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Werke Augustinus von Hippo (354-430) De Civitate Dei

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXVIII: An etiam ipsum amorem, quo et esse et scire diligimus, diligere debeamus, quo magis diuinae trinitatis imagini propinquemus.

Sed de duobus illis, essentia scilicet et notitia, quantum amentur in nobis, et quemadmodum etiam in ceteris rebus, quae infra sunt, eorum reperiatur, etsi differens, quaedam tamen similitudo, quantum suscepti huius operis ratio uisa est postulare, satis diximus; de amore autem, quo amantur, utrum et ipse amor ametur, non dictum est. amatur autem; et hinc probamus, quod in hominibus, qui rectius amantur, ipse magis amatur. neque enim uir bonus merito dicitur qui scit quod bonum est, sed qui diligit. cur ergo et in nobis ipsis non et ipsum amorem nos amare sentimus, quo amamus quidquid boni amamus? est enim et amor, quo amatur et quod amandum non est, et istum amorem odit in se, qui illum diligit, quo id amatur quod amandum est. possunt enim ambo esse in uno homine, et hoc bonum est homini, ut illo proficiente quo bene uiuimus, iste deficiat quo male uiuimus, donec ad perfectum sanetur et in bonum commutetur omne quod uiuimus. si enim pecora essemus, carnalem uitam et quod secundum sensum eius est amaremus idque esset sufficiens bonum nostrum et secundum hoc, cum esset nobis bene, nihil aliud quaereremus. item si arbores essemus, nihil quidem sentiente motu amare possemus, uerumtamen id quasi adpetere uideremur, quo feracius essemus uberiusque fructuosae. si essemus lapides aut fluctus aut uentus aut flamma uel quid huiusmodi, sine ullo quidem sensu atque uita, non tamen nobis deesset quasi quidam nostrorum locorum atque ordinis adpetitus. nam uelut amores corporum momenta sunt ponderum, siue deorsum grauitate siue sursum leuitate nitantur. ita enim corpus pondere, sicut animus amore fertur, quocumque fertur. quoniam igitur homines sumus ad nostri creatoris imaginem creati, cuius est uera aeternitas, aeterna ueritas, aeterna et uera caritas, estque ipse aeterna et uera et cara trinitas neque confusa neque separata: in his quidem rebus, quae infra nos sunt, quoniam et ipsa nec aliquo modo essent nec aliqua specie continerentur nec aliquem ordinem uel adpeterent uel tenerent, nisi ab illo facta essent, qui summe est, qui summe sapiens est, qui summe bonus est, tamquam per omnia, quae fecit mirabili stabilitate, currentes quasi quaedam eius alibi magis, alibi minus inpressa uestigia colligamus; in nobis autem ipsis eius imaginem contuentes tamquam minor ille euangelicus filius ad nos met ipsos reuersi surgamus et ad illum redeamus, a quo peccando recesseramus. ibi esse nostrum non habebit mortem, ibi nosse nostrum non habebit errorem, ibi amare nostrum non habebit offensionem. nunc autem tria ista nostra quamuis certa teneamus nec aliis ea credamus testibus, sed nos ipsi praesentia sentiamus atque interiore ueracissimo cernamus aspectu, tamen, quam diu futura uel utrum numquam defutura et quo si male, quo autem si bene agantur peruentura sint, quoniam per nos ipsos nosse non possumus, alios hinc testes uel quaerimus uel habemus; de quorum fide cur nulla debeat esse dubitatio, non est iste, sed posterior erit diligentius disserendi locus. in hoc autem libro de ciuitate dei, quae non peregrinatur in huius uitae mortalitate, sed inmortalis semper in caelis est, id est de angelis sanctis deo cohaerentibus, qui nec fuerunt umquam nec futuri sunt desertores, inter quos et illos, qui aeternam lucem deserentes tenebrae facti sunt, deum primitus diuisisse iam diximus, illo adiuuante quod coepimus ut possumus explicemus.

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The City of God

Chapter 28.--Whether We Ought to Love the Love Itself with Which We Love Our Existence and Our Knowledge of It, that So We May More Nearly Resemble the Image of the Divine Trinity.

We have said as much as the scope of this work demands regarding these two things, to wit, our existence, and our knowledge of it, and how much they are loved by us, and how there is found even in the lower creatures a kind of likeness of these things, and yet with a difference. We have yet to speak of the love wherewith they are loved, to determine whether this love itself is loved. And doubtless it is; and this is the proof. Because in men who are justly loved, it is rather love itself that is loved; for he is not justly called a good man who knows what is good, but who loves it. Is it not then obvious that we love in ourselves the very love wherewith we love whatever good we love? For there is also a love wherewith we love that which we ought not to love; and this love is hated by him who loves that wherewith he loves what ought to be loved. For it is quite possible for both to exist in one man. And this co-existence is good for a man, to the end that this love which conduces to our living well may grow, and the other, which leads us to evil may decrease, until our whole life be perfectly healed and transmuted into good. For if we were beasts, we should love the fleshly and sensual life, and this would be our sufficient good; and when it was well with us in respect of it, we should seek nothing beyond. In like manner, if we were trees, we could not, indeed, in the strict sense of the word, love anything; nevertheless we should seem, as it were, to long for that by which we might become more abundantly and luxuriantly fruitful. If we were stones, or waves, or wind, or flame, or anything of that kind, we should want, indeed, both sensation and life, yet should possess a kind of attraction towards our own proper position and natural order. For the specific gravity of bodies is, as it were, their love, whether they are carried downwards by their weight, or upwards by their levity. For the body is borne by its gravity, as the spirit by love, whithersoever it is borne. 1 But we are men, created in the image of our Creator, whose eternity is true, and whose truth is eternal, whose love is eternal and true, and who Himself is the eternal, true, and adorable Trinity, without confusion, without separation; and, therefore, while, as we run over all the works which He has established, we may detect, as it were, His footprints, now more and now less distinct even in those things that are beneath us, since they could not so much as exist, or be bodied forth in any shape, or follow and observe any law, had they not been made by Him who supremely is, and is supremely good and supremely wise; yet in ourselves beholding His image, let us, like that younger son of the gospel, come to ourselves, and arise and return to Him from whom by our sin we had departed. There our being will have no death, our knowledge no error, our love no mishap. But now, though we are assured of our possession of these three things, not on the testimony of others, but by our own consciousness of their presence, and because we see them with our own most truthful interior vision, yet, as we cannot of our selves know how long they are to continue, and whether they shall never cease to be, and what issue their good or bad use will lead to, we seek for others who can acquaint us of these things, if we have not already found them. Of the trustworthiness of these witnesses, there will, not now, but subsequently, be an opportunity of speaking. But in this book let us go on as we have begun, with God's help, to speak of the city of God, not in its state of pilgrimage and mortality, but as it exists ever immortal in the heavens,--that is, let us speak of the holy angels who maintain their allegiance to God, who never were, nor ever shall be, apostate, between whom and those who forsook light eternal and became darkness, God, as we have already said, made at the first a separation.


  1. Compare the Confessions, xiii. 9. ↩

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Inhaltsangabe
Alle aufklappen
  • De civitate Dei
    • Liber I
    • Liber II
    • Liber III
    • Liber IV
    • Liber V
    • Liber VI
    • Liber VII
    • Liber VIII
    • Liber IX
    • Liber X
    • Liber XI
      • Caput I: De ea parte operis, qua duarum ciuitatum, id est caelestis atque terrenae, initia et fines incipient demonstrari.
      • Caput II: De cognoscendo deo, ad cuius notitiam nemo hominum peruenit, nisi per mediatorem dei et hominum, hominem Christum Iesum.
      • Caput III: De auctoritate canonicae scripturae diuino spiritu conditae.
      • Caput IV: De conditione mundi, quae nec intemporalis sit, nec nouo dei ordinata consilio, quasi postea uoluerit, quod ante noluerat.
      • Caput V: Tam non esse cogitandum de infinitis temporum spatiis ante mundum, quam nec de infinitis locorum spatiis extra mundum, quia, sicut nulla ante ipsum sunt tempora, ita nulla extra ipsum sunt loca.
      • Caput VI: Creationis mundi et temporum unum esse principium nec aliud alio praeueniri.
      • Caput VII: De qualitate primorum dierum, qui etiam antequam sol fieret uesperam et mane traduntur habuisse.
      • Caput VIII: Quae qualisque intellegenda sit dei requies, qua post opera sex dierum requieuit in septimo.
      • Caput IX: De angelorum conditione quid secundum diuina testimonia sentiendum sit.
      • Caput X: De simplici et incommutabili trinitate dei patris et dei filii et dei spiritus sancti, unius dei, cui non est aliud qualitas aliudque substantia.
      • Caput XI: An eius beatitudinis, quam sancti angeli ab initio sui semper habuerunt, etiam illos spiritus, qui in ueritate non steterunt, participes fuisse credendum sit.
      • Caput XII: De conparatione beatitudinis iustorum necdum obtinentium promissionis diuinae praemium et primorum in paradiso hominum ante peccatum.
      • Caput XIII: An ita unius felicitatis omnes angeli sint creati, ut neque lapsuros se possent nosse qui lapsi sunt, et post ruinam labentium perseuerantiae suae praescientiam acceperint qui steterunt.
      • Caput XIV: Quo genere locutionis dictum sit de diabolo, quod *in ueritate non steterit,* quia ueritas non est in eo.
      • Caput XV: Quid sentiendum sit de eo, quod dictum est: *ab initio diabolus peccat.*
      • Caput XVI: De gradibus et differentiis creaturarum, quas aliter pendit usus utilitatis, aliter ordo rationis.
      • Caput XVII: Vitium malitiae non naturam esse, sed contra naturam, cui ad peccandum non conditor causa est, sed uoluntas.
      • Caput XVIII: De pulchritudine uniuersitatis, quae per ordinationem dei etiam ex contrariorum fit obpositione luculentior.
      • Caput XIX: Quid sentiendum uideatur de eo quod scriptum est: diuisit deus inter lucem et tenebras.
      • Caput XX: De eo, quod post discretionem lucis atque tenebrarum dictum est: et uidit deus lucem quia bona est.
      • Caput XXI: De aeterna et incommutabili scientia dei ac uoluntate, qua semper illi uniuersa quae fecit sic placuerunt facienda, quemadmodum facta.
      • Caput XXII: De his, quibus in uniuersitate rerum a bono creatore bene conditarum quaedam displicent, et putant nonnullam malam esse naturam.
      • Caput XXIII: De errore, in quo Origenis doctrina culpatur.
      • Caput XXIV: De trinitate diuina, quae per omnia opera sua significationis suae sparsit indicia.
      • Caput XXV: De tripertita totius philosophiae disciplina.
      • Caput XXVI: De imagine summae trinitatis, quae secundum quendam modum in natura etiam necdum beatificati hominis inuenitur.
      • Caput XXVII: De essentia et scientia et utriusque amore.
      • Caput XXVIII: An etiam ipsum amorem, quo et esse et scire diligimus, diligere debeamus, quo magis diuinae trinitatis imagini propinquemus.
      • Caput XXIX: De sanctorum angelorum scientia, qua trinitatem in ipsa eius deitate nouerunt et qua operum causas prius in operantis arte quam in ipsis operibus artificis intuentur.
      • Caput XXX: De senarii numeri perfectione, qui primus partium suarum quantitate conpletur.
      • Caput XXXI: De die septimo, in quo plenitudo et requies commendatur.
      • Caput XXXII: De opinione eorum, qui angelorum creationem anteriorem uolunt esse quam mundi.
      • Caput XXXIII: De duabus angelorum societatibus diuersis atque disparibus, quae non incongrue intelleguntur lucis et tenebrarum nominibus nuncupatae.
      • Caput XXXIV: De eo quod quidam putant in conditione firmamenti aquarum discretarum nomine angelos significatos, et quod quidam aquas existimant non creatas.
    • Liber XII
    • Liber XIII
    • Liber XIV
    • Liber XV
    • Liber XVI
    • Liber XVII
    • Liber XVIII
    • Liber XIX
    • Liber XX
    • Liber XXI
    • Liber XXII

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