Thematically, Dent’s stories are about the unification of faith and reason with the characters Virgil and Beatrice, is the Same as Chartres Cathedral’s sculpture and art on the stain glass. Both works show our relationship to God and educates us as a result Of sin how we can make up for sins and where we go when we are sinless.
The Divine Comedy is composed of three cantatas-” Inferno (Hell), Purgatory (Purgatory), and Paradise (Paradise) -” composed each Of 33 cantos. The very first canto serves as an introduction to the poem and is generally not considered to be part of the first cantina, bringing the total number of cantos to 100. Inferno (Hell): First Circle (Limbo): uninhabited and the virtuous pagans, who didn’t accept Christ. Second Circle: lustful ,Third Circle: gluttons, Fourth Circle: materialistic people, Fifth Circle: wrathful and the sullen or slothful people, Sixth Circle.
Heretics, Seventh Circle: the violent, divided into three rings, Outer) the violent against people and property, (Middle) the people who commit suicide, and (Inner) the violent against God (blasphemers), the violent against nature (sodomite’s), and the violent against art (usurers), Eighth Circle: The fraudulent-“those guilty to deliberate, knowing evil-divided into ten oblige: Bolivia l: panderers and seducers, Bolivia 2: Flatterers, Bolivia 3: simonizes, Bolivia 4: Sorcerers and false prophets, Bolivia 5: Corrupt politicians (vibrators), Bolivia 6: Hypocrites and liars, Bolivia Thieves, Bolivia 8: V-redundant advisors, Bolivia 9: sewers of discord, & Bolivia 10: falsifiers (alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, ND impersonators) Ninth Circle. Traitors, the circle is divided into four concentric zones: Zone 1: traitors to their kindred, Zone 2: traitors to political entities, such as party, city, or country, Zone 3: Traitors to their guests, & Zone 4.
Traitors to their lords and benefactors: Satan, who has three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow, each having a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor: sinners in the mouths of Satan are Brutes and Cassias in the left and right mouths, respectively, Who were involved in the assassination Of Julius Caesar and Judas Chariot in the central, most vicious mouth, who betrayed Jesus. The Terraces of Purgatory: First Terrace: the proud, Second Terrace: the envious, Third Terrace: the wrathful, Fourth Terrace: the slothful Fifth Terrace. The avaricious and prodigal, Sixth Terrace: the gluttonous, Seventh Terrace: the lustful The ascent of the mountain culminates at the summit, which is in fact the Garden of Eden. This place is meant to return one to a state of innocence that existed before the sin of Adam and Eve caused the fall from grace. Paradise: The nine spheres, First Sphere.
The sphere of the Moon is that of souls who abandoned their vows, Second Sphere: The sphere of Mercury is that of souls ho did good out tot desire tort tame, Third Sphere: The sphere to Venus is that of souls who did good out of love, Fourth Sphere: The sphere of the Sun is that of souls of the wise, Fifth Sphere: The sphere of Mars is that of souls who fought for Christianity, Sixth Sphere: The sphere of Jupiter is that of souls who personified justice, Seventh Sphere: The sphere of Saturn is that of the contemplative, Eighth Sphere: The sphere of fixed stars is the abode of all the blessed, g, Ninth Sphere. The Premium Mobiles the abode of angels, and from the Premium Mobile, Dante ascends to a region beyond physical existence, called the Empyrean, here he comes face-to-face with God. Chartres Cathedral: The plan is cruciform, With a 427-foot long nave, and short transepts to the south and north. The east end is rounded with an ambulatory which has five semi-circular chapels radiating from it. The cathedral extensively used flying buttresses in its original plan, and these supported the weight of the extremely high vaults. The new High Gothic cathedral at Chartres used 4 rib vaults in a rectangular space.
The cathedral has three large rose windows: one on the west front with a theme of The Last Judgment; one on the north transept with a theme of the Glorification of the Virgin; and one on the south transept with a theme of the Glorification of Christ. On the doors and porches medieval carvings of statues holding swords, crosses, books and trade tools parade around the portals, their expressions as clear today as when first carved 700 years ago. The sculptures on the west facade depict Chrism’s ascension into heaven, episodes from his life, saints, apostles, Christ in the lap of Mary and other religious scenes. Below the religious figures are statues of kings and queens, which is the reason why this entrance is known as the ‘royal’ portal.
While these figures are based on figures from the Old Testament, they ere also regarded as images of current kings and queens when they were constructed. The symbolism of showing royalty displayed slightly lower than the religious sculptures, but still very close, implies the relationship between the kings and God. It is a way of displaying the authority of royalty, showing them so close to figures Of Christ, it gives the impression they have been Ordained and put in place by God. Sculptures of the Seven Liberal Arts appeared in the archivist Of the right bay Of the Royal Portal, Which represented the school at Chartres. 2. ) Agitator used illusionary devises, had a single point Of view, there baas a allegations to us, a single light source, and a sense of gravity.
The 6th century had no illusionary devises, had multiple point of views, there was no relationship to us, and a sense of floating (iconic). (Contrast Madonna in Throne to Good Sheppard or Mosaics) Early Renaissance artists like Mosaic( The Holy Trinity with the Virgin & SST. John or Madonna Enthroned) and Antenna ( The Dead Christ or SST. James being lead to His Execution) create paintings that look like a window looking out on the world, while Bottling (Primeval), Piper Della Francesca (Baptism of Christ), and Domenici Venetians (Madonna & Child with Saints) rate paintings achieve harmony of regular, clear, and proportionate relations not evident in nature.
The most obvious ones to do are The Dead Christ (realistic) and Madonna & Child with Saints (Idealistic) High Renaissance artists like Dad Vinci or Raphael combine idealism and naturalism, achieve it by linear perspective and increased knowledge of the human anatomy. Natural Sciences: Question I: One of Aquinas’ theories on the earth’s mobility is that circular motion is not the proper motion of the earth. He argued that rectilinear motion is the proper motion of the Earth’s enactment. If it were to move circularly, it loud be violent motion. Denying the antecedent on fixed stars, Aquinas argued suppose the earth moves, then the fixed stars would not appear to rise and set. They do appear to rise and set, therefore the earth does not move. Three arguments Burundi uses to counter Aquinas are I) Relativistic argument Of 2 ships: Motion obstacles sphere (east to west) or earth (west to east).
If you are on a ship that is moving and you see another ship moving at same speed both Will appear to be stopped. Fifth other ship starts to move, you won’t know bayou are moving or if they are moving. Similarly with the earth and fixed stars are moving r the earth moves. 2) Aesthetics, rest vs… Motion. It is more noble and perfect to be at rest. To celestial bodies ought to be attributed the nobler conditions, and to the highest sphere the noblest. Therefore, the higher sphere ought to be at rest. 3) Appearances, resistance of air if earth were moving, we would feel the wind moving just as if we were riding horseback; we don’t feel wind on a windless day, therefore the earth isn’t moving.
Rise to universities: Elementary education of Latin, art of chanting, and arithmetic brought about demand for higher education. The cities to Bologna, Paris, and Oxford became centers for higher earning, Universities came into being when teachers would teach one pupil or a small group of pupils for a tee. Education was in high demand and as the number of students increased, a need to organize became necessary. Guilds of teachers and students were formed and they called them universities (university), which simply denoted a group of people seeking common ends. In contrast, the Renaissance humanities returned to teaching the classics – history, poetry and art and utilizing texts from the source, not annotated texts.
Question I: Augustine politics: Church brings people into the city of God. State retrains people in the city Of the world. If a person is in the city Of God then they honor the state because they can use it for happiness. Summary of City of God (politics): The idea of the two cities is as follows. The “city of God” consists of those who will enjoy eternal happiness with God in heaven, the “earthly city” of those who will not. The city of God is not identical with the Church, since not all members of the Church will be saved, During this age, before the Day of Judgment, the members of the two cities are mixed in together, no one knows with certainty who are the elect.
Although, Augustine sometimes seems o identity/ Rome as the earthly city, at least in later sections of the book the earthly city is not identified with any particular state, Members of both the city to God and the earthly city will be among the citizens to any particular state. The members of the two cities have different ultimate values but have many intermediate ends in common for example, they both desire worldly peace. So far as any particular state serves such common ends it will have the cooperation of members of the city of God. Like Plato and Aristotle, Augustine was no admirer of militarism or empire. Peace is one of his favorite themes. Love of glory or honor is not a virtue but a vice, according to Augustine; yet politically it has similar effects to virtue: love of honor inhibits other vices. In this respect it is an image or imitation or likeness of real virtue.
Augustine philosophy was much influenced by neo-Patriotism_ Plato distinguished especially between two levels of reality: the Forms, and the things of our experience, which imitate or resemble the Forms in an inferior way _ The neo-Patients extended this to many levels: Reality has many levels, each of which is a reflection or imitation of the level above it. This makes Augustine perhaps surprisingly tolerant Of lower things: the lower levels are not merely evil; they are an imperfect imitation of higher levels. The “virtue” Of the ancient Romans was inferior, but it was worth something. Augustine is more realistic than many of the Stoic writers, who identified virtue and happiness; or perhaps we should say that Augustine is using “happiness” to mean something close to what we mean by it, and acknowledging that virtue cannot guarantee happiness in that sense.
Augustine says “When virtues are genuine virtues and that is possible only when men believe in God they make o pretence of protecting their possessors from unhappiness, for that would be a false promise; but they do claim that human life, now compelled to feel the misery to so many grievous ills on earth, can, by the hope to heaven, be made both happy and secure… On earth we are happy, after a fashion, when we enjoy the peace, little as it is, which a good life brings; but such happiness compared with the beatitude which is our end in eternity is, in point of fact, misery. ” Augustine believed if there had been no sin (if the Fall had not taken place, and mankind had continued in the original state of innocence) the institutions of overspent and slavery would not have existed. Christians participate in the earthly city, and value its peace. The idea of order: one thing is under another, exists for the sake of another, and must obey another…
Even when order is not perfect there must be Some order evil is never absolute. Peace, Justice, and Happiness depend upon Order, and are less perfect the less perfect the order. According to Augustine, secular government cannot secure the happiness Of citizens. Happiness is not possible in this life. The goal of politics is peace or order not perfect peace, but a peace worth having though imperfect, a remedy or some of the disorder resulting from sin. To secure peace warfare may be necessary. Augustine social thought: Love God, neighbors, and oneself, but use things to achieve happiness. All humans have dignity and respect, because people were created in God’s Image.
Adam and Eve’s fall reversed the order of love, The Philosophy of SST. Augustine l. Elite and Works Aurelia’s Augustine was born at Taste in proconsul’s Minutia in 354, His father, Patristic, was a pagan; his mother, Monica, a Christian. Tater his first studies in his native city, he went to Cartage, with the financial aid of Rumanians, to complete his studies in rhetoric. At the same time, however, he fell a slave to his youthful passions and even became connected with the Mechanical religious sect. After completing his studies, he first established his school at Taste, and later at Cartage, where he taught rhetoric for eight years, at the same time studying philosophy and the natural sciences.
In 383, desirous of honors and a more disciplined group of students, he evaded his mother’s vigilance, abandoned Cartage, and went to Rome. He did not find there, however, the satisfaction he sought; nor did his students bring him any remuneration. He therefore sought the directorship of rhetoric in Milan. This he obtained, and transferred to that city in 384. There his saintly mother joined him. The Bishop of Milan at that time was Ambrose, and the prayers of Augustine mother, together With the eloquence Of Ambrose, reportedly triumphed over the tormented spirit of the young Augustine. In 387 he asked to receive baptism. Ambrose conferred the sacrament on Easter Of that year.
An intellectual one had preceded Augustine spiritual conversion. Dissatisfied with the doctrinal vanity of Mechanism, he abandoned the sect. After a brief period in the Skeptic Academy, he had given himself to the study of Neo-Platonism, in which he rasped the idea of the spirituality of God and the concept of evil as the privation of good. Thus his baptism signaled the complete and absolute conversion of Augustine to Christianity. Augustine had already renounced his teaching office, and now he left Milan to return to Taste and live in solitude, He undertook the journey home in company with his son, Tuesdays, Monica, and some friends, and stopped en route at Costa, where his mother died.
After her death, he resumed his journey toward Africa and arrived ultimately at Taste, where he sold his worldly goods, distributed the proceeds to the poor, and attempted o live the life of perfection according to the standard of the Gospel. In 391 Augustine went to Hippo, probably to select a suitable place for himself and his friends who had been living a common life of study and devotion at Taste in a monastery built by Augustine. In Hippo, at the Uvula of the people, Augustine was ordained a priest. The newly ordained priest, while continuing his monastic life, entered into the mission Of the postulate, preaching against vice and voicing his formidable opposition to the heresies which at that time were harassing Africa.
Consecrated coadjutor Bishop Of Hippo in 395 and titular Bishop Of the same itty in the following year, Augustine transformed his Episcopal residence into a monastery, in Which he lived together With his clerics, Who assisted him in giving religious instructions and carrying on all forms of charitable works. Always ready to argue on theological, philosophical and moral questions, he took part in all the difficult theological disputes, which disturbed the Church in Africa. He opposed Donation, which denied the validity of sacraments administered by ecclesiastics in the state of sin, and advocated a church of pure and perfect men, withdrawn entirely from the life of the world. He vigorously argued against Plagiarism, which exalted the absolute liberty of the human will and denied original sin and the necessity of divine grace.
He fought against Mechanism, the doctrine, which he has formerly espoused, and the Skepticism of the Academicians whom he had once joined when his mind was assailed by doubt. A fatal illness overtook Augustine in the year 430, at a time when the Vandals, barbarians of exceptional ferocity, were laying siege to the city of Hippo. Augustine was seventy-five years old, and had spent thirty-four years as Bishop of Hippo, The literary output of SST. Augustine was prodigious. The prevalent purpose of his writings is dogmatic and moral; IEEE. , he dwells on the problems, which most directly concern the answer to the question of life. But because of his particular tendency to consider the problems of life in connection with speculative knowledge, he treats philosophical problems to some extent in every one of his works.
From the point of view of philosophy the most important are: the Confessions in thirteen books, a profound and suggestive autobiography; Soliloquies, in two books; De immortality anima; De libber arbitration; Contra Academics; De beat Vita, De magistrate. His two masterpieces are De captivate Die (City of God) and De Terminate (On the Trinity), and despite the prevalent dogmatic and apologetic character Of these works, they are very rich in philosophical considerations. Augustine style is human and provocative, thus rendering his books suitable for all times. II. Doctrine: General Ideas Neo-Platonic philosophy was the field of exercise for the mind of Augustine previous to his conversion, and it was the same philosophy which prepared him for conversion.
Even after his conversion, he remained a Platonist, and for the solution of major problems he appealed to the Platonic concept, But such adherence does not signify merely simple acceptance; rather, it involves interpretation and a transformation of the very principles of Platonism within the limits to the needs to Christian thought. In this work to adapting ancient thought to Christianity, Augustine precedes Thomas Aquinas, for just as Aquinas undertook to lay down the thought of Aristotle as the rational basis of religion, so Augustine did the same with the teaching of Plato and Platonism. The central point of Platonism was the participation of the soul in a supra-sensible world (Ideas, Nouns).
Through this participation the intellect acquired the notion of the intelligible and hence was made participant of wisdom. Augustine accepts this participation, but the one vivo grants or imparts these intelligible notions to the soul is God, the Truth of God, the Word of God, to whom are transferred all Platonic Ideas. In the Word of God exist the eternal truths, the species, the formal principles of things, which are the models of created beings. In the intellectual light imparted to us by the Word Of God we know both the eternal truths and the ideas of real beings. This the famous illumination to which Augustine makes appeal, as we shall see, in the solution Of major problems.
Furthermore, e observe that philosophy is considered by Augustine as the science for the solution of the problem of life; hence his thought mainly revolves around God and the soul, and consequently also around the problem of evil, which must be solved in order that one may know the nature of the soul. In a word, the thought of Augustine is more concerned with the solution of religious, ethical and moral problems than with those of pure speculation. Ill. Theory of Knowledge (Epistemology) Augustine, who during his formation in philosophy had made contact with the Skepticism of the Academicians, knew that the problem of knowledge involved woo difficulties, one regarding the existence tooth knowing subject (which fact was denied by the Academicians), and the other regarding the origin of knowledge itself.
As for the first question, Augustine overcame the Skepticism of the Academy and arrived at the affirmation of the existence of the knowing subject with the famous argument: “If doubt, exist Is fallow, sum. ” Regarding the second question, i. E. The origin of knowledge, Augustine as a Platonist underrates sensitive cognition, which he does not make the foundation of intellective knowledge. (Thus he differs radically from Aristotle and Aquinas n this important question. ) Whence, then, does intellective cognition draw its origin? Prom illumination. As the eyes have need of the light of the sun in order to see sensible objects, so the intellect needs the light of God to know the world of intelligible beings.
Eternal truths, ideas, species, formal principles are imparted to our intelligence by Wisdom, the Word of God. Intellectual knowledge is not the result Of the acquisitive operation Of the intellect, but a participation or grant of God. It is in this participation that Augustine maintains with regard to ideas consists. It follows from this that the intellect, considered in itself, is incapable of acquiring knowledge of intelligible beings, but is made capable of such knowledge through illumination. The mystic schools of the Middle Ages were to appeal to this natural inability of the intellect in order to affirm that humility and prayer are the best means to acquiring wisdom. IV.
Metaphysics Theistic Augustine proves the existence of God through a priori and a posteriori arguments, However, if we keep in mind what has been said about illumination, the more convincing arguments tort Augustine will be those a priori proofs drawn room the presence within us of this special illumination. In fact, the presence of this illumination is proof of the existence of God Such a priori arguments can be reduced to the following formula: We are conscious of possessing within ourselves ideas and formal principles which are by nature universal and necessary, outside the confines of time and space, eternal, But such universal and necessary principles cannot take their origin from the external world nor from us, who, as contingent beings, are devoid of these characteristics of universality and necessity.
Therefore, such universal principles presuppose God, who is a necessary being, unlimited by space and time. He communicates the universal principles to us by the Wisdom of God, the Word of God. As we said above, Augustine also appeals to a posteriori arguments, When, for instance, from change and the imperfections of beings he rises to the perfect being, the being above all change, God. Regarding the nature Of God, Augustine assumes a position opposed to all the errors of Platonism. For Augustine, God is immutable, eternal, all-powerful, all knowing, absolutely devoid of potentiality or composition, a pure spirit, a personal, intelligent being.
The mystery of the Trinity f God induces Augustine to consider God as being, knowledge, and love; and since God has created the world, it reveals a reflection of these three attributes of God: every creature should consist essentially of being, knowledge, and volition. Cosmology Against the dualism of Plato and against the pantheism of the Stoics and the Neo-Platonist, for whom the world was a physical derivation or emanation to God, Augustine affirms that the world was created by God trot nothing, through a free act of His will. With regard to the manner in which creation was effected by God, Augustine is inclined to admit that the creation of the world as instantaneous, but not entirely as it exists at present.
In the beginning there were created a few species of beings which, by virtue of intrinsic principles of reproduction, gave origin to the other species down to the present state of the existing world. Thus it seems that Augustine is not contrary to a moderate evolution, but that such a moderate evolution has nothing in common with modern materialistic evolutionist teaching. Connected with the creation of the world is the problem of time, for time has its beginning with creation. But vatu is time? What is its real nature? Augustine observes that time is essentially constituted Of a past, a present, and a future; without this division it would be impossible to speak of time.
But the past is not existent, for it has passed; nor does the future exist, for it has yet to come; the present is the moment Which joins the past with the future. Now it would be foolish to deny the reality of time. We speak Of time as long or short, and that Which has no reality cannot be either long or short. To solve the difficulty Augustine has recourse to the intellective memory, which records the past and foresees the future. Thus both the past and he future are made present to the memory, and here time finds its reality of length and brevity. For Augustine, then, as the Scholastics were to say later, time is a being of reason with a foundation in things which through becoming offer to the mind the concept of time as past, present, and future.
Psychology Augustine affirms the absolute unity and the spirituality of the human soul, And yet, considering Augustine Platonic tendency, the union of the soul with the body is somewhat extrinsic. In regard to the origin of the soul, Augustine teaching varies from creationism to traditionalism. According to creationism, God creates the soul of each man immediately in the very moment it comes to animate the body. On the other hand, according to traditionalism the soul of every man proceeds from the souls of the parents. Augustine, for polemical motives in his controversy with Pillages (who denied original sin), leans toward transudations In regard to the nature of the soul he affirms that the soul is simple and immortal.
The sensitive soul, besides having the five senses, is endowed also with a sensitive cognition which is Common to animals and which judges the proper object of each of the senses. The intellective soul has here functions: being, understanding, and loving, corresponding to three faculties: intellective memory, intelligence, and will. The primacy among these three faculties is given to the Will, Which in man signifies love. The Will Of man is free. United to the question of the liberty of man is the problem of evil, which for many years tormented the mind of Augustine. Three kinds of evil can be distinguished: metaphysical, physical, and moral, and each of them consists in a deficiency in being a descent toward non. Being.
Metaphysical evil is the lacking off perfection not due to a given nature and hence is not actually an evil. Lender this aspect, all creatures are evil because they fall short full perfection, which is God alone, Physical evil consists in the privation of a perfection due to nature; e. G. , blindness is the privation of sight in a being which ought to have sight according to the exigencies of its nature, Augustine, under Platonic and Sort_ influence, justifies the presence to physical evil in the general order to nature, in which dissonance serves to greater accentuate the general harmony, The solution, certainly, is not very pleasant The only true evil is moral evil: sin, an action contrary to the will of Cod.
The cause of moral evil is not Cod, who is infinite holiness, nor is it matter, as the Platonist would have it, for matter is a creature of God and hence good Neither is the will as a faculty of the soul evil, for it too has been created by God. The cause of moral evil is the faculty of free will, by which man is able to deviate from the right order, to oppose himself to the will of God Such opposition gives moral evil reality negative, metaphysical reality in the sense of decadence of the order established by God, and hence decadence of being or descent toward non-being. Sin, from the very fact that it is decadence Of being, carries in itself its own punishment.
By sinning man injures himself in his being for he falls from what he ought to be. As a result of this fall there exist the sufferings Which he must bear, such as remorse in the present life, and the sufferings which God has established in the life to come for those Who violate the laws laid down by His Will. V. Liberty and Grace Augustine sustained a long debate against Plagiarism. Pillages, who gave origin to the heresy which bore his name, held that the freedom of the human will is a gift of God, a grace of God. But from the moment he has received free will man no longer has need of further graces to attain his moral perfection: the powers of his nature are sufficient for this.
Human nature has not been corrupted by original sin, but remains integral, and is able of itself to attain the perfection that is due to it, Augustine hence found it necessary to defend orthodox doctrine regarding both the redemptive work to Christ and the necessity to grace tort attaining moral perfection, The teaching of Augustine is summarized in the following points: ; Adam was created by God in integrity of nature, and was rather enriched with preternatural and supernatural gifts. ; Although more inclined to good than to evil, there remained in Adam the possibility of committing sin. ; Adam abused this power and sinned, and since in him were the beginnings of all mankind, all humanity has sinned with him. Thus evil took its beginning with original sin As a consequence of original sin, the human race has not only been deprived of preternatural and supernatural gifts, but the Whole Of nature has been upset, so that after original sin man is naturally unable not to sin. Christ, by his death on the cross, has remedied this disorder. But if the Redemption worked by Christ has given us once more the possibility of regaining supernatural goods, still has not restored to us the preternatural gifts. It has left human nature unchanged from what it was a consequence of sin; all the sufferings which entered the world with original sin remain as a means of purification and mortification. Hence, granted this natural weakness of human nature, the will, in order to attain moral perfection, needs grace. Now grace comes from God and is external to the will. How is grace to be reconciled with liberty?
This was one of the problems which stubbed the mind of Augustine, and he, in order to uphold the efficacy of grace, neglected the second element, liberty. VI. Ethics We have already had occasion to explain certain basic points of Augustine moral or ethical doctrine when we spoke of the human will as the sole cause of moral evil, Augustine theory concerning evil is his greatest philosophic- theological discovery particularly his distinction between metaphysical evil, which is a deficiency or lack of being, and moral evil, which is a deficiency or lack of good. Another important point in Augustine moral teaching is his doctrine f voluntarism, or the primacy of the will over the intellect.
The will is love, and according to Augustine it is necessary to love in order to know, and not vice versa, The primacy of the will is the intrinsic law of being, which finds its first actuation in God, who has created out of love. This love or desire reaches down even to inferior beings, in which it is manifested as instinct and blind appetitive or appetite. Since the first love must be love of God, and all other loves must be subordinated to this first love, Augustine teaches that love signifies order. Action is activity according to love. Any sin is an act of hatred, for sin is separation (aversion) from the order or love Which has its center in God. Because sin is an act of hate, the man who sins, not being able to destroy the order established by God, harms himself and falls from his being.
Every good action is an action according to love: “Love,” says Augustine, “and do what you wish Ama et face quad visa. ” The voluntarism of Augustine indicates the clear separation of the Latin ethical concept from the Greek. Greek genius, theoretical, speculative, creator of philosophy, makes the intellect conscience the basis of morality; theory takes precedence over practice. Augustine, representing the genius of Rome, which loved the practical and active life, and created law, defends the greater value of activity over speculation, prefers fact to theory, and hence the primacy tooth will over the intellect. The voluntarism of Augustine found in the Middle Ages great champions in the mystics and in the Franciscan School, VI’.
Politics: The City of God Augustine wrote his masterpiece, The City of Cod, while the Roman empire was falling into ruin under the barbarian invasions and the Church was rising from the imperial remains There was need of justifying these two events, which disturbed the spirits not only of pagans but of believers as well. With this purpose in mind, Augustine undertook his work, Vichy can be considered the first in the philosophy of history. Augustine view of the history of humanity is organic and unified, but it is also ascetic and Christian. Christ is the very soul Of history. The coming of Christ presupposes another truth of Christianity, original sin.
In consequence Of original sin, men are divided into two distinct cities: one Of God, the other earthly. Both, however, are at the service of Christ. The people of Israel represented the city Of God, prior to the coming Of Christ; the earthly city was represented by the Roman empire. The two cities had a different purpose, the one religious and the other political. The first had the task of preparing for the coming of Christ with prophecies; the second was to prepare for his coming politically. After the coming of Christ and the founding of the Church, the purpose of the Roman empire had been fulfilled, and hence it fell under the assaults of the barbarians.
If in the Christian era the Church represents the city of God, moral evil, wherever it be found, will be the representative of the earthly, the satanic city. These two cities now are politically unsaturated and only religiously diverse, for the Church has a universal task and must embrace the elect and the predestined to all times and to all races. The complete division will be made on the Great Sabbath, when the good will he made eternal citizens of the city of God, the eternal Jerusalem, and the evil will be confined forever to the city of Satan, hell, But who are those who will end in glory and who will end in torment?
