Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Religion in Rome vs. Religion in the City of God
In Augustine's The City of God against the Pagans, the theologian-philosopher asserts that the true religion should be identifiable by its fruits -- i.e., the products of its practice. He compares the outcomes of the duties of propitiation practiced in the pagan rituals to the more wholesome duties practiced in the Christian religion to show the main difference between Christian and pagan worship. He notes that the former is respectable and the latter unrespectable. The fault of the pagans, he asserts, is located not necessarily in their lack of reason (as Cicero was highly rational and valued the virtue of truth, as shall be shown) but rather in the faith they placed in the false religion. This paper will show how Augustine distinguishes a true religion from a false religion.
The duty to identify that which is "true" or "most true" is described by Cicero early on in "On Duties" as a task that is designated to men who are "extremely good at perceiving...the reason" and who appreciate the matter of "truth" (Cicero 7-8). The discovery of truth is therefore considered a virtue -- a habit of activity that corresponds with individuals who have cultivated their faculty...
Cicero was a well-known Roman orator whose reason was deemed impeccable by his fellow men -- yet Augustine in his The City of God against the Pagans decries Cicero's call to the Romans to perform their wicked "duties" of offering propitiation to the gods (in immoral ways that degrade the actor's character and reputation); he goes so far as to state that "this propitiation of such deities was so wholly wanton, impure, immodest, wicked and unclean that the actors who performed it were, by the praiseworthy native virtue of the Romans, excluded from public office, expelled from their tribes, recognized as base and declared infamous" (Augustine 90). Augustine concludes by asserting that "this shameful propitiation of such deities was, I say, inimical and detestable to true religion" (Augustine 90).
Thus, Augustine brings the subject of duty, truth and religious obligation around to the question true religion -- which is the foundation upon which his claim of Christianity's merit ultimately rests: its revelations are true whereas the stories of the pagans and their gods are false. Moreover, the "reasons" supporting the so-called duties that the pagans owe their gods are irrational, whereas there is nothing…
Works Cited
Augustine. The City of God against the Pagans. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Print.
Cicero. On Duties. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print.
Natural Law For centuries the dominant philosophical thought on the issue of natural law was dominated by the Catholic Church's theocracy (Gula, 1989). Natural law is the idea that law exists that is set by nature and that therefore it is universally validity (Cochrane, 1857). The first great philosopher to establish the early views on natural law was St. Augustine. St. Augustine's views on natural law were to develop over time
So in order for the good to spread and evil to be eradicated, Divine Law had to arbitrate (Thomas Aquinas, 1947). Conclusion It is clear that no one can dispute the fact that every creature is born with certain fundamental rights, known as Natural Laws. The concept of Natural laws has triggered a lot of debate in the context of its authentic interpretation. From the aforementioned facts, one can safely assume
Yet official Catholic support for union organizing and for strikes, and for state planning to ensure a decent livelihood for all, has been augmented over the years by a heightened recognition of the need to combat underlying institutional imbalances of power. Though the overarching goal of a peaceful and harmoniously ordered community endures, Catholic sensitivity to the dynamics of power, the reality of sinful systems and structures, and the
Introduction According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are seven main themes of Catholic Social Teaching: 1) Life and Dignity of the Human Person, which highlights the intrinsic value and goodness of life and the fact that the human person was made in the image and likeness of God and therefore should not be abused or desecrated; 2) Call to Family, Community and Participation, which highlights the idea man
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Non-Violence and Natural Law Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is internationally recognized for his iconic leadership of the Civil Rights Movement, which resulted in a furthering of social justice and fairness for people of color. Moreover, the work of King and his movement resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. One of the key strategies that King
Essentially, science utilizes the power of reason and logic in its search for the truth while religion depends almost wholly upon faith, being a belief in something without any evidence whatsoever to support it. In the realms of science, investigators seek to understand natural phenomena through direct observation and experimentation which makes it mandatory that all interpretations of the facts be provisional and testable. Statements made by any authority, revelation