Is Augustine's Heavenly City a utopia?
Initially, I thought that it wasn't based on Lyman Tower Sargent's
definition: “[It involves] a topos—a
location in time and space” (5); however, I've given
it some thought, and it appears to fit the criteria.
First, let's look at the temporary
City of God, the one which inhabits the people who work toward peace
on earth. Does it have some sort of physical location? It is located
in the physical being of the aforementioned group of people. The
answer to this question, therefore, is “yes.” Does it exist in
some point in time? Well, this City got its start with the birth of
Christianity, which would indicate that it exists in some sort of
temporal way. The answer to this question, then, is also “yes.”
It looks like the temporary City fits the bill.
Now let's look at the eternal City of
God, which is heaven. At first, it appears as though this version of
the City disqualifies its possibility of being a utopia because it
doesn't appear to exist in time or space. A closer examination of
Christian canon, however, reveals that the final version of the City
of God does indeed exist in time and space in some sort of capacity.
For instance, the book of Revelation states that the New Heaven will
be located on the New Earth. While this description is rather vague,
it does actually situate the City at some point in space. Revelation
also describes the City as being the beginning of Eternity—at
which point time no longer matters—but
the fact that it begins could indicate that it exists at some point
in time even if time is irrelevant. It would seem, then, that
Augustine's heavenly City also fits Sargent's description.
And yet it doesn't. Sargent also
states that a utopia is a “no place,” meaning that it doesn't
exist (5). To Augustine (and the larger Christian community), both
the temporary City and the heavenly City are very real places, which
means that they exist in some capacity. In this way, they do not fit
Sargent's description and therefore are not “utopias” by
his definition. Reading Augustine's work really made me think hard
about this, and even though I thought the Heavenly City may be a
utopia by Sargent's definition, it isn't.
Lastly, I'd like to give a quick
explanation of the temporary City of God. The common belief is that
when a person accepts Christ, he or she immediately becomes a citizen
of the Kingdom of Heaven. Scripture then states that he or she is no
longer a citizen of the world, meaning that his or her worldly nature
and national heritage no longer matter. This individual is
spiritually bound to all others with the same faith, meaning that
they are united into one big City. This is where Augustine gets his
idea. Hopefully, this helps explain it a bit.
(Image of New Heaven taken from www.bloodynailsguiltyhands.wordpress.com).
Hi Sam, I have also been struggling with how St. Augustine's City of God describes a utopia. I like how you applied Sargent's definition of a utopia to the work. I'd like to add some of my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think the whole concept hinges on our understanding of St. Augustine's idea of peace. In ch. 13 of Book XIX, I read it to mean that all mankind was granted temporal peace, which was bodily health and soundness and fellowship with one's kind. All men were given goods such as light, speech, air to breathe, water to drink, food, and clothing in order to guard this temporal peace. Every mortal who used such goods appropriately shall receive goods greater in degree later; that is peace of immortality (also called ultimate peace and including glory, honour, eternal life, and enjoyment of God).
The temporal peace was part of being on pilgrimage to the Heavenly City. On this journey, citizens of the City of God (Book XIV, ch. 28) in authority “by their counsel and those who are subjects, by their obedience, serve one another in love” and all citizens “only wisdom is the devotion which rightly worships the true God.” Furthermore, St. Augustine also points out that men are wretched but can be happy in expectation of the ultimate peace in the world to come.
In this sense, the work is utopian. St. Augustine is 'social dreaming', or envisioning, a better way for humans to live their lives. Furthermore, I think Sargent's other definition of utopia (27), as serving "as a mirror to contemporary society, pointing to strengths and weaknesses, more often the latter" by presenting "a more desirable alternative" also demonstrates St. Augustine's City of God's potential as a utopia.
St. Augustine’s work was one difficult piece to follow. I am disappointed to have to move on to the next one already. We’ve barely put a dent in it, after all.
Hey Emily. Thanks for bringing up the bit about peace. I had completely forgotten about that, which kind of changes the way I look at Augustine's city as a utopia. Very good catch!
Delete