The Eternal City

Lowrie, Michèle und Vinken, Barbara (2022): The Eternal City. Augustine, De civitate Dei. In: Lowrie, Michèle und Vinken, Barbara (Hrsg.): Civil War and the Collapse of the Social Bond. Classics after Antiquity, Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. S. 144-192

Abstract

Alternative cities structure Augustine’s City of God. The divide between the earthly and the heavenly city returns in his two Romes, a violent city of civil war and a violent city of virtue, in his two Jerusalems, a violent city of civil war and a city prefiguring God’s city, and even among Christians, divided between love of self and love of God. Although the heavenly city’s full realization is deferred to after the end of history, in this life, the heavenly city exists, mixed with the earthly city, on a pilgrimage toward realization. Rome, a dark shadow (umbra) that sets the light of the divine city in relief, instantiates the earthly city’s violence in both its horrific and virtuous manifestations. In its better form, Jerusalem advances toward the heavenly city’s realization as the prefiguration (figura) of what the divine city will realize (implementum).

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Fakultät: Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften > Department 2 > Romanische Philologie
• Themengebiete: 800 Literatur > 870 Lateinische, italische Literaturen
• ISBN: 978-1-316-51644-7 ; 978-1-00-902999-5
• Ort: Cambridge ; New York
• Sprache: Englisch