If you ignore God in order to love something else - well, he made that too. Anything, I repeat, that you love at the cost of ignoring God, was created by him. If it wasn't beautiful, then you wouldn't love it. But where does its beauty come from if it wasn't created by God, whose beauty is invisible? You love gold. Well, God made it. You love beautiful bodies, you love flesh. God made them. You love your delightful estate. God made it. You love the precious light. God made it. If you ignore God in favour of something he made - well then, please love God himself as well. How much does he deserve to be loved, how much does he deserve to be loved, when he created everything that you love? Love him like this - and your love for him will grow.

I am not saying that you should have no loves; I simply want your loves to be properly ordered.

augustine, sermon 335c: on the feast of a martyr, p.59

i give up criticizing augustine for platonism. not only has the debate gotten ridiculously old, it's a question that shouldn't need answering if you've read enough augustine carefully enough. he loves creation, he just loves God more.

May he by his grace direct you and make you joyful in your youth, yet not scornful of my old age. Farewell.

augustine, letter to auxilius, p.50

i want to say this to somebody in about 40 years. awesome.

At one time, Latin womenfolk would be kept pure

By humble fortune; and to stop vice tainting their small

Abodes they had to work, slumber brief, and hardened hands

Fretted with Tuscan fleece, and Hannibal beside

The city, and husbands standing on the Colline tower.

Luxury has set in, avenging the conquered globe.

Not one crime has been wanting or one act of lust

Since Roman poverty expired.

juvenal, satires 6. ll.287-295, in juvenal's sixteen satires upon the ancient harlot.

quoted in augustine's letter to marcellinus, pp.39-40

again, america.

If Christian teaching condemned all warfare, then the soldiers in the gospel who were seeking guidance about their security would have been told to throw away their weapons and withdraw entirely from the army. But what was said to them was: 'Do not intimidate anyone; do not bring false charges against anyone; be satisfied with your wages' [Lk 3:14]. He instructed them to be satisfied with their due wages, but he didn't prohibit military service in general.

augustine, letter to marcellinus, p.39

If God allows that sort of thing to flourish, it shows that he is seriously displeased. By letting it go unpunished he inflicts a more savage punishment. But when he overthrows such aids to vice, and reduces their pampered passions to poverty, then his opposition is merciful.

augustine, letter to marcellinus, p.38

exactly why america should be terribly, terribly afraid. God has given us the desires of our own hearts.

That great contemporary doctor Vindicianus was consulted by someone and he prescribe a remedy for a sickness that seemed suitable at that time. The man used it and was restored to health. A few years later his physical complaint flared up again. He decided to apply the same remedy. His health deteriorated further. He was surprised, and hurried back to the doctor to tell him what had happened. Vincidianus, a very clever man, replied, ‘the reason that you are responding badly to this is that I did not prescribe it.’ As a result, all those listeners who did not know him well thought that he didn’t rely on his medical skill but on some forbidden powers. Later on, when some of those who had been amazed by him questioned him, he explained to them what they hadn’t understood: he would not have prescribed that remedy for a man of that age. A remedy is only effective if it alters in accordance with different ages following a system of expertise that does not change.

The claim that what was once correct action can never be altered is, therefore, untrue. Rather, when the circumstances of time have altered, true reason normally demands that actions that were previously correct now be altered. Consequently while they argue that an action can’t be correct if it is altered, truth, by contrast, proclaims that the action will only be correct if it changes; each action will be correct precisely when it is adapted to each different period of time. The same may hold of different persons during the same period.

augustine, letter to marcellinus (411/412), pp.31-32

dad's only been saying this for like 15 years. but all the same, this is awesome. AWESOME.

In my judgment (if my view is not mistaken) it is a more serious thing to be stripped of resources than to be killed. That is true at least if death entirely removes our perception of evil, while a life of poverty produces endless misfortune - claims which, as you know, are frequently found in literature. It is a more serious matter to live a life full of evils than to put an end to those evils by dying.

nectarius, letter 103 to augustine, p.9

telling that this is how the roman world thought. nectarius, a pagan, lives in a culture of death. death is less evil than an impoverished life. we say that death is a shadow and to bow to it a crime. perhaps, like chesterton would say, nectarius is just bored with the world.

We ought, though, to treat the instigators as suspicions rather than truth, and avoid discussing matters that can only be brought to light at the cost of torturing those who must be interrogated.

augustine, letter 91 to nectarius, p.7

Do you think that leaving an outrage like that to go unpunished, or failing to reform the guilty as they deserve, will allow you to leave your homeland 'flourishing'? Flowers like that won't produce fruit, but thorns! Compare the choices: would you prefer your hometown to flower with piety or with licence, with reformed characters, or with atrocities unchecked? Compare the choices, and see whether your love for your home-town surpasses ours, and whether you, or we, are more fully and genuinely eager for it to flourish.

augustine, letter 91 to nectarius (408/9 aD), p.3

chesterton says you have to love the city enough to burn it down. turns out he got it from augustine.

Augustine also witnessed direct conflict in Milan when Arian imperial troops attempted to seize a Catholic basilica, with Ambrose, the Catholic bishop, inside.

robert dodaro and margaret atkins, introduction to political writings by augustine, p.xiii

it's hard for me to see any pastor in the u.s. doing this. admittedly, my exposure is limited, but i can only think of a handful of men who would stand outside their church and calmly tell the armed marines outside that they couldn't come in.