The Seed of the Woman Contra the Seed of the Serpent

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.” (Psalm 46:4, NASB 1995)

City of God is St. Augustine’s critique of the Roman Empire and polemical defense of Christianity. The tome is part history, part political theory, part rhetoric and polemics, part philosophy, all littered with Bible references. City of God takes a particular situation, the Fall of Rome and the cultural aftermath, and turns the occasion into a contrast between the city of God and the city of man. The contrast is not between church and state. The contrast is rather between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. All the faithful from the beginning of creation to the present day contrasted with Cain and all the unfaithful till now. The earthly city is those not united to Christ, those who only love temporal goods and do not seek first the kingdom of God, the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the beatific vision. The city of God makes use of earthly goods but does not love them as a final end. She ultimately longs for eternal goods and is willing to suffer the loss of all things, lives included, to gain eternal life.

Augustine took up this long task (it took him anywhere between ten to fifteen years to write) because of a friend. Flavius Marcellinus was an imperial ruler and an acquaintance of Augustine who helped Augustine politically in the Donatist controversy. Marcellinus asked Augustine to write City of God in response to questions he received from Volusian, a former proconsul of Africa. Volusian had questions about Christianity’s relationship to the Roman Empire. Augustine’s purpose is thus polemical, explanatory, and apologetic. He is answering questions, concerns, and charges against the Christian church.

The contrast is not between church and state. The contrast is rather between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Share on X The assumption of many Roman people was that if they followed the Christian religion, they would be protected from harm. Since Rome fell and the Western empire was declining, it called Christianity into doubt. This context matters for understanding why Augustine spends so many pages talking about Roman history and their vices. He is at pains to show that the people of God are not identical to any one nation. The context also helps us see why the city of God and the city of man are not a contrast between the institutions of church and state as we understand them. If that interpretation were true, why would Augustine spend so many pages utilizing biblical allusions that clearly portray the two peoples’ themes across redemptive history, rather than focusing on specific biblical passages related to the state as such or the founding of the church as an institution by Christ? Knowing the biblical story well, particularly the contrast between the faithful as the people of God versus the seed of the serpent across the canon, will be crucial for understanding what Augustine is doing.

The reader should be aware that Augustine is a man of his time. He was a bishop in Africa in the 4th century. Some of his positions may be shocking to modern audiences. Particularly in the early books of City of God, books one and two, he discusses some disturbing topics such as war, rape, suicide, and torture. He even goes so far as to say that women are capable of sin while being raped and insinuates that Lucretia, a prominent Roman woman who was raped and committed suicide, leading to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy and the establishment of the republic, may have committed suicide not for honor but because of sin.

City of God is a lengthy work, with unabridged English translations spanning over a thousand pages. This abridged version, The Essential City of God, is only over four hundred pages. Gregory W. Lee has done laypeople and academics alike a service with this project. Lee received his PhD from Duke University and teaches at Wheaton College. His research focuses on Augustine’s theology and its relevance for contemporary challenges.

The reader may be concerned though. Will not an abridgement leave out crucial components of St. Augustine’s argument? Will its piecemeal nature do more harm than good for readers, who may walk away with an incomplete or distorted picture of his thought? Perhaps, but unlikely. Lee has given the reader multiple essays explaining Augustine’s thought on a particular subject, summaries of the books as a whole before the specific sections from the book included in the abridgement (so the reader can know how the section fits into the whole), and extensive footnotes with further commentary.

Augustine also goes on many lengthy rabbit trails not directly connected to his thesis. This abridgement serves the reader by providing manageable sections from the various books which focus on Augustine’s social and political thought and his central thesis, the contrast between the people of God and the people of demons. This focused selection allows the reader to follow Augustine’s main argument, reducing the danger of getting distracted by Augustine’s (interesting but not always relevant) rabbit trails.

Much, if not all, of what I have said so far has been descriptive, not prescriptive. This review is meant to provide an overview of City of God and the contributions of Lee’s abridgement and commentary. All I have left to say is what Augustine said prompted him to read the Bible, tolle lege. Learning to wrestle with reading a hard classical text like Augustine’s City of God is well worth the effort. It is a way to practice the intellectual virtues, such as charity, humility, critical thinking, contextualization, etc. And thanks to Dr. Lee, you can do it in only four hundred or so pages instead of a thousand.

Image Credit: Eric Titcombe | Flickr

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