Le Menu: Augustine’s Two Cities (served bistro-style)

Welcome! Tonight’s lesson is laid out like a Paris bistro menu so the ideas are easy to taste. Each dish explains a part of Augustine’s big idea: human life is split between two kinds of "cities" (groups of people), the City of God and the City of Man.

Entrée — What are the two cities?

• City of God: People who love God above themselves. Their main trait is caritas (self-giving love). They seek eternal life and live by faith, hope, and charity.
• City of Man (Earthly City): People who love themselves more than God. Their main trait is cupido (disordered desire, pride, or selfish love). They chase power, fame, comfort, and earthly goods.

Plat Principal — Where did the two cities come from, and what will happen to them?

1. Origins: Augustine says the two cities began early in human history. He reads key stories in Genesis as showing two kinds of people (for example, Cain and Abel represent opposing loves).
2. History: These two groups are mixed together during human history — families, nations, and churches contain both kinds of people. They grow and struggle against each other through time.
3. Futures: At the end of history (God’s final judgment), the two cities will be fully separated: the City of God will have eternal peace with God, while the City of Man will face final ruin because it trusted created things instead of God.

Side Dish — How does Augustine trace the cities through the Old Testament?

Augustine reads the Old Testament not just as history but as signs and types that point forward to spiritual realities. He often uses typology (one thing points to another):

• City of God figures: Abel (faithful worshipper), Seth and the faithful line, Abraham and his faithful descendants, David as a godly king (in a spiritual sense), and those described as God’s friends or faithful remnant. These figures suggest trust in God and obedience.
• City of Man figures: Cain (murderer, love of self), the builders of Babel or Nimrod (pride, ambition), sometimes unfaithful rulers or nations. These figures show pride, violence, and seeking glory apart from God.

Broader point: Augustine reads Scripture so that the Old Testament foreshadows and prepares for the New. Israel is an important part of God’s plan, but Augustine often treats Israel as a mixed community (some faithful, some not). The true "Israel" in his reading is the Church — the people who love God, whether Jew or Gentile.

Chef’s Note — How Augustine reads Scripture

• He uses four senses: the literal/historical sense and deeper spiritual senses (especially the allegorical or typological sense).
• He looks for how events and people in the Old Testament point forward to Christ and to the spiritual reality of God’s people.
• Result: The Old Testament and New Testament are continuous. The Old points forward; the New fulfils. Israel and the Church are linked but not identical: the Church is the fulfillment of God’s promise.

Entrée 2 — What’s wrong with the earthly city? Are earthly things bad?

Augustine says the main problem is wrong love:

• Flaws: Pride, selfishness, violence, injustice, and the desire for earthly glory. The City of Man builds its goals around self-interest.
• Earthly goods: Created things (food, homes, money, honour) are not evil in themselves — God made them good. They become twisted when they are loved more than God. That disordered love makes them harmful.
• So: Earthly things can be good if used in the right order (loved as gifts from God); they become bad when we worship them.

Plats Suivants — What causes peace and what causes conflict between the cities?

• Peace: Augustine’s idea of true peace is "tranquillitas ordinis" — the quiet that comes when everything is in right order under God. The City of God has the deepest peace because its loves are rightly ordered toward God.
• Discord: Pride, injustice, envy, and competing desires produce conflict. When people love themselves first, they fight over scarce goods and power.

Dessert — Suffering and Christians

How does suffering fit Augustine’s story?

• Augustine sees suffering often as a result of sin in the earthly city. But God allows suffering for reasons that can include correction, testing, or bringing a greater good.
• God does not promise to prevent all suffering for Christians. Sometimes God heals or stops suffering; sometimes he permits it. Christians are called to endurance and hope because their final destiny is with God.
• Martyrdom and suffering can be a sign of faith: they show loyalty to God rather than to earthly comforts.

Petit Café — How should Christians live and take part in the world?

Augustine’s practical advice:

• Christians should care about earthly affairs enough to do good: promote justice, serve the poor, keep order, and help society — but always with the ultimate aim of loving God.
• He allows Christians to be active in politics, the law, and even military matters in order to serve justice and protect people, as long as their hearts are ordered rightly toward God.
• Examples of successful Christian living: a ruler who seeks justice, a judge who is honest, a neighbor who shows charity, or a church leader who cares for the poor. These people work within the earthly city but act with the values of the City of God.

Digestif — The sack of Rome (410) and Augustine’s response

After Rome was sacked in 410, many blamed Christians or Christianity. Augustine wrote City of God to answer that worry. His key responses:

• The fall of Rome was not proof that Christianity ruined the empire. Rome’s moral failings, greed, and political problems were the true causes.
• Rome’s earthly greatness was temporary — Christians’ true citizenship is in heaven. Even if Rome falls, eternal salvation remains more important.

Chef’s Comparison — Augustine, Tertullian, and Chrysostom

• Tertullian often argued for sharp separation from pagan culture ("What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?") — more withdrawalist.
• Chrysostom was strongly critical of wealth and urged moral reform, often encouraging Christians to avoid worldly luxury and to help the poor.
• Augustine is different and more balanced: he warns against loving the world but does not call for full withdrawal. He allows Christians to work in public life and to use earthly goods rightly. Augustine gives a new large-scale framework (the two cities) that explains how believers can live in the world without being overcome by it.

Final Bite — Key takeaways (easy to remember)

1. Two "cities" are defined by two loves: love of God (City of God) and love of self (City of Man).
2. The Old Testament stories point toward these two spiritual realities; Israel’s story foreshadows the Church, but both books of the Bible are connected.
3. Earthly things are created good, but become harmful when loved in the wrong order.
4. Suffering is real and sometimes allowed by God; Christians are called to endure with hope and to use suffering for spiritual growth.
5. Christians should work for justice and the common good in the world, but their highest loyalty is to God and the City of God.

Bon travail! If you want, I can turn any of these menu items into a short paragraph for a school assignment, make a timeline that shows how Augustine traces the cities through Bible stories, or create a simple worksheet with questions and answers.