City of God (Penguin Classics) by Saint Augustine Read Free Book Online Page B

contemporaries. Thus whereas the theory of the spherical nature of the earth put forward by Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 408–337 B.C .) was accepted by Plato and Aristotle and their successors down to the second century A.D ., there was a reversion in the third and fourth centuries A.D. to the earlier Homeric and Biblical theory of the earth as a flat disc surrounded by Ocean. And so whereas Plato and Cicero accepted the existence of the antipodes, Augustine demurred ( Bk XVI, 9 ). He is careful, however, to indicate the
possibility
that the world might be a suspended sphere, and that the existence of the antipodes was simply not proved
rationally
. His reason for rejecting the theory of the antipodes was that it seemed to threaten the unity of the human race – which was the teaching of the Bible.
     
    Augustine, therefore, found himself from time to time amongst those for whom the marvels related in Pliny the Elder’s
Natural
History
were science. Hence there is a fair share of marvels, metamorphoses and monstrosities to be found in the City
of God:
they should be placed – with the demons – in the context of their times. Nevertheless his position
vis-à-vis
science was clear and acted upon:
     
Whatever the [scientists] themselves can
demonstrate
by true proofs about the nature of things, we can show not to be contrary to our scriptures. But whatever they
advance
[i.e. as an hypothesis] in any of their books that is contrary to our scriptures… we should either indicate a solution or believe without hesitation that it is false (
De Genesi ad Litteram
1, XXI, 41).
     
    He shared with the Roman world the belief that the end of philosophy was happiness. Happiness was possible in this life, but only by future hope rather than present reality ( Bk XIX, 20 ). Our lives can be led in peace if we observe due order in submission:
     
The peace of the body… is a tempering of the component parts in duly ordered proportion; the peace of the irrational soul is a duly ordered repose of the appetites; the peace of the rational soul is the duly ordered agreement of cognition and action. The peace of the body and soul is the duly ordered life and health of a living creature; peace between mortal man and God is an ordered obedience, in faith, in subjection to an everlasting law; peace between men is an ordered agreement of mind with mind; the peace of a home is the ordered agreement among those who live together about giving and obeying orders; the peace of the Heavenly City is a perfectly ordered and perfectly harmonious fellowship in the enjoyment of God, and a mutual fellowship in God; the peace of the whole universe is the tranquility of order and order is the arrangement of things equal and unequal in a pattern which assigns to each its proper position ( Bk XIX, 13 ). 9
     
    Augustine’s idea of philosophy is one that he attributes to Plato: ‘to philosophize is to love God’ ( Bk VIII, 8 ). For him philosophy is affective – even mystical. If the end of philosophy is happiness, its agent is the will. Turning to God or turning away from God is the first and final divide. The expression of philosophy is love; its explanation likewise is love: Augustine’s absorption in the idea of love must arise from his temperament which he so passionately delineates in his
Confessions
. He is so insistent on the value of even human love that he refuses to follow the distinction between it, ‘charity’ and ‘friendship’ maintained by other Church Fathers ( Bk XIV, 7 ).
     
    Some, therefore, have concluded that Augustine was not a phlosopher in the strict sense of the word. Although he treats philosophically of problems throughout the whole range of traditional philosophy – time, space, matter, form, knowledge, problems in psychology both rational and experimental, happiness, virtue and so on – he would not have claimed to be a philosopher in the strict sense. He was more concerned to know and love God and to bring his fellowmen to do