St. Augustine City Of God Analysis

Amongst all divisions between religious beliefs throughout various cultures, one of the more obvious disagreements comes between polytheistic (many gods) and monotheistic (one God) religions. St. Augustine, in his City of God, Book IV, argues that Christian belief is more rational than Roman polytheism. St. Augustine’s argument is best classified as a theological argument attempting to shed light that God (Christianity’s God) is the superior being that all people should follow as opposed to the committee of gods, which includes Jupiter, Jove, Victoria, etc. that Romans follow (Augustine, Ch. 8,17,25). This argument is theological rather than philosophical used in the service of theology because a divine revelation or faith of Christianity

25). Augustine assumes humans all desire eternal happiness and truth, which is why the Giver of Felicity should be sought and worshipped. In his premises, he states, using modus ponens, if Jove, the Chief God, was able to give felicity, then he would be called by the name felicity, since all of the other gods’ names are derived from their abilities (Augustine, Ch. 25). This assertion appears rational due to his examples of gods given in chapters 9 and 17, like Victoria (Victory). Since Jove is not called Felicity, there must be some other God that is the giver of felicity and should be the one God worshipped by all because in return, they will receive true happiness, which is the most man could ever ask for. However, since the giver of felicity is unknown in polytheistic Roman religion, he pushes his audience to look to Christianity, due to the giver of felicity being Christianity’s God. Compared to the numerous gods of Roman religion, Christianity’s God is the one all-powerful, all knowing and Christians, through revelation and reason, explicitly know that their one God is to be followed to reach truth and eternal