The Holy City

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Oldfield
Keyword(s):  
City Of God ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
Patron Saints ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
Holy City

This chapter examines praise of cities through the prism of their religious virtues. It does so through the two main, but interrelated, approaches within which the medieval city was linked to the sacred. The first embedded the role of the city within wider Christian narratives about man’s salvation. It was invariably rooted in biblical and other patristic texts (particularly St Augustine’s City of God) and later connected to medieval Christian thinking on Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, and the triumph of Christianity. The second approach drilled down onto specific manifestations of the sacred character of a particular city—its patron saints, its religious buildings and shrines, its religious officials, its place within the universal Church hierarchy, and its pious citizenry.

scholarly journals Embracing a vision of the New Jerusalem (Rv 21:1−22:5) to impact on life and society

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin H. Pohlmann
Keyword(s):  
Primary Role ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church ◽  
Society Today ◽  
Holy City

Apocalyptic biblical literature has played a significant role in motivating and mobilising Christians. As part of this genre, the Apocalypse of John has played this mobilising role within the church throughout its history. Jerusalem is often incorporated into this genre to conjure up different emotions and images to impact many different people. For example, the Jew annually recites the words to fellow Jews at every Passover meal: ‘Next year in Jerusalem’. Most Christians know the hymn ‘The holy city’, originally penned by Frederic Weatherly in 1892. It lifts many a spirit as it conjures up the idea of a beautiful, perfect, heavenly city of God. However, there is more to this apocalyptic vision, which will be explored in this article. The city upholds the hope of decent godly living today. Whilst Jerusalem is a city with an extremely chequered history, it remains to be the launching pad of a dream that believers can embrace in order to impact society for the better. The vision in Revelation 21–22 is the launch of the ‘idea’ of God’s intention for society today, and the ‘implementation impetus’ is the primary role of the church. In the greater scheme of things, the world community is the target group for a better society for everyone.Aanneming van ’n visioen van die Nuwe Jerusalem (Op 21:1–22:5) ten einde ’n invloed op lewe en die samelewing uit te oefen. Apokaliptiese Bybelliteratuur het ’n beduidende rol in die motivering en aansporing van Christengemeenskappe gespeel. Die Openbaring van Johannes het hierdie motiveringsrol deurgaans in die geskiedenis van die kerkas deel van dié genre vertolk. Jerusalem is dikwels hierby ingesluit om ’n verskeidenheid van emosies en beelde op te roep ten einde ’n impak op ’n verskeidenheid mense te maak. Die Jood, byvoorbeeld, haal jaarliks die volgende woorde teenoor mede-Jode tydens die Paasmaaltyd aan: ‘Volgende jaar in Jerusalem’. Die meeste Christene ken die gesang ‘The holy city’ wat oorspronklik deur Frederic Weatherly in 1892 geskryf is. Dit hef menige gelowiges se gemoedere op omdat dit die beeld van ’n pragtige, perfekte stad van God oproep. Daar is egter meer aan hierdie openbaringsuitsig wat in hierdie artikel verder ondersoek word. Die hemelstad bekragtig die hoop vir ’n godvrugtige lewe vandag. Alhoewel Jerusalem ’n stad met ’n uiters veelbewoë geskiedenis is, is dit tog die beginpunt vir hierdie droom van gelowiges om die samelewing te verbeter. Die visioen in Openbaring 21–22 is die bekendstelling van die ‘idee’ van God se bedoeling vir ons hedendaagse samelewing en die ‘vervullende beweegkrag’ is die primêre rol van die kerk. Holisties beskou, is die wêreldgemeenskap die teikengroep vir ’n beter samelewing vir almal.

scholarly journals Augustinus en de Joden: een inleidend overzicht

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Van Oort
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Positive Sign ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Current Opinion ◽  
Sharp Distinction ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

The article explores how Augustine of Hippo (354-430) deals with the Jews and Judaism. First it investigates the occurrence and meaning of the word �Iudaeus� in Augustine�s works. It turns out that Augustine, unlike many a predecessor, does not make a sharp distinction between �Hebrew�, �Israelite�, and �Jew�. Mainly on the basis of The City of God the role of the Jews in history is discussed. According to Augustine, all true believers (even those living before the time of Jesus) are �Christ believers� and are considered to belong to Christ�s body, the Church. The diaspora of the Jews is evaluated both negatively and positively: negatively as a consequence of �their putting Christ to death�; positively since through the dispersion of the Jews their Scriptures have been dispersed as well and so provide �testimony to the truth taught by the Church�. The so-called �mark of Cain� can not be interpreted as a predominantly positive sign: it provides protection indeed, but this divine protection is, once again, �for the benefit of the Church�. Contrary to some current opinion, it is stressed that Augustine knew contemporary Jews in Roman North Africa quite well.

Augustine: De Civitate Dei The City of God Books XI and XII

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Latin Text ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
The World ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City ◽  
The Universe

In books I–V of De Civitate Dei, St. Augustine rejects the claim that worship of the pagan gods had brought success in this life, and in books VI–X, the prospect of a happy afterlife. In books XI–XII, Augustine turns from attack to defence, for at this point he initiates his apology for the Christian faith. Books XI and XII document the initial phase of the rise of the two cities, the city of God and the city of this world, beginning with the Creation of the world and the human race. In Book XI, Augustine rejects the theories of Aristotle, Plato and the Epicureans on the creation of the universe and addresses the creation of angels, Satan, the role of the holy Trinity and the importance of numerology in the Genesis account. In Book XII, Augustine is chiefly concerned with refuting standard objections to the Christian tradition, returning to discussion of the Creation, including his calculation, based on the scriptures, that the world was created less than 6,000 years ago. This book is the only edition in English to provide not only a text but also a detailed commentary on one of the most influential documents in the history of western Christianity. It presents Latin text, with facing-page English translation, introduction, notes and commentary.

Aspects of Mediaeval Thought on Church and State

1947 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhart B. Ladner
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Human Society ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City

“Two loves,” St. Augustine says in De Civitate Dei, “have made two cities, love of self unto contempt of God the Earthly City, love of God unto contempt of self the Heavenly City,” the City of God. These “cities”—civitates—are, of course, not states, but societies; St. Augustine himself tells us that the term civitas is an equivalent of the term society. They are societies, however, of a special kind. The Ciyitds Dei is a “mystical” society of all the elect, past, present and future. The Civitas Terrena, the Earthly City, is identical neither with the earthly state nor with any particular earthly state such as the Roman Empire, nor with any merely human society, it too is a “mystical” society, that of the impious, the damned.

Catholic Teaching on Politics and the State

2018 ◽  
pp. 456-476
Author(s):  
Chad C. Pecknold
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Early Church ◽  
City Of God ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City ◽  
Political Realm

This chapter explores Catholic teaching on life in the political realm. It explores first how the contours of debate were set in the early Church. Augustine’s notion of the two cities’ provided a basic foundation for later Latin Catholic thought, presenting the city of God on pilgrimage towards the heavenly city—and yet united already to it as Christ’s body. The city of man is founded on humanity’s turn away from right desire for God, and it is from within the city of God that we learn to view the relative integrity and value of all other human social order. The middle sections of the chapter explore the development of this vision in the medieval period. Later sections examine transformations across the Reformation period, ending with a treatment of these questions at Vatican II and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

scholarly journals Giordano of Pisa (1260-1311) and the threefold meanings of the city. An essay on medieval urban politics

Tempo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Luis Pereira Miatello
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The City

Abstract: From the sermons of the Dominican friar Jordan of Pisa (Giordano da Rivalto), between 1302-1307, this article intends to investigate the intersection between preaching and politics in 14th-century Italy, particularly in Florence. The aim is to investigate foremost the political mobilization aspect of preaching, which made the pulpit a forum for political reproduction and negotiation of the public debate and divisions inside the civic assembly; secondly, this paper discuss the role of preachers as political men, since they intended to interfere in public and individual practices in order to answer the urgent problems of the urban life. Based on the study of data obtained from three sermons of Giordano specially devoted to political issues, we discuss the medieval republicanism without separating the political and the religious and without incurring the political assumptions provided by modernity. In giordanian understanding the contrast between the City of God and the earthly city affirms the historicity of politics and, at the same time, expresses its perpetual essence, not doomed to disappear with the end of history.

Imperiumand the City of God: Augustine on Church and Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 46-70
Author(s):  
Gillian Clark
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Roman Africa ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City

In early fifth-century Roman Africa, Augustine faced pagan opponents who thought that the Roman empire was at risk because Christian emperors banned the worship of its gods, and that Christian ethics were no way to run an empire. He also faced Christian opponents who held that theirs was the true Church, and that the Roman empire was the oppressive power of Babylon. For Augustine, Church and empire consist of people. Everyone belongs either to the heavenly city, the community of all who love God even to disregard of themselves, or to the earthly city, the community of all who love themselves even to disregard of God. The two cities are intermixed until the final judgement shows that some who share Christian sacraments belong to the earthly city, and some officers of empire belong to the heavenly city. Empire manifests the earthly city's desire to dominate, butimperium, the acknowledged right to give orders, is necessary to avoid permanent conflict. Empire, like everything else, is given or permitted by God, for purposes we do not know.

scholarly journals Comparing the Concept of Ideal State Through the Lens of al-Farabi’s and Augustine’s Perspectives

KALAM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Sudarman Sudarman
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Central Position ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Innocent People ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
The One ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City

This research is a comparative analysis over the concept of an ideal state according to the perspective of a Muslim philosopher, Al-Farabi and that of a Christian philosopher, Augustine. It is an interfaith study that is based on a library research. The main data are collected through the book of Arā 'Ahl al-Madīnah al-Fādilah by al-Farabi and The City of God, by Agustinus, before they are analyzed with a hermeneutic approach. It argues that there are some similarities between Al-Farabi’s and Augustine's thoughts on the concept of ideal state, as well as a few differences. According to al-Farabi, an ideal state is the one that is led by a prophet or a philosopher, because, like the heart in a human body, the leader occupies a central position and is highly decisive. An ideal state according to Augustine refers to the concept of the city of God or the heavenly city, which is resided by innocent people, or sinners who have received God’s repentance. In this regards, the opposite of the City of God is the City of Man, in which all sinners are living their lives.

scholarly journals THE “BRIGHT CITY” MYTHOLOGEME IN LYRIC POETRY OF PIMEN KARPOV

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-250
Author(s):  
Natalia Kokovina ◽  
Irina Mikhailova
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
World Order ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The One ◽  
Self Immolation ◽  
Heavenly City ◽  
The City

The article analyzes the poet Pimen Karpov’s understanding of the “Bright City” mythologeme. The need to analyze this mythologeme stems from the fact that the image of the Bright City is at the core of the mythopoetic concept that forms the basis of Karpov’s worldview. The toponymy of the sacred space of the Bright City, the Heavenly City, the City of God in Karpov’s lyric poetry is multifaceted. It is realized in poetry both as a real earthly space, and as a certain symbol with blurry borders: it is a heavenly city, a potential paradise on earth, the promised land, the land of the forefathers, and even simply the land for the peasant. The ideal world order has both spatial and temporal reference points. According to Karpov, it is only possible to reach the Bright City through self-sacrifice. Out of pain and suffering, happiness is born, and this is the only possible way to attain the coveted Paradise. But for Karpov, it is not merely a personal path, but also Russia’s path, its mission, and the lyrical hero’s participation in its fate is undeniable. Karpov sees Russia’s historical mission in sacrificial self-immolation as a path to Transformation. The paradoxical convergence of Christ and the antichrist in his works reflects the spiritual context of the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the extreme ambivalence of personal principles. The fragmentary and aphoristic nature of Karpov’s poetic language, the kaleidoscopic nature of his artistic space, on the one hand, and the hidden integrity emanating from the unity of the visible and invisible worlds, on the other, make his poetry akin to the culture of modernism.

scholarly journals La funcionalidad social de los inmuebles urbanos de las élites dirigentes bajomedievales: reflexiones a partir de un caso de estudio (Jerez de la Frontera, España) = The Social Role of the Ruling Elite’s Urban Property in the Late Middle Ages: Thoughts Concerning a Case Study (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain)

2020 ◽  
pp. 557
Author(s):  
Enrique José Ruiz Pilares
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Urban Buildings ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

La historiografía europea ha constatado que los inmuebles urbanos eran una fuente de inversión segura que, al mismo tiempo, permitía, en el caso de los grupos dirigentes bajomedievales, construir toda una red de solidaridades y reforzar su estatus social. Para confrontar estas afirmaciones para el caso del reino de Castilla, y especialmente de Andalucía, hemos tomado como caso de estudio Jerez de la Frontera. Esta ciudad, una de las más importantes al sur de Castilla, cuenta con uno de los archivos medievales mejor conservados. A partir de los registros notariales se han estudiado los patrimonios de 45 caballeros que habían formado parte del gobierno urbano durante el reinado de los Reyes Católicos (1474-1504). Este estudio nos ha permitido confirmar la funcionalidad social de este tipo de bienes, siendo una de sus manifestaciones más evidentes la ampliación de sus casas palacios, la construcción de capillas o la financiación de edificios religiosos u hospitales.AbstractEuropean scholarship has found that urban buildings were a sound source of investment. Moreover, in the case of medieval elites, it allowed them to build a thorough network of solidarity and to strengthen their social status. To examine these tendencies in the case of the kingdom of Castile, and especially in the region of Andalusia, we have chosen the city of Jerez de la Frontera as a case study. This city, one of the most important in southern Castile, has one of the richest medieval archives. From its notary records, we have examined the property of 45 knights who were part of the municipal government during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (1474-1504). This study has allowed us to confirm the social role of this type of building, as demonstrated by the extension of its palaces, the construction of chapels or the financing of religious buildings or hospitals.

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