Evaluating our culture through the lens of Augustine’s City of God
When things seem to be falling apart, there’s always enough blame to go around. When Augustine wrote City of God, Christians were being blamed for the decline and fall of Rome. It was argued that Christian values had weakened Rome and caused cultural degeneration. Augustine responded—at length—to these accusations. He both dissected the pagan culture of Rome and offered a theological response to the political and cultural collapse and crisis that Christians and pagans were experiencing.
As in Augustine’s time, Christians now are wrestling with arguments about culture and the role of Christianity in strengthening or weakening the country. Some blame the country’s woes on the decline of Christianity. Some blame the country’s woes on the persistence of Christianity. Others find a problem in so-called “woke” Christianity..
Christians might better manage our place in the culture wars if we consider Augustine’s insights about culture and empire in City of God and how they relate to us. The distance between ourselves and Rome is precisely what makes City of God a helpful evaluative tool. Augustine is most definitely not writing about us. Many Christians have been encouraged to read the Bible and ask, “where am I in this story?” The same could be said of early church writings. If, at times, we see ourselves in Augustine’s descriptions where we would rather not, that is perhaps in itself rather significant.
In City of God, we have many opportunities to ask where we see ourselves. Book II, Chapter 20, is a good example of how that can work. Augustine begins by outlining the foolishness of Roman religion and the culture that was endangered by the shifts in power happening in his lifetime. He describes “The kind of felicity the opponents of Christianity wish to enjoy, and the morality by which they wish to live.” He accused the pagans of enjoying imitation of the “criminal wickedness” of their gods so much that they “are unconcerned about the utter corruption of their country. ‘So long as it lasts,’ they say, ‘so long as it enjoys material prosperity, and the glory of our victorious war, or, better, the security of peace, why should we worry?”
Augustine’s words offer us an opportunity for reflection. Why are we worrying? What prompts us to be concerned about corruption in our country? Is it only inflation that has driven us to concern about cultural forces? Did we not think much at all about Afghanistan until we were dismayed by the withdrawal? Augustine’s words suggest that we should be concerned about our country when we seem to be succeeding, not only when we have doubts about national power and prosperity. If we only care when we sense a threat to our own status, are we any better than the pagans?
Augustine continues his attack, focusing on Roman greed. “What concerns us is that we should get richer all the time, to have enough for extravagant spending every day, enough to keep our inferiors in their place. It is all right if the poor serve the rich, so as to get enough to eat and to enjoy a lazy life under their patronage; while the rich make use of the poor to ensure a crowd of hangers-on to minister to their pride…” In some circles today, Augustine would be accused of using a social justice critique of the Roman pagans. How might we consider these words applied to our lives? Is it chiefly pagans today who do not mind the poor serving the rich?
Augustine also has a word for how the pagans evaluated their rulers, feeling things are “all right” if… “the people applaud those who supply them with pleasures rather than those who offer salutary advice; if no one imposes disagreeable duties, or forbids perverted delights; if kings are interested not in the morality but the docility of their subjects; if provinces are under rulers who are regarded not as directors of conduct but as controllers of material things and providers of material satisfactions, and are treated with servile fear instead of sincere respect.” This is not an argument for only electing Christians in the United States or voting solely based on personal character—it is not about us at all. But Augustine’s position is certainly a counter-argument for those who say that the only thing that matters is what the elected official can provide to Christians as an interest group. Or those who only prioritize a politician’s ability to deliver material security. What gets “delivered” is clearly an inadequate standard. And Augustine is opposed to leadership which encourages more “servile fear” than “sincere respect.”
Turning to both greed and legality together, Augustine goes on. According to the pagans, “the laws should punish offenses against another’s property, not offenses against a man’s own personal character. No one should be brought to trial except for an offense, or threat of offense, against another’s property, house, or person; but anyone should be free to do as he likes about his own, or with his own, or with others, if they consent.” To Augustine, it is clear that the pagans take the side of property over people. In this, they forget the priority of people and ignore the recognition of the imago dei. The rights of people versus the rights of property have been entangled in a struggle throughout American history. In its most extreme form, that struggle was over slavery, but the rights of property versus the rights of people continues today in our legal system. It would be difficult to argue that American Christians are predominantly on one side or the other.
Augustine then described how the pagans of his time defined the gods, or what made the gods worthy of human worship. “We should reckon the true gods to be those who see that the people get this happiness and then preserve it for them. Then let them be worshiped as they wish, let them demand what shows they like, so that they can enjoy them with their devotees or, at least, receive them from their worshippers. All the gods have to do is to ensure that there is no threat to this happiness from enemies, or plagues, or any other disasters.’” Here Augustine returns to a theme that runs throughout City of God, in which the goodness of God is not best understood through the presence of good fortune in the lives of his followers. God’s goodness or worthiness does not depend on his ability or willingness to convey material wealth and physical safety. Most of the American church sides with Augustine on this issue, though believers have been wrestling with its implications since long before Job was written.
When it comes to City of God, American Christians are sometimes very distinct from Augustine’s pagans. We do not go from temple to temple celebrating the Roman gods. We do not go to the coliseum for entertainment. We sometimes appreciate things which bear a resemblance, but the distinctions are real. Most American Christians likely experience no discomfort with Augustine’s criticisms of Roman religion and the violence baked into Roman culture.
Unfortunately, there are also parts of City of God in which American Christians might over-resemble the pagans. In particular, Augustine identifies the Roman linkage of national and personal wealth and power with a healthy culture and country as an inadequate measure. He further suggests that there is a similarity between the moral corruption of debauchery and that of enjoying power over others. Neither God nor the government are best evaluated on the basis of what they “deliver.”
City of God is about the people and place of Augustine’s era. But if we consider Augustine a faithful guide for the distinctions between Christians and pagans and a reliable voice on what Christian positions ought to be, we can read City of God in a reflective way. Even if he is not writing about us, Augustine can help us consider “what kind of felicity” it is that we want to enjoy and whether or not it is a felicity aligned with God’s model of flourishing.