City Of God The Members example essay topic

According to St Augustine, should members of the City of God regard political power as something that was good or bad or with indifference? St Augustine has long held a reputation as one of the most influential and important political thinkers of all time. His ideologies and concepts which were formulated many centuries ago, have continued to hold their weight even in our contemporary world. It is this apparent ability to bridge the obvious cultural differences that remain between the society that St Augustine was writing in and our far more technologically and socially adept society that ensure that his documents relevance has not waned.

His writings, as did many of his time, focus on the significance of religion and it's application within the political order that existed. One of St Augustine's most important theories was of the existence of the 'City of God'. To decipher how political power should have been viewed by the members of the City of God is a very complex issue because the writings are very intense and to come to a definitive answer would prove almost impossible because of the many interpretations that can be understood. However, it is an issue which can cause great debate and contains a number of issues which must be developed further. The City of God was one of St Augustine's most important writings and it's importance can not be forgotten. He placed great importance on the City of God and it's counterpart the Earthly City.

St Augustine believed that every member of society would eventually become a member of one of these particular cities, this was to include those who had not yet even been born. In essence, every member of the social order had their destiny marked out and were to eventually arrive in one of these destinations. However, the two cities were not to be separated until the end of time and as a result members of the society had a decision to make. That decision was to decide whether to follow the path of good or alternatively follow the path of evil, the judgment would have important consequences for themselves as it could help to forge an outlook as to which city they would have eventually ended up in.

What you do in your life does not dictate your destiny as salvation is not of our own doing but instead that of god. Humans in St Augustine's eyes had free will and this gave them the opportunity to obey or alternatively disobey god. This possible rebellion against god and the political order in general was, according to Augustine, solely down to the pride that was instilled within humans, as a result human life was created to be a long punishment for sin. Slavery, war, disease and suffering were all consequences of this. In terms of how political power should be viewed, the necessity for human government and ensuring that there wasn't an over reliance on the direction of god was all too evident to perceive. Human government was seen as being necessary because sin needed to be curtailed somehow within societies and it is the role of the ruling political power to impose their authority.

However, all that the human government can do is influence our external behaviour and in general Augustine found this view of government quite repressive. Human government was simply there to regulate and guide peoples lives during their earthly existence before they reached the City of Gods or the Earthly City. Yet, it was also possible for the elect to sin and it was their duty to try and struggle or resist this sin in order to ensure they reached their destiny If people were to reach the City of Gods then the issue of power and more relevantly political power became a more contentious one. Augustine felt that it would be acceptable for a Christian to hold power as long as it was given to them by god, and likewise he felt that power in itself was not necessarily a bad thing. Also, to hold wealth in relation to someone's power was not a sinful thing, so long as the wealth did not become the sole focus and drive of someone's life.

The political power that would have to exist within the City of God was similarly linked to the belief that god was all powerful. Human government is man made and is therefore susceptible to difficulties and problems because man is not perfect. In relation to political power if a ruler was deemed to be unjust and was showing a complete disregard to the position of power by misusing it to benefit themselves then it is not for the citizens to disobey or revolt against the leadership but simply leave matters in the hands of god as he is the only person who has the ability and supremacy to punish sin accurately, God was seen as the creator of all by Augustine which in many ways contradicted ancient Greek thinking. The political power that he held within the City of God and elsewhere ensured that all of his creations were meant to have been perfect, thus negating the need for any form of conflict or sin. The ideology that humans had freewill is not evident in animals because they are programmed by god. Humans on the other hand were given the ability to dictate exactly how their lives were lived.

In essence, any human being is capable of leading a hedonistic or moralistic lifestyle but the major difference is that unlike any form of animal humans have souls. The political power that existed would hopefully ensure that humans stayed on the straight and narrow and were able to fulfil their pre- determined path that was to lead them to the City of God or elsewhere. The church was to play a major role within this structure as their task included helping to reduce the possible alienation of man from god. To all intents and purposes man was subject to two forms of authority: spiritual and temporal or church and state.

The church would use this spiritual authority, seen as the word of god to punish those who sin. The use of temporal authority was meant to restrict the apparent unrestrained greed, violence and disorder of the reprobate and prevents society breaking down into chaos of anarchy. However, the task of making human beings entirely morally virtuous is nigh on impossible so alleviation of suffering and conflict was as much as could be achieved. It is therefore clear to see that the church and the state are not entirely co-incidental although the state was a body of people connected by common laws compared to a common faith within the church.

Within the City of God the members have been elected along with those angels who have been deemed appropriate enough to enter, fundamentally the 'good' angels. For the people who have made it there the materialization of political power and order is useful as it retains the structure that is necessary. The Earthly City meanwhile contained the devil, fallen angels and the reprobate who had sinned during their lives and whose paths had not been pre-determined to reach the more desirable City of Gods. Therefore in this context it is clear to see that it would not be unjust for god to release some men from sin and leave the others. Overall the question of how political power should be regarded within the City of Gods is a very challenging subject.

As is clear to see, the destiny that has been preset for any citizen ensures that the calibre of person who achieves entry to The City of Gods would assume that political power and order were necessary components because they will have adhered to similar circumstances before they reached their fate. The opposing argument would be that considering the fact that everyone's path was pre-determined anyway and that only god had the ability to dictate who would end up in the City of Gods then the same quality of person would arrive all the time, thus restraining the opportunities for anyone else to reach the City. Overall, I believe that members of the City of God would view political power as something that was both necessary and useful in helping them to fulfil their life to the fullest.

Bibliography

Deane, Herbert. Political and Social Ideas of St Augustine (CUP: New York, 1963).
St Augustine. The City of God (CUP: Harmondsworth, 1998).
St Augustine Concerning the City of God against the Pagans (Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1972).