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Saint AugustineThe City of God
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Part 2, Books 15-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2
Book 15 Summary
Augustine now proceeds to trace the history of the two cities through an examination of the early story of humanity as outlined in Genesis 4-9: “I classify the human race into two branches: the one consists of those who live by human standards, the other of those who live according to God’s will. I also call these two classes the two cities, speaking allegorically. By two cities I mean two societies of human beings” (595). He notes that both of these cities are evident in Adam and Eve’s own family: One son, Cain, follows his violent passions and represents the earthly city, and the other son, Abel, follows God’s way. Cain’s murder of Abel strikes Augustine as a foundational event in the history of the earthly city, paralleling Romulus’s fratricide of Remus in the story of Rome’s founding.
Augustine argues for the historical accuracy of the biblical narrative, answering questions of interpretation regarding the long lifespans recorded there, the accounts of “giants,” and other peculiar features in the early chapters of Genesis. Near the end of Book 15, he deals with the account of Noah’s flood and the question of whether it suggests that God has emotional passions and changes of mind like humans. No, says Augustine: “God’s anger is not an agitation of the mind; it is a judgment by which punishment is inflicted on sin,” adding, “his consideration and reconsideration are his unchanging plan applied to things subject to change” (642, emphasis added). He commends a reading of the ark story that is both historical and allegorical at the same time: a real event that happened in ancient history and was used by God to symbolize his plan of salvation through Christ.
Book 16 Summary
Augustine moves from the account of Noah through the stories of the patriarchs as told in the remainder of the book of Genesis. Some of his interpretations are speculative and not widely held in the Christian tradition, while others align with common interpretations. Augustine admits that not all the potential meanings that he suggests from the text might prove to be accurate, but that the big picture remains clear nonetheless: namely, that God was planning his redemption through Christ and offering prophetic signposts toward that coming reality: “these historical events and the narrative of them have always some foreshadowing of things to come, and are always to be interpreted with reference to Christ and his Church, which is the City of God” (652). The scope of Augustine’s interpretations illustrates the comprehensive nature of his writing, which covers questions as wide-ranging as how terrestrial animals might have populated distant islands after dispersing from the ark, whether Greco-Roman legends of monstrous creatures have any basis in reality, and what the original human language might have been.
In recounting the story of Abraham and his descendants, Augustine hews more closely to lines of interpretation that had been established since the early days of Christianity. He interprets God’s covenant-promise to Abraham as a prophecy that points to a fulfillment in Christ and sees Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac as representing the paradigm of an Old Covenant and a New Covenant that would play out in biblical history.
Book 17 Summary
Book 17 encompasses most of the remainder of Old Testament history, as Augustine traces the development of the city of God through the story of ancient Israel. One of Augustine’s main tactics for demonstrating the truth of Christianity is to point out the way that promises and prophecies from early history are subsequently fulfilled, with special emphasis on the person of Christ.
In his analysis of Israel’s history, Augustine sees an initial fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham—granting his descendants the land of Canaan—which points to a greater fulfillment yet to come, the blessing of all nations through Jesus. His interpretation of prophecies holds a multi-perspective view that is common in Christian interpretation: “Thus the utterances of the prophets are found to have a threefold meaning, in that some have in view the earthly Jerusalem, others the heavenly, and others refer to both” (714). As such, Augustine sees the rites of the ancient priesthood and the establishment of the Israelite monarchy as historical events in their own right as well as a prophetic foreshadowing of the royal and priestly ministries of Christ. For example, the anointings that were given to ordain priests and kings to their offices directly presage the coming of Christ, whose title translates to “the Anointed One.”
Further, Augustine sees the fulfillment of the Old Testament not only in Christ, but also in the community of the redeemed who believe in him. The church fulfills the promise of a true temple in which God would dwell, and the ancient prediction that all nations would be drawn to faith in God was coming true in Augustine’s own day.
Book 18 Summary
Having completed his survey of the city of God’s history leading up to Christ, Augustine now overlays that history with the secular history of other kingdoms and empires, through which he traces the story of the earthly city. Augustine is dependent on other sources for this assessment, not all of which are historically accurate (for instance, he confuses the identity and chronologies of the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires). Nonetheless, Augustine’s ability to write a comprehensive account of the known history of the ancient world and to set it in comparison with biblical history is noteworthy.
Augustine makes note of the fact that the earliest developments of pagan Greek legends fall well after the biblical stories of the patriarchs, the exodus, and the Israelites’ entrance into their promised land, thus suggesting the venerable antiquity of the Christian religion. He makes a similar point when he aligns the foundation of Rome—a story on which pagan Romans prided themselves for its vast antiquity—with the reigns the middle period of kingship in Israel, well after the glories of David and Solomon. Again, one of the main points for his readers would be that biblical faith had roots that ran much further back in history than did Greco-Roman paganism.
As further proof of Christianity’s historical truth, Augustine quotes prophecies from the Sibyl—an oracular figure in the Greco-Roman tradition—which appear to have clear fulfillments in the person of Jesus Christ. Augustine then returns to biblical evidence, setting the Sibylline oracle in comparison to Old Testament prophecies that also appear to provide references to the coming of Christ. He includes an assessment of the intertestamental books (known as the Apocrypha) and argues that the nature of the biblical texts—particularly their theological harmony, though composed by so many different authors over such a broad span of time—attests to their inspiration by God: “It is to be noted that our authors do not disagree with one another in any way. […] This agreement justifies the belief that when they wrote these books God was speaking to them” (816). Having brought his analysis all the way up to the time of Christ and the church, Augustine closes the historical section of City of God.
Books 15-18 Analysis
The middle section of Part 2 follows the narrative arc of the preceding books, continuing to trace the development of the city of God through history. Whereas Books 11-14 use the biblical narratives of Genesis 1-3 as a framework, Books 15-18 carry on through the remainder of Genesis and much of the rest of Old Testament history. One of the rhetorical features of City of God evident in these sections is the sheer comprehensiveness of Augustine’s treatment. Certain aspects of City of God fall within a tradition of early Christian literature called “apologies,” or defenses of the faith, and among their goals is to answer the questions of nonbelievers. Augustine takes that goal to the furthest possible degree, such that Books 15-18 not only trace out the biblical history of the city of God, but also try to answer every conceivable question that inquirers might have regarding the minutiae of scriptural interpretation.
Two of Augustine’s most common tactics in making the case for Christianity appear prominently in this section. First, he frequently points to the fulfillment of prophecy as one of the clearest proofs of what God has done through history, claiming it is evident to anyone who is willing to look. He cites specific passages from the Old Testament scriptures, written hundreds of years before Christ, arguing that God’s plan of salvation in Christ was in place from the beginning and has now been fulfilled in history. Second, he underscores the antiquity of biblical faith. In the context of ancient Mediterranean religion, being perceived as a new movement was not advantageous; preference was given to those religions that could demonstrate a venerable pedigree of piety over hundreds or thousands of years. By tracing the story of the city of God through biblical history back to the ancient Israelites, Augustine argues that the roots of the Christian faith predate both Greek and Roman paganism by a significant measure.
The symbol of cities remains in the forefront of Augustine’s writing in this section, as he traces out the history of the city of God. In this section he begins to highlight the intertwined motif of pilgrimage as well. The terminology of pilgrimage has entered his writings here and there in City of God, but now he gives it more attention. He regards the nature of the city of God’s existence in this world as being a sort of pilgrimage toward its heavenly fulfillment, so as he narrates the history of the city of God, he often describes it in these pilgrim-related terms. This distinguishes it from the earthly city, whose goals are limited to the things of this world.
Of the major themes of City of God, God’s Sovereign Plan in History once again holds center stage in these books. Since Augustine’s goal in this section is to present a historical overview of the city of God, Books 15-18 represent one of the clearest articulations of the theme. God’s sovereignty is not presented as the distant reign of an unmoved deity, but rather as a sovereignty that is actively engaged in the story of God’s people.
