The City of God
The City of God, is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The book was in response to allegations that Christianity brought about the decline of Rome and is considered one of Augustine's most important works. The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, expounding on many profound questions of theology, such as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin. Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Christian Church, and the Anglican Communion and as a preeminent Doctor of the Church. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace. Lutherans, and Martin Luther in particular, have held Augustine in preeminence (after the Bible and St. Paul). Luther himself was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites (1505-1521).
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- Sure, how about some classics like:
The Didache
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo
Anselm, Proslogion
Augustine, City of God
Augustine, Confessions
Augustine, On Christian Doctrine
William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
Luther, The Bondage of the Will
Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
Pascal, Pensées
All of these are in public domain.
- Besides Dostoevsky, there is abundant wisdom and deep truths to be found in the classics of Christianity. The apologetics of C.S. Lewis (Screwtape Letters, The Problem with Pain, The Great Divorce), Augustine's Confessions and City of God, Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton and G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man.
These are seldom read (or known) by young people today and I see that as a tragedy. Western spirituality was demolished and nothing substantial has emerged to fill the void left, besides a coterie of self-help charlatans and intellectual tricksters, with the predictable results that we see all around us today.
This is also something that Nassim Taleb (a voracious reader and lifelong student of the Western classics but also an Orthodox Christian) frequently outlines.
- Relating to it being the "oldest problem ever", there are some interesting philosophical properties of certain numbers. Augustine wrote about certain numbers quite a bit in his voluminous City of God (and probably elsewhere). If you can find it online, it's worth a read.
- Quiz: who said, “all politics is, at bottom, theological?” St. John Henry Newman, or Proudhon? Trick question! Both! This is radically different from the Marxian/Nietzschian maxim, that all theology is, at bottom, politics. I don’t think anarchism is actually a complete, proper atheism; it tends to propose itself to a kind of negative theology (no false gods). Therefore dialogue is possible, unlike the Marxist, Nietzschian case, where atheism is complete and postulatory.
One area of commonality is that we both believe that society is natural. I’ve already mentioned Book II of Suarez’ Against the Errors of the Anglican Sect in this thread. Anarchists who read it will find it, in turns, dazzlingly profound and infuriating, yet astonishingly satisfying as a whole (just as I do with Graeber).
A second area of commonality is that we both believe in a horizon beyond politics. Graeber is especially good about this. For him, anarchism is an interior disposition — a mode of being — prior to any political program. He therefore avoids the infallible symptom of political atheism, the absolutization of politics. His books are about human life, and in particular about how politics can take place within life, rather than life taking place within politics. The intellectually fearless anarchist can read Andrew Willard Jones’ Before Church and State, and see the commonalities.
As for substantive content of dialogue, the anarchist can help the Catholic to see instances where the Church has, in practice, confused the eternal, Divine order for a particular, temporal order (see Pope Benedict XVI’s discourse on the temptations of Christ and the Kingdom of God in Jesus of Nazareth, Volune I for how to approach this with orthodoxy and openness). This will help the Church more authentically pursue its mission.
In turn, the Catholic can help the anarchist to resolve the power-authority distinction, which lies at the heart of the anarchists’ inability to sustain any positive ideal (see various 19th Century failures, Occupy Wall Street, and the more recent corporate co-optation of radical culture). From there, it is not hard to offer the highest authority, the Lord who stands in judgement of all Lords; sin as the universal oppressor, and oneness in the body of Christ as true freedom.
Some other texts I think we would all like:
St Cyprian of Carthage: On Almsgiving
St. Thomas Aquinas on the Universal Destination of Goods (Summa Theologica)
St. Thomas Aquinas on Distributive Justice (Summa Theologica)
Pope Francis’ Laudito Si
Anything by or about Bl. Oscar Romero
St. Augustine’s City of God
Most of Pope Benedict XVI’s scholarly work, Jesus of Nazareth already mentioned as a highlight.
- St. Augustine - Confessions (first spiritual autobiography) or City of God
G. K. Chesterton - The Everlasting Man
- 4th-5th century: Confessions and City of God by St. Augustine
13th century: Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas
14th century: The Divine Comedy (includes Inferno) by Dante Alighieri
20th century: Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, Humanae Vitae (Theology of the Body) by Pope Paul VI
