In an Era of Civilizational Decline, He Led Humanity to the Eternal City—Five Major Ideas of Augustine
文明衰亡的时代，他将人类引向永恒之城 ——奥古斯丁五大思想
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【Editor’s Note: Augustine (奥古斯丁), a towering figure of Western thought, profoundly influenced history through five groundbreaking ideas. In a time of civilizational collapse, he articulated original sin, asserting that humanity is inherently sinful, shaping the West’s moral consciousness. His concept of free will elevated the importance of individual responsibility and laid the foundation for Western ideals of law, science, and art. Augustine also highlighted the limits of reason, emphasizing faith as essential for understanding divine truths. He challenged the sanctity of states, viewing them as mortal constructs, and introduced the notion of a “City of God” as the ultimate guide for human governance. Lastly, he expounded a transcendent cosmic order rooted in divine creation as the bedrock of moral and societal harmony. His works, such as Confessions and The City of God, continue to shape modern thought, bridging faith, morality, and the human condition.】
In the grand sweep of human civilization, if we consider those thinkers whose oeuvre exceeds fifteen million characters, we might name literary figure Lu Xun (鲁迅) and the towering historian Will Durant (杜兰特). Let's consider those whose influence has lasted more than fifteen centuries. Each major civilization has its own representative: Moses (摩西) in ancient Judaism, Plato (柏拉图) in ancient Greece, Cicero (西塞罗) in ancient Rome, and Confucius (孔子) in China. But if we look for a thinker who meets both criteria—vast output and influence across millennia—there may be only one: Augustine (奥古斯丁).
Thomas Aquinas (阿奎那) called him “the greatest healer of souls,” and Karl Jaspers (雅斯贝尔斯) hailed him as “the master of speculative thought.” Yet, even these titles do not fully capture Augustine’s significance. In an age when classical civilization was disintegrating, and humanity fell into utter despair, Augustine safeguarded and practiced a transcendent faith, proposing at least five original ideas that profoundly shaped the course of history. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Augustine’s impact on Western—and indeed modern—civilization may well surpass even that of Plato or Aristotle (亚里士多德).
Humanity Bears Original Sin
Plato said that a city-state is not built of wood or stone but of its people. Human nature forms the fundamental premise of any society. The kind of society we build depends on how we conceive human nature. In nearly every ancient civilization, mainstream thought held that “human nature is fundamentally good.” According to this view, people can ascend to perfect goodness, and social problems arise only when humanity ceases to strive for this ideal. Consequently, much energy was devoted to “remaking human nature” and “promoting virtue,” a preoccupation reflected in the ancient quest for enlightened monarchs and virtuous ministers.
Augustine was the first to put forward a systematic theory of “original sin.” In On Original Sin and Grace (《原罪与恩典》), he argued that because humanity’s progenitor, Adam, fell into sin through defiance, all his descendants inherit this original sin from the moment of birth. Thus, people commit evil because we are innately sinful. In Confessions (《忏悔录》)—regarded as the first work of introspective autobiography in human history—Augustine offers a fearless examination of his own inner corruption and subconscious rebellion.
Original sin gave rise to a distinctly Western “dark consciousness,” which became the foundation from which Western societies framed all their institutions. Later generations of Westerners grew accustomed to reflecting on themselves through the lenses of “forgiveness” and “the soul.” By contrast, those who deny original sin often establish social structures on certain optimistic assumptions about human nature—only to discover institutional loopholes that lead them into the cyclical turmoil of “rule and chaos.”
Humanity Possesses Freedom
Freedom is the core value of modern civilization. The rule of law, the market economy, and even science and the arts stem from humanity’s affirmation and dissemination of freedom. Yet, in many ancient civilizations, freedom was widely scorned or viewed as an enemy of order. Ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, for instance, both sustained widespread slavery. Even relatively free Greek city-states insisted on collective political freedom but denied Socrates's individual freedom.
Once again, Augustine took the pioneering step of declaring that human beings possess free will. In works such as On Free Choice of the Will (《论自由意志》), he argued that God loves humankind and therefore endows us with freedom. Human freedom is one of our primary distinctions from other creatures. However, when people misuse that freedom, evil often ensues. True freedom, Augustine believed, lies in submitting to God’s will, breaking free from the shackles of the devil and the world, and shunning indulgence in favor of a life of holiness and propriety.
The concept of free will shaped a distinctive Western cultural gene: a “rule of law ideal” that defends and respects individual rights; personal moral responsibility, where each person must abide by moral truth; and the flourishing of scholarship, science, and the arts in an environment conducive to creative freedom. In contrast, other civilizations have never elevated freedom to this level. Apart from Daoism, Eastern traditions scarcely possess a term corresponding to “freedom.” Their slower development of science and the rule of law seems less surprising in this light.
Reason Has Its Limits
The history of humanity’s progression into modernity is also the history of reason’s ascendancy. Since the Industrial Revolution, technological advances have pushed our reverence for reason to extremes. Yet Augustine, writing fifteen centuries ago, had already discerned that reason has its boundaries—and that faith outweighs reason.
In On Faith, Hope and Love (《论信望爱》), he delineates the respective roles of faith and reason: the Creator surpasses the created; God is a supremely free, eternal Creator, while reason is a created, finite entity. When it comes to God, he wrote, one must believe first and then understand rather than the other way around. In On the Trinity (《论三位一体》) and The City of God (《上帝之城》), Augustine reiterates that even Jesus was a created, finite human being, subject to limitations in knowledge and ability; only through humility and restraint—like Jesus—and by relying on the Holy Spirit can humans partake of God’s life and nature.
Throughout history, people of faith have validated Augustine’s profound insight: when a person nears death, only faith enables them to confront mortality with equanimity; when a group of people descends into hatred and despair, only a higher force can allow them to forgive their enemies and glimpse hope. By contrast, those who worship cold reason and constant calculation often end up in decline, ensnared by their own machinations.
The State Is Not Sacred
In the history of human civilization, the rise or fall of great powers has always incited longing or despair. Empires, principalities, and republics have been revered as eternal entities or embodiments of absolute truth. In A.D. 410, after dominating for more than eight centuries, the city of Rome fell to Germanic barbarians, who slaughtered, looted, and raped its citizens. Some Romans blamed Christianity for the weakening of the empire, claiming the old Roman gods had exacted revenge. Many thinkers lamented, “If even the Eternal City falls, then the world must be doomed…”
But in The City of God (《上帝之城》), Augustine was the first to proclaim—no state is sacred. All created beings (creatures) are mortal, including earthly regimes. The lusts of the flesh, the pleasures of the intellect, and worldly glory—all are constrained by time and space, destined for corruption and demise. Only the “City of God” is sacred and eternal, the sole worthy guide for the “city of men.”
He viewed the state as a “necessary evil” established for the common good. When the state abandons the virtues and justice ordained by God, it becomes indistinguishable from a band of robbers. The Creator rules over all of time and space; earthly rulers are merely temporary stewards. Any ambition to build a “heavenly kingdom on earth” amounts to treason against God’s sovereignty. Augustine argued that Greek city-states and the Roman Empire fell precisely because they betrayed God’s authority, whereas those once called “barbarians” attained redemption by embracing the faith of a higher civilization and became citizens of the “City of God.”
This transcendental view of history and Augustine’s cautious approach to politics influenced Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Edmund Burke, and many other thinkers, shaping the foundations of modern Western “limited government.” In contrast, other civilizations have historically emphasized the sacred and expansive nature of state power, seldom recognizing the Leviathan as the most dangerous malevolent force.
The Universe Has Order
Without social order, a community will perish; without inner order, an individual will slip into madness. But what sort of order is truly eternal? This question has sparked countless debates. The ancient Greeks believed the world arose from the gods, yet these gods were plagued by corruption and contradictions. Some people claim that “the world has people, being fundamentally chaotic.” Certain Eastern philosophers argued that order should be tailored to specific times, places, and persons.
Only the Biblical faith asserts the existence of a timeless “transcendent order” created by God. This order embodies the cosmos “as it was meant to be” beyond human alteration—such as the eternity of moral truth and the finitude of secular power. Augustine was the first to expound on this principle. In works like On Order (《论秩序》), he explains that God instituted an eternal material and spiritual order—separating light from darkness, land from the sea, allowing each species to “follow its own kind.” Humanity, created in God’s image, marks the pinnacle of this creation. Therefore, humankind’s responsibility before God is to restore this original order.
Societies that honor this transcendent order achieve a harmonious interplay of science and morality. Those who disregard it repeatedly tumble into superstition or madness. Even now, the world splits into those who “accept Augustine” and those who “reject Augustine.” The latter have never produced advanced science, coherent ethics, or benevolent governance. Even Bertrand Russell, an adversary of Christianity, conceded that atheistic utopianism still borrows concepts from The City of God, dressing itself up as a form of salvation. Regrettably, few truly grasp Augustine’s intentions, and most secondhand interpretations focus narrowly on his theology.
Hence, whether or not we embrace Christianity or admire Western civilization, we ought to read Augustine’s original works—especially his concise On Faith, Hope and Love (《论信望爱》), his groundbreaking Confessions (《忏悔录》), and his monumental synthesis The City of God (《上帝之城》).
This translation is an independent yet well-intentioned effort by the China Thought Express editorial team to bridge ideas between the Chinese and English-speaking worlds. The original text is available here:
Original Prophet Bookstore (先知书店), The Prophet Big Question (先知大问题), August 14, 2024
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