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Augustine of Hippo was the first Christian to write a comprehensive history. It was a philosophy of history as much as anything. While reading articles on Augustine, the definition of what a history should consist of caught my eye. (1) It should be a universal history, or a history of the world going back to the origin of the human race. Augustine had no other ideas, concerning the beginning of humanity outside those found in Scripture. For Augustine, humans were created by God and the story of that creation is there for all to read. (2) It will attempt to understand events not as the working of human agents but as the working of providence. One cannot read the City of God without noticing the providence of God in all that Augustine writes. (3) It will attempt to detect an intelligible pattern in the general flow of events, and in particular it will assign primary significance in this pattern to Christ whose life, death and resurrection give it all meaning. (4) It will subdivide history into periods, seeing the progressive development of the divine plan in the course of human affairs. Augustine's analysis of history has all these components.

Rome has been sacked by the Goths and the pagans are blaming Christianity for the calamity. It is to the pagans that Augustine responds. The charges are many and some extremely wild. Augustine las a larger agenda than responding to specific charges. He is confronting the entire world view of the pagan empire. The City of God has so much history in it that a review in a short paper is impossible. At best, a broad overview must suffice. The pagans claim that because Christianity is in the city , the Roman gods have left. Augustine takes a tour back into history and shows the pagan world other times cities have fallen with the very same gods the Romans depended on to defend their city. Peace does not depend on polytheistic gods.

There were those who were making cruel and shameless charges. The women in Rome had been violated. Some were taken for slaves. If the Christian God protects his people how can this be. The questions do not seem to be so much a serious inquiry as they are meant to ridicule. Augustine answer that God never promised anyone they could escape hardships while here on earth. On the contrary, the troubles in the earthly city only prepare those who endure for the heavenly city.

Because the pagans want to blame all their troubles on Christians and Christ, Augustine reminds he pagans about all the suffering they endured before the time of Christ. If Christ is the cause of suffering, what was the cause of suffering before Christ? The real answer to the problems experienced in Rome are the Roman people. The people of Rome are wicked and immoral. They want to blame someone or something else for their problems while excusing themselves from

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blame.

Rome has suffered disasters since the very founding of the city. Why didn't the pagan gods protect Rome in those days. The truth is that the pagan gods are the problem. Rome has only been allowed to last as long as it has because on the one true God who rules the world.

People will look for any reason to avoid the truth and Romans are no different. There are those who attribute the success of Rome not to the Roman gods but to fate. Of course, the idea of fate has philosophical problems and Augustine embarks on the idea of God's foreknowledge. At the same time he must prove that there is no contradiction between foreknowledge and free will. The ancient Romans found favor in the eyes of God because of their virtue and the purpose of God. Augustine denies that wealth and prosperity are marks of true happiness. True happiness can only be found in things of heaven and not on earth.

His theological attack has three parts. (1) The mythical (2) The natural (3) the civil. Poets have the mythical, the philosophers use the natural and people use the civil.

The final section of his books regards the worship of Demons. Some people in Rome are worshiping Demons. Since Demons are evil, dare you say that the goodness of the Christian God has anything to do with the destruction of Rome.