The Goal for the Night
Trace the argument…..take the Twitter Challenge to create a summary of the argument for each book in 140 characters. 4 Tweets!
Background
313 A.D. was a turning point. Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire. A remarkable change. Christianity now has law on its side. Freedom of religion. Freedom of speech. No longer hiding in the catacombs.
It is now 100 years later. A lot has changed.
Approx. 400 AD. St. Augustine, living in N. Africa, living in a time of chaos in the Roman world. War was nothing new, but now the “eternal city” is beginning to crack. The barbarians are making headway. Why? Godlessness?
Who is Augustine? Very first autobiographer. Confessions. His personal internal and external story of his spiritual life and journeys.
Book Summaries
Book I
Goths attack – the Roman gods did not protect the Roman people during the barbarian invasions, but God protected both the Christians and the enemies of God as well. – showing real powerGood and bad happen to all people Matt 5:45 rain falls on the just and unjust
God allows bad things to happen to Christians for their growth vs the heathens for rebuke.(stirring a cesspool vs. stirring perfume)
God allows blessing on good and ungodly as well.
Why are the good and wicked are equally afflicted — who is really good? None. There are no good people. The Problem of Evil.
Ken: Augustine brings out the first of many “big questions”. The philosophical questions of our faith are answered in the Bible, but not specifically asked in the Bible. Here is where the greatness of City of God is revealed. The greatness of Augustine’s work is that he identifies the timeless issues of the Christian faith – issues that man has grappled with through the centuries.
God is in charge of all.
Book IV
- The illogical worship of ineffective Roman gods
- makes fun of how individual powers are assigned to individual gods
- birth order of these gods seems preposterous
- they changed over time – not so powerful after all
- Why didn’t they protect us in previous battles?
- What is so impressive about these gods?
Empires succeed when they follow moral principles. (Nick)
“Kingdoms without justice are like criminal gangs.” Augustine, Book IV
If you live according to God’s will, will you necessarily prosper?
Book V
What is in control? Stars? Fate? The God of All?
The Providence of God is in control.
Book VI
The scientific argument. Varro’s opinion, Seneca.
Civil, mythical, and natural theology by Varro is called insanity by Augustine.
The gods do not matter that much.
Augustine is disproving that you must worship the gods to get eternal life.
The Twitter Challenge
Book 1 Tweet (Tait))
Book 4 Tweet (Nick)
Book 5 Tweet (Angie)
Stars? Fate? God? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The one true god is the source of all power and providence governing the universe.
Book 6 Tweet (Jeff and Pat)
Summary Tweet (Ken)
Augustine’s City of God: though we aren’t debating power of Roman gods or justifying Goth’s attack, the rest is timeless, God explains a lot