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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2021

By
David Vincent Meconi
Edited by
Fr. David Vincent Meconi, S.J.
Fr. David Vincent Meconi, S.J.
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University, Missouri
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Summary

Studies treating Augustine’s City of God normally begin with the year AD 410 and Alaric’s infamous Sack of Rome. Yet, might it not be more accurate to start in AD 380 when the Emperor Theodosius (d. AD 395) presented himself for Christian baptism at fifty-three years of age in the middle of a severe sickness? Upon recovering, this new and grateful Christian issued the Edict of Thessalonica, Cunctos Populos, along with the Emperors Gratian (d. AD 383) and Valentinian II (d. AD 392), now making Catholic Christianity the official religion of the the Roman Empire. Furthermore, in just a decade thereafter, in AD 391, the ancient rites would be banned, and the old ways authoritatively denounced. It was a truly watershed moment. The strength of the reliable Roman pantheon had been replaced with the weakness of religious novelty professing faith in a humbly vulnerable God-man hanging on a cross.

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The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's City of God , pp. 1 - 18
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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