The Calvinist International
The emotions sometimes get a bad rap in contemporary conservative Reformed theology. This is both unjust and unfortunate, because they form an essential and basic part of the make-up of human nature–at the very least as it is constituted in this life. A helpful corrective is found in City of God 9.5, where Augustine contrasts the […]
In De Civitate Dei, book XIX chapter 27, Augustine of Hippo makes the following statement about the attainment of peace for individuals, and the justice that comes with this. The key is the obedience of man to God’s commands. In this life, therefore, justice in each individual exists when God rules and man obeys, and when […]
Do Christians pass straight into glory when they die, or must they journey first over a harrowing path of cleansing and purification, as in Plato’s Myth of Er in Book 10 of the Republic or as in the sixth book of Vergil’s Aeneid? According to Augustine in City of God 20.9, they do not go to jail, as it […]
In her Augustine and the Limits of Politics, Jean Bethke Elshtain writes of how Augustine’s conception of this temporal age helps us understand our efforts toward earthly order and peace. They are legitimate, they have meaning, if what we aim and hope for is attainable. This last aspect, the attainability of what we hope for, is […]
In De Civitate Dei 11.25, Augustine makes an observation which, while obvious in some ways, is a profound corrective to man’s basic tendency to look for wisdom everywhere but the true source. He notes first that if we were self-deriving, then so would our wisdom. But we are not, for we are created. Now if our […]
In chapter 25.4 of De Civitate Dei, Augustine says the following about the the different but related goods of the two cities of God and Man: It would be incorrect to say that the goods which this city [the City of Man] desires are not goods, since even that city is better, in its own human […]
For Augustine in City of God 21.16, your best life now consists in waging war against the flesh as long as you live. But the power to fight this war comes only from God, and is accessed only through faith: And indeed this victory cannot be sincerely and truly gained but by delighting in true […]
For Augustine, the City of God cannot be identified with “the Church” for the simple reason that the City of God contains angels as part of its membership (likewise, the City of Man contains demons). One place in which he discusses this is City of God 12.9 in his treatment of angels. Part of the City of God, then, […]
In a section full of interesting observations, Augustine has this to say about the life-giving principle of Christ: The Principle is neither the flesh nor the human soul in Christ but the Word by which all things were made. The flesh, therefore, does not by its own virtue purify, but by virtue of the Word […]
Book 10 of Augustine’s City of God is dedicated to rebutting the Platonists and their understanding of worship. Throughout the book, Augustine regularly returns to the topic of sacrifice. He explains to whom it is due, what it is, how the “true” sacrifice is found in Christ’s death on the cross, and in what way Christians continue […]