City of God (De Civitate Dei) - Excellent Refutation of False Religions

[kingtheoden]

For some people in modern societ, it is vogue and comfortable to say something like 'I'm spiritual' or 'Be a good [pick any random heresy/cult/etc.], that is all that matters' or as we hear in Neo-Catholic circles much 'there are many paths to Heaven but the Catholic Church is the best route.'

Thanksgiving, I took refuge, when I could, from pointless converstations designed to see who could most insult power companies or shallow rebukes of the shopping frenzy to come (when everyone knows full well that those doing the rebuking will be a part of the consumerist spirit.  One of the volumes of the 'Five Foot Wall of Knowledge' happens to be pieces of St. Augustine's writings.  Keeping in mind that the translation is probably not precisely correct, I was engrossed by the trenchant and biting analysis.

Specifically, I was reading De Civitate Dei, Part X, Chapters from the mid 30s onward.  St. Augustine in discussing the nature of angels and their interactions with man shows clearly that that one angel who demands worship of himself runs completely counter with the calls by holy angels to direct sacrifice to God.  And, if one is to doubt the truthfulness of the body of examples of such, then one who worships Buddha or some ripoche has no grounds for such worship because one cannot arbitrarily discard Jewish and later Christian testimony but accept some other kind.

St. Augustine adds that there is a humility on the part of the holy angels who direct worship to God, and always the one true God, whereas fallen angels in demanding they be worshipped display obvious arrogance.

While these particular chapters are not the choice ones for the growing atheist contingent of society, it seems that mastering these could give us the ability to completely shatter the lame, pop-theology of our day that suggests 'all belief' is somehow in at least partial union.

[formerbuddhist]

St. Augustine has a lot of great points in that book about almost every imaginable subject. I haven't ever actually read the whole thing since there is so much and it can take putting the book down and thinking about what I just read to fully grasp it. Truly he had a powerful mind and a strong faith. I bet a lot of modern ideas could be challenged in the hearts of people if they actually took the time to read through at least parts of that book and actually pondered them.