City of God - Augustine - XXI - Book 11 concluded

Required reading
City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) -  Conclude Book 11 by reading Chapters 18 to 34.

My summary
Augustine continues looking at the creation of the two classes of angels.

Augustine believes that when Genesis 1 says 'God made a division between light and darkness', God was creating good and evil angels.

After making his case, we read that even in God's creation of fallen angels that 'the creation of the universe was God's good purpose to create good.'  God did not create the world 'by the utter necessity of repelling the evil which fought against him.'

Then Augustine explains the Trinity's involvement in creation including the partial image of the Trinity that human nature resembles.

Then to conclude the book there is a discussion of the numbers six and seven as perfect numbers and some concluding remarks about other evidence showing the two classes of angels.

In the last paragraph Augustine reveals why he is spending so much time discussing the angels: 'And so it seems to me that we have sufficiently examined these two diverse and opposed communities of angels, in which we find something like the beginnings of the two communities of mankind.' 

Thus all this is leading towards understanding the two cities in which man dwells.

What grabbed me
I loved Augustine's assertion that he himself exists: '...we know that we exist and we are glad of this existence and this knowledge....In respect of those truths I have no fear of the arguments of the Academics.  They say, "Suppose you are mistaken?"  I reply, "If I am mistaken, I exist."  A non-existent being cannot be mistaken; therefore I must exist, if I am mistaken.  Then since my being mistaken proves that I exist, how can I be mistaken in thinking that I exist, seeing that my mistake establishes my existence?  Since therefore I must exist in order to be mistaken, then even if I am mistaken, there can be no doubt that I am not mistaken in my knowledge that I exist.'

You can't be mistaken about knowing that you exist because if you were mistaken you would prove you exist.  Great use of logic Augustine!

Next week's reading
Commence Book 12 by reading Chapters 1 to 15.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.