An idea · Late Antiquity · first attested 426 CE
The City of God
Two cities, founded by two loves: the love of God and the love of self.
After Rome was sacked in 410, pagans blamed the Christians. Augustine's reply is the City of God: history is the unfolding of two intertwined communities, the City of God (built on love of God to the contempt of self) and the City of Man (built on love of self to the contempt of God). They are mixed in this world; they will be sorted at the end. The book founds the genre of Christian philosophy of history.