Western Civilization I / Unit 8 WC1 0729 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading Augustine: Two Cities in One Passage
The idea
The exam's passage questions for this period draw on Augustine, and they ask what the author assumes. The method is three questions: what event is the author answering, what two things does he contrast, and what does the contrast make irrelevant. The City of God, written after Alaric's sack of four ten, is the case, read in translation from the primary text.
In practice
Apply. What event: the sack of Rome, and the pagan charge that Christianity caused it. What contrast: the City of God, perfect and eternal, against the earthly city, flawed and passing. What becomes irrelevant: whether the Empire stands or falls, since salvation belongs to the other city. From that follow the answers the exam wants. A passage saying the earthly city's peace is worth having but not worth loving assumes the two cities. A passage saying Rome's fall proves nothing about God assumes the contrast. And the assumption beneath both: that history's meaning lies outside history, which the anchor notes decided the fate of classical learning, since learning became a facet of material life.
Where people slip
Augustine was not indifferent to Rome; he wrote to defend Christians against the charge of causing its fall. A distractor will say he welcomed the collapse. He argued it did not matter to salvation, which is different. Keep the passage's own contrast and stop there.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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