Divine Providence in Human History

DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN HUMAN HISTORY

(CoG V 24-26)

In the Book V of his work, The City of God understood to deal on “The greatness of Rome and the one true God”, Augustine makes a case for the presence of divine providence in human history. Looking at the greatness and success of the Roman Empire at that time, Augustine is convinced that such greatness is not due to destiny, to astrological fatality, for the belief in destiny tends to abolish all worship, all prayer, and all free will. Such greatness can only occur because of the divine will. He at all times links both successes and defeats to the mysteries of the divine will. Zeroing down to the last three chapters of this book, I will like to establish the supports Augustine provides to his earlier claim through the examples of Constantine and Theodosius Augustus.

The chapters 24, 25 and 26 of the book unquestionably form a block with the previous four books of which it is very important to see and understand the internal coherence. Faced with the horror of the sack of Rome of 410, the "pagans" incriminate the recent abandonment of the traditional cults, while many Christians are scandalized by the fact that their God did not protect the City. Augustine answers by a reflection on the way God divides temporal goods among human beings according to the divine providence. Not due to the nature of human behavior, rather due to His divine providence. On the other hand, Augustine attributes to the one God, the progressive construction and power of the Roman Empire. Things are the way they are because God has willed them so according to his divine providence. Moreover, the perfect happiness of man comes walking according to the divine providence. Considering the case of the Christian Emperor Constantine, who is simply presented here as someone who proclaimed himself a Christian and remembered the hope that he bore in Christ. Augustine exposes the hand of the Divine in the actualization of the progress of the Roman Empire “for the good God gave to the emperor Constantine, who did not seek favor of demons, but worshipped the true God Himself, such a full measure of earthly rewards as no one would dare to hope for.” Due to his believe in the One True God, “to Constantine, then, God granted it that he should found a city to be a companion of Rome in empire: a daughter, as it were, of Rome herself, but without any temple or image of the demons.” Augustine then follows his reasoning with a presentation of the faith and godliness of Theodosius Augustus. In the distinctly more lively and colorful pages that Augustine devotes to Theodosius, he narrates of his steadfastness and how God used him to bring about victory and protection for the Church. “He (Theodosius) soon destroyed the tyrant Maximus and, with the greatest mercy and veneration, restored the boy Valentinian to the part of the empire from which he had been caused to flee.” Upon Valentinian’s death rose another tyrant, Eugenius, and once again, the divine providence wills that Theodosius “having once more received a prophetic answer and been reassured by his faith in it, crushes the tyrant and overcame his most powerful army, although more by prayer than by the sword.” Throughout his reign, Theodosius watched over supporting the Church in her trials by very just and very indulgent laws against the ungodly thereby putting

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