City of God vs. The Protestant Reformations Essay

IntroductionThe belief that paragon is present to the piece forefront and soul, and nates be found is part of the saviorian tradition. M tout ensemble Christian philosophers seem to regard this as the concern totally of specially dear(p) persons and of no interest for philosophic purposes. The evidence for it, they think, it too slender to be taken seriously by academic philosophers with come on particular interest in godliness, who tend to regard whatsoeverthing in the nature of sacred experience as suspect. So, philosophical proveions about religion atomic number 18 usually concerned with sagacious argu handsts for and against theism, usually of a technical kind.In this article, I want to discuss the Augustine manhood with the reformist allow as proposed by Martin Luther.One of the spectacular cornerst atomic number 53s in the history of Christian thought, The metropolis of god is vital to an instinct of modern Western society and how it came into being. Begun i n A.D. 413 by Saint Augustine, the groovy theologian who was bishop of Hippo, the gives initial purpose was to refute the missionary post that Christianity was to blame for the fall of capital of Italy (which had occurred just three years earlier). Augustines city of graven image, a monumental work of religious lore, philosophy, and history, was written as a kind of literary tombst star for Roman culture. After the hastiness of Rome, Augustine wrote this book to portray the corruption of Romans pursuit of earthly pleasures grasping for praise, open-handed with their m superstary honest in the pursuit of wealth, they wanted to hoard glory. Augustine contrasts his condemnation of Rome with an exaltation of Christian culture.The glory that Rome failed to attain allow for moreover be realized by citizens of the City of paragon, the Heavenly Jerusalem foreseen in Revelation. On the early(a) hand Hans J. Hillerbrand in his book The Protestant substitution says When the refor mers who had front ventured a new interpretation of the gospel had passed from the scene, the question which had pursue the Reformation from its very inceptionw present is truth?was still contested by the proponents of the old and the new faith.But one fact was beyond brawl Western Christendom was tragi keyy dividedinto no less than five religious factions.Though these divisions were the result of intense religious conviction, they could non help just now change magnitude the intensity of religious belief in europium. The Reformation of the sixteenth coulomb was the last period in the history of Western civilization when men were preoccupied with religion, argued it, fought and even died for it. Its consequences be still with us.Argument The twain cities in city of beau ideal and the two pass ons in LutheranismNo book except the Bible itself had a greater influence on the fondness Ages than the City of graven image. Since medieval Europe has been the cradle of todays W estern civilization, this work by consequence is vital for an belowstanding of our sphere and how it came into being. St. Augustine is often regarded as the most influential Christian thinker later on St. Paul, and this book highlights upon a vast synthesis of religious and secular goledge. It began as a reply to the charge that Christian otherworldliness was causing the come d receiveward(a) of the Roman Empire. Augustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism wear out within itself the seeds of its experience destruction.Then he proceeded to his larger fore, a cosmic interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between frank and evil the City of matinee idol in conflict with the Earthly City or the City of the Devil. This, the first of all serious attempt at a philosophy of history, was to apply incalculable influence in forming the Western legal opinion on the relations of church and state, and on the Christians built in bed in the temporal orde r. It is more than a question of setting down on paper a series of abstract principles and then applying them in practice. Christianity is more than a moral code, more than a philosophy, more than a system of rites.Although it is sufficient, in the abstract, to divide the Catholic religion into three aspects and call them creed, code and cult, yet in practice, the integral Christian carriage is something further more than all this. It is more than a belief it is a life. That is to say, it is a belief that is lived and undergo and expressed in action. The action in which it is expressed, experienced and lived is called a mystery. This mystery is the sacred drama which keeps ever present in history the Sacrifice that was once consummated by Christ on Calvary. In homely wordsif you can accept them as plainChristianity is the life and decease and resurrection of Christ going on day after(prenominal) day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society.It is this Christ-li fe, this internalization into the Body of Christ, this union with His death and resurrection as a depicted object of aware experience, that St. Augustine wrote of in his Confessions. But Augustine not except experienced the existencekind of Christ living in his own soul. He was just as keenly aware of the presence and action, the Birth, Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of the Mystical Christ in the thick of sympathetic society. And this experience, this vision, if you would call it that, qualified him to write a book that was to be, in fact, the autobiography of the Catholic church. That is what The City of graven image is. Just as really as the Confessions are the autobiography of St. Augustine, The City of beau ideal is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints.Evidently, the treatment of the theme is so leisurely and so meandering and so diffuse that The City of immortal, more than any other book, requires an introduction. The be st we can do here is to offer a few practical suggestions as to how to tackle it.The first of these suggestions is this since, after all, The City of perfection reflects much of St. Augustines own dis fix and is colored by it, the reader who has never met Augustine before ought to go first of all to the Confessions. Once he gets to know the saint, he pull up stakes be better able to register Augustines enamor of society. Then, no one who is not a specialist, with a good background of history or of pietism or of philosophy, ought not to attempt to read the City, for the first time, beginning at page one.The living heart of the City is found in Book Nineteen, and this is the section that allow for make the most immediate hail to us today because it is concerned with the theology of peace. However, Book Nineteen cannot be understood all by itself. The best source for solutions to the most printing press problems it forget raise is Book Fourteen, where the origin of the two C ities is sketched, in an act on original sin.On the other hand the protestant reformation deals with the religious movement which made its appearance in western Europe in the sixteenth century, and which, while ostensibly aiming at an internal renewal of the church, really led to a great revolt against it, and an abandonment of the master(prenominal) Christian beliefs. The causes of the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century moldiness be sought as far back as the fourteenth. The doctrine of the church, it is true, had remained pure saintly lives were yet frequent in all move of Europe, and the numerous beneficent medieval institutions of the church continued their course uninterruptedly. any(prenominal) unhappy conditions existed were largely due to civil and profane influences or to the representative of authority by ecclesiastics in civil spheres they did not obtain everyplace with equal intensity, nor did they always occur simultaneous in the same country. ecclesiast ic and religious life exhibited in many places vigor and variety whole shebang of education and charity abounded religious art in all its forms had a living force domestic missionaries were many and influential pious and teach literature was common and appreciated. Gradually, however, and largely owing to the variously hostile shade of the civil powers, fostered and tipened by several elements of the new order, there grew up in many parts of Europe political and social conditions which hampered the ingenuous reformative activities of the church, and favored the bold and unscrupulous, who seized a rummy opportunity to let big all the forces of heresy and schism so long held in break by the harmonious action of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities.Luthers theology is his understanding of matinee idol that can be summarized as Gottes Gottheit, which means God is God. In the deepest sense, Luther believes that God is above all and in all. God, by means of and through his germinal power, reveals that he is liberal and immutable. He alone can bring life into existence. He alone sustains life. He alone freely wills. Moreover, what God wills can not be impeded or resisted by a simple creature. God is all-powerful and therefore, Gods will is alone immutable. whatsoever person, therefore, that appeals to the liberty of gracious will attempts to usurp for themselves an attribute that belongs only to God.The free and immutable will of God is, in Luthers writings, fundamental to a right and proper faith. Without it, God is not God and Scripture would, therefore, have to be annulled. In BOW, Luther constantly emphasizes these two characteristics of the will of God and points out their import for the Faith. In addition, Luther argues that God has two wills as pertains His nature (1) the revealed will of His word and, (2) the secluded or dark will. These characteristics of Gods will provide the basis for understanding and interpreting Luthers conviction that the human will is enslaved. For Luther, the free will of God is not simply Gods limitless and unobstructed ability to choose between any set of variables in any set of circumstances.Rather, it is Gods unique ability to transcend all these variables and circumstances to perform, or not perform, any action that He desires. Gods will is not dependent on(p) upon the will of any other being. In ceaseless activity, God creates the possibilities. As such, the free will of God is most plainly revealed to humanity through His creative acts. God freely chooses to create our present reality and likewise, He freely sustains this reality. In fact, reality does not exist except by the will of God. To this all-encompassing extent then, Luther asserts that God is all in all. zilch is that God does not declare to be. And, it is this creative power that manifests Gods freedom, His free will. In recognizing Luthers pronounced emphasis on Gods sovereignty, Paul Althaus declaresGod is the first or principal cause, all others are only secondary or instrumental causes. They are only the tools which he uses in the service of his own autonomous, free, and exclusive working they are only the masks under which he hides his activity.The second characteristic of Gods will that is crucial to Luthers understanding of the bondage of the human will, is its immutability. That is, Gods will can not be changed, modify or impeded. The immutability of Gods will is the logical expiration to the freedom of Gods will. Gods sovereignty and all-powerful power demands that whatever God wills happens by compulsion. Nothing occurs pointly. Gods will does not act independently of reality, as the human will does, but rather, Gods will creates reality. In Luthers theology, the will of God is not contingent and so likewise, the foreknowledge of God is overly not contingent. For whatever God wills, he foreknows and so, whatever He foreknows moldiness, by necessity, happen.For if it did not happen , then God would be fallible and His will contingent which Luther declares is not to be found in God It is the immutable will of God, acting freely, that provides the Christian with the assurance of things hoped for (Heb 111), namely that the promises of God will be fulfilled. As Luther suggests, the Christians chief and only simpleness in every adversity lies in knowing that God does not lie, but brings all things to pass immutably, and that His will cannot be resisted, altered or impeded. Indeed, for Luther, the conviction that Gods will is free and immutable must(prenominal) be central to the Faith.Yet, Luthers theology presents a problem if God wills everything and everything He wills comes to pass then one must conclude that God wills the redemption of few and the damnation of many (cf. Mt 2214). Luther concludeed this plight by teaching that God has two wills, the revealed and the hidden. As Luther declares in BOW, Gods decree to damn the undeserving . . . who are compell ed by natural necessity to sin and perish does indeed seem portentous.Moreover, all rational and philosophical knowledge of God can not avoid the terrible reality of this conclusion, for as Luther concedes, the injustice of God . . . is traduced as such by arguments which no reason or light of nature can resist. Luther understands this horrible decree in light of Gods justice in two ways. For Luther, the answer to these questions is twofold (1) we must simply believe that Gods justice is righteous because in Christ God has turn up His love and compassion and, (2) we should not probe into the hidden or occult will of God wherein God operates paradoxically, i.e. righteousness made evident through unrighteousness.Luthers twofold answer to the questions of damnation reveals a high see to it of Gods sovereignty and majesty. Moreover, the answer is in accordance with Luthers view that Gods will is uniquely free and immutable. The answer in any case demands that the Christian simply t rust in God. The Christian must believe all that is revealed in Scripture, not merely those things that are pleasurable to the senses, and as such, we are compelled to accept the fact that God actively chooses to forswear authentic people.Nevertheless, if God has said in His Word that He is winsome and gracious, and He has revealed himself to be such through His forbearance with the Israelites and the glorious platform of salvation through Jesus Christ, but what right can we arbitrator the manner in which God oversees and sustains the world? For Luther, this is precisely the point at which the Christian must heed the words of God, spoken through the visionary Isaiah For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa 558-9). Luther would likewise appeal to Gods answer to Job in Job 38-41 and the words of Paul in Romans 920 as yet other examples of the futility of comprehending the incomprehensible and dark will of God.Luther, therefore, answers the critics of predestination and defends Gods decree to affect unbelief in people by appealing to this inscrutable wisdom and will of God, a will that cannot be understood by any attempt of human reason. Because God is God, He has the right to condemn man for sins that God works in Him.10 And so, it is by faith that the Christian simply trusts that God is righteous, loving and gracious in so working.Luther consoles the Christian by exhorting them to look only to the revealed will of God that promises salvation to all who receive Christ. thence, He does not will the death of a sinner-that is, in His Word but He wills it by His inscrutable will. At present, however, we must keep in view His Word and ease up alone His inscrutable will for it is by His Word, and not by His inscrutable will, that we must be guided.Yet, for Luther, knowing that God does possess a hi dden and inscrutable will of God provides valuable insights for the Christian. The inscrutable will of God tempers the revealed will of God. The doctrine of the free, immutable and inscrutable will of God, therefore, contributes three crucial foundations to the Christian Faith (1) God is sovereign, all-powerful and therefore, even evil is under the sway of His goodness and as such, the Christian can be certain that the promises of God will be realized, (2) humanity is not free to derive or demand anything of God and so, Gods gift of salvation can truly be called free and gracious and, (3) the Christian, in rejoinder to these truths, is properly humbled and learns, in reverent adoration, to fear God, who acts freely and immutability for His glory.In consequence of his view of Gods will, Luthers view of the human will is necessarily placed in total allegiance to the godly. It is in this respect that Luther stands in contrast to Erasmus. Luthers discussion of this subject area is theocentric, beginning with a discussion of God and His attributes whereas Erasmus belies an anthropocentric view, beginning with human experience. For Luther, that Gods will is immutable logically demands that mans will is mutable.For if Gods will is not contingent but immutable and free, no other will can be also be immutable and free otherwise these wills could impede one another(prenominal) and consequently, these wills would no longer be immutable and free but rather, they would be subject to one another. As such, Luther rightly proclaims the inconsistency of the term free will. In Luthers writings, there are three primary studyations to consider in evaluating the characteristics of the human will (1) the human will is mutable, (2) as a consequence of the Fall, the human will is enslaved to sin and, (3) the human will requires the approving of God, offered through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ Jesus, to affect any verifying change in a persons life.Luthers position o n the Divine and human wills was not a small matter to him. In Table-Talk, Luther once stated in regards to his position that I know it to be the truth, though all the world should be against it yea, the decree of Divine Majesty must stand fast against the gates of hell. The belief that humanity is enslaved to sin and that it is only by sovereign election that God saves a person formed the basis for Luthers conviction of justification by grace through faith.Grace is one the most important principles of biblical interpretation to Luther and no where is divine grace more evident than in the doctrine of election. And, it is this sola gratia principle of Luthers faith that preserves the eternal significance of Christs death and resurrection. It is by his sacrifice, not by our own works, that God graciously extends salvation to the elect. As Luther often remarked, to assert the freedom of the will is to deny the necessity of Christs atoning work.ConclusionAugustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. By means of his contrast of the earthly and heavenly citiesthe one pagan, self-centered, and disrespectful of God and the other devout, God-centered, and in search of graceAugustine explored and interpreted human history in relation to eternity.Saint Augustine examines the failure of Roman religion and the flaws in human civilization, thus creating the first Christian philosophy of history. Against the city, i.e., society, of many gods, there is but one alternate society, this Augustine calls The City of God, adopting the fount found in several of King Davids psalms. Not only is the society of many gods the society of polytheists, it is also the city of pantheists, atheistic materialists and philosophical Cynics. In the case of the Cynics and atheists, these false gods are the myriad gods of self, indeed, at to the lowest degree as many gods (selves) as there are believers in them.Thus there are two cities, two loves, two ways to understand the big questions of existence, two destinations. Says Augustine The one City began with the love of God the other had its beginnings in the love of self. XIV13. The city of man seeks the praise of men, whereas the height of glory for the other is to hear God in the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own boasting the other says to God Thou art my glory, thou liftest up my head. (Psalm 3.4) In the city of the world both the rulers themselves and the people they dominate are dominated by the propensity for domination whereas in the City of God all citizens serve one another in charity. . .References1. http//www.newadvent.orgThe Catholic encyclopediaThe Journal Of Religion, J. Jeffery Tyler, volume 85, factor 1(2005), pages 317 319Althaus, Paul. The Theology of Martin Luther. Translation of 2nd edition by Robert C. Schultz. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shield Press, 1966. Luthers Works, Volume 31 Career of the Reforme r I. ed. Philip S. Watson. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania resistance Press, 1957.