The City of God and the Earthly City: War and Peace | Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fr. Andrew Hofer explores St. Augustine’s City of God where he presents a comprehensive view of human history and destiny, contrasting the earthly city driven by self-love with the heavenly city founded on love of God. He argues that true peace and happiness can only be achieved through faith, humility, and divine grace, rather than human efforts to create happiness. Augustine also discusses just wars, the universal desire for peace, and the various levels of peace, ultimately pointing to the perfect peace found in the heavenly city.

This lecture was given on June 13th, 2024, at The Catholic University of America.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., (Ph.D. Notre Dame) is professor of patristics and ancient languages at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies where he serves as the director of the doctoral program. He authored Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press, 2013) and The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh (Catholic University of America, 2023). He co-authored A Living Sacrifice: Guidance for Men Discerning Religious Life (Vianney Vocations, 2019). Editor-in-chief of the academic journal The Thomist, Hofer is editor or co-editor of several volumes including The Oxford Handbook of Deification, The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons, and Thomas Aquinas and the Greek Fathers. He enjoys speaking with students about their theological and spiritual questions.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Tumistic Institute podcast.
0:06.0	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.0	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tumistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.0	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:21.6	to mystic institute.org. This lecture begins with a retraction. So I think that's
0:28.7	appropriate with Augustine. So near the end of his life, he looked back and said, oh, I need to
0:33.8	go through my things and what I did wrong, or what I'd like to point out that isn't so good.
0:40.2	And from yesterday's talk, the last thing on the handout was written in a way that wasn't so good.
0:46.6	So in the late 390s, Augustine changed his mind and came to support imperial persecution of Donatists to compel him to become Catholic.
0:54.2	Well, he did change his mind, and he came to support imperial persecution of Donatus to compel them to become Catholic. Well, he did change his mind, and he came to support imperial persecution of Donatis
0:58.6	to compel them to become Catholic, but not in the late 390s.
1:02.8	So his change of mind is evidence after the 405 Edict of Unity, which Emperor Hornerius
1:10.0	did, and you find this especially in Epistle 93, written in 408.
1:16.5	So he explains himself in Epistle 93, I yielded, therefore, to these examples which my colleagues
1:22.2	proposed to me, for my opinion originally was that no one should be forced to the unity of Christ,
1:27.7	but that we should act with words, fight with arguments, and conquer by reason.
1:31.5	Otherwise, we might have as false Catholics those whom we had known to be obvious heretics.
1:37.1	But this opinion of mine was defeated, not by the words of its opponents, but by examples
1:41.4	of those who offered proof.
1:43.4	For the first argument against me was my own city, Tagossoe, though it was entirely in the Donatus
1:49.9	sect.
1:51.1	It was converted to the Catholic unity out of fear of the imperial laws, and we now see that it
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Thomistic Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Thomistic Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.