> -----Original Message-----
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> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
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> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 5:02 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: history and apocalyptic prophecy - was Book of Revelation
> topics
>
>
> Where does Augustine work through the seperation of history and
> revelation? I'd be interested to follow up this line of thought.
> I've been looking at the writings of Otloh of St Emmeram from a very
> different angle, but was interested to note that he also writes of
> the events of his own time (mainly the break-up of monastic estates
> c. 1040's) as the fulfilment of the prophets of the apocalypse that
> satan would be unleashed.
>
> Hannah Williams.
> Monash University
> Victoria
> Australia
>
Dear Hannah,
Augustine's City of God is a magisterial and extended
philosophical/theological theodicy in which he separates secular history
from sacred history. It is also an intensive treatment on the limits of
human reason to transcend the human condition. Sacred history is
impenetrable to human reason except as revealed by God; secular history
(including the history of the post-Pentecostal church), although relevant to
the Divine plan, appears to human beings as one damned thing after another
without rhyme or reason. The City of God is divided into 2 parts: A)
Apologetic (Books I X)-- a devastating critique of ancient political
theory/practice and historiography, and B) Thetic (Books XI-XXII). The
latter is subdivided into 3 parts: 1) The origin of the two cities (Books
XI-XIV); 2) The history of the two cities (Books XV-XVIII); and 3) The end
of the two cities (Books XIX-XXII). Book XIX is Augustine's teleology and
discusses the limited goals possible of attainment for temporal
institutions, including the church, versus the transcendental goals of the
two cities. Book XX is his eschatology. It is important to note that no
temporal institutions, including the church and empire, correspond to either
of the two cities. These institutions are a corpus mixtum made up of the
saved and the damned, and there is no way of knowing for certain who
(including ourselves) is a member of which city. And given what Augustine
has to say about the limitations of the finite creature to know and
understand the infinite/transcendent (see Book XII [?] on the difference
between finitude and infinity), it is not surprising that he denied all
knowledge of when the Final Judgement will occur. Thus, for Augustine, life
since the Pentecost is one long Middle Ages, the end of which we know not
when. In the meantime, life from our perspective appears as one damned thing
after another signifying nothing. All we can do is have faith that at the
level of the transcendent our experiences do indeed have meaning. The locus
classicus of all this is R.A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the
Theology of St. Augustine (Cambridge, 1970). Augustine's views won out in
large measure because of the power and cogency of his argument.
Mike
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