The Philosophy of St. Augustine: God, History, and the City of God

Posted on Nov 9, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Theology and Anthropology

The Existence of God

While there is no definitive proof of God’s existence, St. Augustine points to the “world order” as evidence of an ordering intelligence. He posits that God’s existence is a dogma of faith—credible, but not demonstrably proven.

Anthropology

Humans are composed of body and soul, though St. Augustine emphasizes the soul as the immortal and transcendent essence. Within the soul, two types of reason exist:

  • Lower Reason: Focuses on mutable realities, material knowledge, basic human needs, and the creation of new desires.
  • Superior Reason: Studies immutable and immortal realities, addressing higher-level needs.

Freedom and the Problem of Evil

Freedom

Christianity, a religion of salvation, introduces the concept of free will. Humans are free to choose salvation or condemnation, good or evil. This freedom creates a dramatic tension between sin and grace.

The Problem of Evil

Christian thinkers grapple with the problem of evil: how can an infinitely good God permit evil? St. Augustine believed in two worlds: good and evil. He defined evil as the privation of good—a lack, not a positive entity. Therefore, evil cannot be attributed to God. Evil arises from human limitations.

The State and History: The City of God

St. Augustine, a prominent philosopher of history, reflects on two pivotal events:

  • The Birth of Christianity: God manifests in history, offering salvation.
  • The Fall of the Roman Empire: Challenging Virgil’s view of Rome’s eternity.

Christians perceive history as linear, with a beginning, an end, and a central event: the coming of Jesus Christ. This transforms human history into a story of salvation. St. Augustine identifies two types of humans within history, distinguished by their pursuit of happiness:

  • Those seeking God (the highest good).
  • Those focused on earthly laws (the earthly city).

These two communities remain intertwined throughout history, separating only at the end of times. The City of God can be interpreted as the Church, while the earthly city represents the state. Two theses emerge regarding the relationship between church and state:

  • The primacy of the Church over the state (the Church as the perfect society).
  • The distinction between the two: the Church as the repository of spiritual values and the state as the provider of material needs.

Renaissance Philosophers

Nicholas of Cusa (15th-16th Centuries)

Nicholas of Cusa marks the transition from medieval to modern cosmology. He challenged Aristotelian thought, proposing a spatially unlimited universe with no center. He argued that everything in the universe moves internally and that true knowledge of the infinite God is unattainable by the finite human mind.

Giordano Bruno (16th Century)

Sentenced to death for heresy in 1600, Giordano Bruno also believed in an infinite, centerless universe containing multiple inhabited worlds made of the same matter. His pantheistic view held that everything in the universe is a manifestation of God.

Francis Bacon (16th-17th Centuries)

Francis Bacon emphasized the practical function of science, asserting that “knowledge is power.” He championed the inductive method:

  1. Observation: Extensive data collection.
  2. Hypothesis Formulation: Creating a tentative explanation.
  3. Hypothesis Testing: Rigorous verification.

Bacon stressed the importance of eliminating prejudice and preconceived ideas from scientific inquiry.

Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’ Five Ways

In his Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas presents five ways to demonstrate God’s existence through sensory experience:

  1. Motion: Things move and change. This requires an initial unmoved mover (God).
  2. Causation: Everything has a cause. There must be an initial uncaused cause (God).
  3. Contingency: Contingent beings exist. There must be a necessary being to explain their existence (God).
  4. Degrees of Perfection: Beings exhibit varying degrees of perfection. There must be a perfect being as the ultimate standard (God).
  5. Order and Design: Even mindless beings act in an orderly way, suggesting a divine designer and provider (God).

These five ways point to an unmoved mover, an initial cause, a necessary being, a perfect being, and an ordering being—all attributes of God.