The City of God: Did Augustine Blame the Pagans for the Sack of Rome?

[Dauphin]

Hi,

My medieval history professor said something during today’s lecture which bothered me a bit.

When talking about St. Augustine’s City of God, she said that Augustine wrote it to blame the pagans for the sack of Rome in A.D. 410.

I was always under the impression that Augustine was responding to the claims of the pagans that Rome had been sacked because it had endorsed Christianity and abadoned paganism.

I found a reference to how his book details how the pagan “gods” had never provided any protection to Rome, but I can’t find a reference to Augustine “blaming” pagan practice for the sack of Rome. In fact, the theme of the book is how the eternal City of God is unconcerned with worldly affairs. It would seem to contradict this theme if Augustine asserted that a universal belief in Christianity would have somehow prevented the sack of Rome.

Am I correct? I think I’ll email the professor if it turns out she gave incorrect information to the class. Maybe I’m too touchy about this… it’s just that she put St. Augustine in a really bad light as if he were some superstitious old crank. It’s my intent to publicly defend the church during her lectures:thumbsup: .

 

[Harpazo]

I definitely think you’re right in what you’re saying. It’s a common thing for those in the academic world to blame St. Augustine and others in the Church, or ignorantly twisting history.

The first 13 chapters or so are refuting Paganism, and showing them how they were wrong in blaming Christians.

However, I’ll wait for someone with more expertise on this subject give a more definitive answer.

In Pax Christi
Andrew

 

[Dauphin]

I definitely think you’re right in what you’re saying. It’s a common thing for those in the academic world to blame St. Augustine and others in the Church, or ignorantly twisting history.

The first 13 chapters or so are refuting Paganism, and showing them how they were wrong in blaming Christians.

However, I’ll wait for someone with more expertise on this subject give a more definitive answer.

In Pax Christi
Andrew

Thanks for your response. Does anyone know the answer for certain?

 

[FCEGM]

Thanks for your response. Does anyone know the answer for certain?

Your understanding was always correct. Your professor is wrong and doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The City of God was written to address the fact that the faith of Christians was not in any political city (like “sacred Rome”) but in the Heavenly Jerusalem that is to come. That’s all that the book is about.

When Rome was sacked in A.D. 410, this dealt a heavy psychological blow to all good “Romans” (that is, citizens of the Roman Empire) who always thought that it was impossible that mighty Rome could ever suffer such a defeat because “divine providence” (whether in a Christian sense or in a pagan sense) favored Rome. This was the old pagan concept that Rome was protected by the demi-gods (or angels) called “virtus” and “virilius.” So, when Alaric’s Visigoths actually succeeded in sacking the city, all Roman citizens throughout the world (whether they were pagan or Christian) felt like Rome lost its “good luck” (it’s “fortuna”). This was a terrible thought to superstitious Romans, who took such things seriously. The sack of Rome seriously threatened their deepest nationalistic beliefs and undermined everything that they believed about themselves as a civilization.

What Augustine’s book is saying is that our faith (that is, the faith of Christian Romans) is not in any human institution, but in the City of God which will never pass away. So, Augustine was the one who was not superstitious. He calls for Christian Romans to rise above their cultural/nationalistic superstitions and to see things properly and maturely through Christian eyes.