Commencements, fondations et origines des deux cités dans La Cité de Dieu de Saint Augustin

• Main Author: Philippe Cournault
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Centre interdisciplinaire d’Études du Religieux (CIER) 2019-05-01
• Series: Cahiers d'Études du Religieux- Recherches Interdisciplinaires
• Subjects: Saint Augustine; The City of God; Terrestrial City; Celestial City; theology of history; origin of the two cities
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cerri/2584

The question of beginnings is central in the religious field. But Saint Augustine’s City of God, proposing to read universal history as the story of two cities, is a religious reading of history. It is therefore interesting to examine how it deals with the question of the beginnings of these two cities and with what notions : those of beginning, foundation or origin ? The three are relevant : St. Augustine in The City of God affirms a radical beginning in the time or with the time of the two cities and gives them founding figures. But, more deeply, one can also discover that he suggests an origin of the two cities in a mysterious pre-time.