The City of God

Historical Context and Purpose

Augustine of Hippo’s De civitate Dei (The City of God) was composed between about 413 and 426 CE in the aftermath of the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410. Many pagan Romans blamed the catastrophe on the abandonment of the traditional gods in favor of Christianity. Augustine, a North African bishop and one of Latin Christianity’s most influential thinkers, wrote the work partly as an apologia for Christianity against these charges and partly as a comprehensive theological and philosophical interpretation of human history.

Addressed to the Roman official Marcellinus, City of God responds to the crisis of confidence in the Roman Empire and in classical pagan culture. Augustine argues that Rome’s apparent collapse exposes the fragility of all political orders that place their ultimate hope in temporal power, and he contrasts this with the enduring destiny of the City of God, a community defined not by territory or political institutions but by its orientation toward God.

Structure and Central Themes

City of God is a large work, traditionally divided into twenty-two books. It can be roughly split into two main parts:

• Books I–X: a critique of pagan religion and the claim that adherence to the old gods brought political success.
• Books XI–XXII: a positive account of the origin, development, and final destiny of the two “cities.”

In Books I–V, Augustine addresses the argument that Rome’s decline is the fault of Christianity. He maintains that Roman history itself reveals the limits of pagan religion to guarantee security or moral excellence. He praises certain Roman virtues, such as courage and devotion to the common good, but interprets them as ordered toward earthly glory rather than to God. This orientation, he argues, makes them ultimately unstable. His famous remark that a kingdom without justice is merely a great robbery encapsulates his skepticism toward empires that lack genuine moral order.

Books VI–X critique pagan worship and philosophy, especially the religious system associated with the Roman gods and certain Neoplatonic theories. Augustine contends that true happiness cannot be achieved through civic cults or philosophical elitism; rather, it requires grace, revelation, and the mediation of Christ. Here he reworks Platonic themes—such as the hierarchy of being and the soul’s ascent—within a Christian framework.

In Books XI–XXII, Augustine develops a theological philosophy of history. Beginning from the creation narrative in Genesis, he interprets history as the unfolding story of two symbolically conceived communities:

• the City of God, formed by love of God even to the contempt of self;
• the earthly city, formed by love of self even to the contempt of God.

These “cities” are not simply church and state or visible institutions; they are intermingled throughout history, present wherever these two opposed orientations of love shape individuals and societies. Human history is thus a pilgrimage in which the two cities are temporarily mixed but will be definitively separated at the Last Judgment (Books XX–XXII). The final books also include an extensive defense of doctrines such as resurrection, judgment, and eternal life, and an account of the ultimate peace and beatitude of the City of God.

A unifying theme is Augustine’s notion of ordo amoris (ordered love). He argues that moral and political health consist in loving things according to their proper worth, with God as the highest good. Disorder arises when finite goods—such as political power, honor, or pleasure—are treated as ultimate ends. The two cities are therefore defined by their fundamental orientation of love, not merely by external laws or rituals.

The Two Cities and Political Thought

Augustine’s distinction between the earthly city and the City of God has been central to the interpretation of his political philosophy. The earthly city is not simply “bad” or identical with any specific state; rather, it includes all forms of social life grounded in self-love and attachment to temporal goods as ultimate. The City of God, while ultimately fulfilled only in the eschatological community of the blessed, is already present in history as the community of those who live by faith and charity.

This conception leads to a complex view of political institutions:

• Political authority is seen as a remedy for sin, necessary to restrain injustice and maintain a measure of temporal peace.
• Human law and governments can be instrumentally good, particularly when they support justice and allow the worship of God, but they cannot themselves deliver ultimate happiness.
• No earthly polity can be equated fully with the Kingdom of God; all are provisional and marked by imperfection.

Augustine’s thought here contrasts with classical political philosophy, especially the Aristotelian view of the polis as a natural community ordered to the highest human good. For Augustine, the highest good is supernatural and transcends political life, though Christians are called to participate in civic affairs as pilgrims seeking the peace of the earthly city while ultimately orienting themselves to the heavenly one.

This framework has been interpreted in multiple ways. Some readers see it as fostering a kind of political realism, emphasizing the ambiguity and fragility of all states. Others regard it as contributing to later “two cities” or “two kingdoms” doctrines, used to differentiate religious and political spheres. Critics have sometimes charged that it can underwrite political quietism, while defenders argue that it provides resources for critiquing unjust regimes by appealing to a higher standard of divine justice.

Reception and Influence

From the early Middle Ages onward, City of God became a foundational text for Western Christian theology and political reflection. Medieval thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, and numerous canonists drew on Augustine’s distinction between the two cities when considering the roles of Church and Empire, spiritual and temporal powers.

In early modernity, Augustine’s account of human fallenness and political order influenced figures as diverse as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Blaise Pascal, each of whom engaged his anthropology and skepticism about political utopias. Modern political theorists have revisited City of God in debates over secularization, civil religion, and the limits of political community, while philosophers of history have examined Augustine’s vision of a linear, providential history as a major alternative to cyclical ancient models.

Contemporary scholarship continues to debate the coherence and implications of the two-cities doctrine, Augustine’s use of classical philosophy, and his attitude toward empire and coercion. Nevertheless, The City of God remains one of the most influential works in the Christian intellectual tradition, shaping discussions of history, politics, justice, and the nature of human community well beyond confessional boundaries.