Jerusalem or to Babylon) by his free will. Moreover we must remember E. Gilson's words that "il doit rester clair que, de toute facon, la doctrine augustinienne des deux cites non seulement n'a rien de manicheen dans sa teneur definitive, mais meme qu'elle est resolument anti-manicheenne. Selon Mani et ses disciples, il y avait opposition entre deux cites, l'une bonne par nature, l'autre naturellement mauvaise; selon saint Augustin, l'idee d'une nature mauvaise est contradictoire dans les termes, a tei point que meme ia cite terrestre est bonne par nature et mauvaise seulement par la perversite de sa vdlonte; l'augustinisme etant une doctrine ou meme les tenebres, en tant qu'elles sont, sont bonnes, il constitue la negation meme du dualisme manicheen" (Introduction a l'etude de saint Augustin, Paris, 1943, p. 241). His figure as a historical theologian is quite outstanding, even convincing against the waves of the final pagan resistance in the later Roman society. "History" in Saint Augustine seems to have been his Christian key itself for thinking about Human Existence.
|
