A Seminar Paper on Augustine’s View on Eschatology

Submitted to: Dr T M Jose Submitted on: 16th August 2022

Submitted by: John V. Alexander Class: MTh II (Christian Theology
Introduction:
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the most influential theologians in the history of the
Latin Church. His eschatology is intertwined with his theology of history, his theology of grace
including the doctrine of original sin, and is, of course, dependent on his philosophical-theological
presuppositions in general.1 Despite his Neo-Platonism and due to his increasing familiarity with Holy
Scripture, Augustine discovers the importance of a historic understanding of the world and favours a
linear model of history. His view is dramatic in the sense that he conceives human history as integrated
in the wider context of an eschatological drama, in which history is the temporal playing out of God‟s
justice and in which both beginning and (eternal) end are fixed.2 In this paper we are going to discuss on
the Eschatology of Augustine in Detail.
Eschatology:
The word “eschatology” means the study of last things. In the Greek New Testament the word
eschatos is used to refer to the last days (Acts 2:17, II Timothy 3:1, Hebrews 1:2, James 5:3, I Peter
1:20, II Peter 3:3), the last hour (John 2:18), the last time (I Peter 1:15), and the last day (John 6:39, 40,
44, 54; 11:24; 12:48), but it is important to note also that Jesus our Lord is himself referred to as the
eschatos. I Corinthians 15:45 refers to him as the last Adam, and Revelation 1:17 and 2:8 refer to him as
the first and the last. In 22:12-13 Jesus says, “I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay
according to everyone‟s work. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last [eschatos], the beginning
and the end.”
Augustine believes, Due to original sin, in which all human beings have sinned in Adam (cf.
Rom 5:12) and participate in his fall, the whole of humanity has turned away from God and has become
a massa damnata, a Damned Mass‟ that justly deserves the punishment of eternal damnation.3
Nevertheless, God has chosen or predestined by means of a free and utterly unmerited grace a small
minority of this „lump‟, in order to grant them salvation and participation in His own eternal life. For
Augustine, the number of the elected is very small so that God can show what in fact all deserve and
enforce His Divine justice.4 God‟s elected belong to the ‘city of God’ (It has a unique relationship with
the outwardly visible Church) and are able to lead a life of faith, charity and worship. But the vast
majority belongs to the ‘city of Man’ and is trapped in an unfree, self-centred and sinful existence,
however, in this life, no one can be sure whether he or she is in fact chosen by God. Human history is
ambiguous and one cannot foresee its ending, however, there will be an eschatological separation of the
two cities, namely a collective judgement and transformation of the world at the end of time.5
The souls of the dead await the resurrection of their bodies as the dividing line between time
and eternity. God‟s elected may have a share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and will be fully

1
The City of God, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm (Accessed on 12th August 2022)
2
Rüdiger Bittner, „Augustine‟s Philosophy of History‟, in The Augustinian Tradition, ed. by Gareth B. Matthews
(Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1999), 348.
3
J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 5th edn (London: A&C Black, 1977), 361-366
4
J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 366.
5
S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022)

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 „conformed to the image of the Son‟ (Rom 8:29), which means a complete deification by
adoption.6For Augustine, there is an identity between the bodies on earth and the risen bodies,
however, the risen body is a ‘spiritual body’.7 The eternal beatitude of the saints, which exceeds all
our greatest imaginations, consists in praising God and their beatific vision of God:
God will be so known by us, and shall be so much before us, that we shall see Him by the
spirit in ourselves, in one another, in Himself, in the new heavens and the new earth, in every
created thing which shall then exist; and also by the body we shall see Him in every body
which the keen vision of the eye ofthe spiritual body shall reach.8
Augustine on Eschatology:
One of the most influential re-workings of the corporate dimension of the eschatological ideas of
the New Testament is that of Augustine of Hippo, found in his book City of God. This work was written
in a context which could easily be described as "apocalyptic" - the destruction of the great city of Rome,
and the collapse of the Roman Empire. A central theme of the work is the relation between two cities -
the "city of God" and the "secular city" or "the city of the world." The complexities of the Christian life,
especially its political aspects, are due to the dialectic between these two cities.
Believers live "in this intermediate period" separating the incarnation of Christ from his final
return in glory. The church is to be seen as in exile in the "city of the world." It is in the world, yet not of
the world. There is a strong eschatological tension between the present reality, in which the church is
exiled in the world, and somehow obliged to maintain its distinctive ethos while surrounded by
disbelief, and the future hope, in which the church will be delivered from the world, and finally allowed
to share in the glory of God. It will be clear that Augustine has no time for the Donatist idea of the
church as a body of saints.9 For Augustine, the church shares in the fallen character of the world and
therefore includes the pure and the impure, saints and sinners. Only at the last day will this tension
finally be resolved.10
Yet alongside this corporate understanding of eschatology, Augustine shows an awareness of the
individualist dimensions of the Christian hope. This is especially clear in his discussion of the tension
between what human nature presently is and what it finally will be. Believers are saved, purified, and
perfected - yet in hope (in spe) but not in reality (in re). Salvation is something that is inaugurated in the
life of the believer, but which will only find its completion at the end of history. 11
Augustine is thus able to offer Christians hope, as they contemplate the sinful nature of their
lives, and wonder how this is to be reconciled with the gospel imperatives to be holy, like God. For
Augustine, believers are able to reach out in hope, beyond their present condition. This is not a spurious
or invented hope, but a sure and certain hope which is grounded in the resurrection of Christ. Augustine
is aware of the fact that the word "end" has two meanings. The "end" can mean "either the ceasing to be
of what was, or the perfecting of what was begun." Eternal life is to be seen as the state in which our
love of God, begun in this life, is finally brought to its completion and consummation, through union

6
David Vincent Meconi, The One Christ: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic
University of America Press, 2015), 12.
7
S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022)
8
Augustine, City of God, trans. Marcus Dods, (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887), 498-500.
9
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
10
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (New Jersey: Blackwell Publishers, 1991), 556.
11
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction…, 557.

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with the object of that love. Eternal life is the "reward that makes perfect," to which the Christian has
looked forward throughout the life of faith.12
Augustine on the Christian Hope
Although Augustine is remembered for his contributions to the great controversies of his day -
such as the Pelagian and Donatist debates - it is important to recall that he wrote and preached on many
topics which were not in themselves controversial. In this extract from his City of God he sets out the
theme of the Christian hope. The souls of the departed saints (sanctorum animae defunctorum) are not
troubled by the death by which they are separated from their bodies. This is because their "flesh rests in
hope" (Psalm 16: 9). Whatever humiliations it may seem to have suffered, it is now unable to feel them.
For they do not (as Plato supposed) desire that their bodies should be forgotten; rather, they remember
the promise given them by the one who always keeps his word, and who has given them the assurance
of the preservation of the hairs of their head (Luke 21: 18). 13 For this reason, they look forward with
patient yearning to the resurrection of the bodies in which they endured many hardships, but in which
they will never again feel any pain. If they did not "hate their own flesh" (Ephesians 5: 29) when they
subdued it by the law of the spirit (since through its weakness it opposed their will), how much more do
they love it when it is itself destined to be spiritual. The spirit when subservient to the flesh is not
inappropriately called fleshly: so the flesh in subservience to the spirit is rightly called spiritual, not
because it is converted into spirit, as some infer from the scriptural text, "It is sown as a natural body, it
will rise as a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15: 42), but because it will be subdued to the Spirit, readily
offering complete and marvellous obedience. And this will lead to the fulfilment of their desire, with the
safe attainment of a secure immortality, with the removal of all feelings of discomfort, corruptibility and
slowness. For this body will not only be better than it was here in its best estate of health; it will far
surpass the bodies of the first human beings before sin (in primis hominibus ante peccatum).14
Augustine on Eschatological Themes:
Resurrection:
In Augustine‟s time, Plato‟s idea about the separation of the soul from the body after death was
popular and broadly accepted; the soul does not remain in that state for a long time, instead it is
incarnated in another body. The wise men are an exception because they are transferred to a particular
star that suits them best, and after a certain time when they wish to experience earthly life again, they
become incarnated in mortal bodies. On the other hand, the souls of those who have lived futile lives,
which are according to Plato, obviously, a life opposite to the life of a wise man, are soon after death
incarnated again into a kind of body they have earned by their previous life.15
Augustine opposes such a teaching and he argues that right after a person‟s death and until the
resurrection, the human‟s soul leaves the body and undergoes judgment.16 After the judgment in the
period from a person‟s death to its resurrection, the souls abide in “secret places” and they undergo what
they have earned as an individual soul; some are at peace, and some suffer, depending on the way a
person lived his or her earthly life, but it does not get incarnated as Plato argues.17

12
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction.., 557.
13
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology:A Reader (New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing, 1995), 620.
14
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology:A Reader…, 621.
15
Dalibor Kraljik, “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of Hippo”
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060 (Accessed on 13th August 2022).
16
It is entirely correct and life-saving to believe that souls will be judged after they leave their human bodies and before they
come to the Last judgment when they receive their bodies back .
17
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.

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It seems that in his understanding of the individual judgment, Augustine is not entirely clear and that he
cannot offer answers to all the questions and problems. However, by summarizing his deliberation about
the individual judgment, at least some basic conclusions can be made. Therefore, he absolutely rejects
reincarnation or the hibernation of souls. Namely, after the soul leaves the body at death, it does not
come back to another body neither does it die (vanish or be annihilated), rather it abides in its earned
state (hell, purgatory or a blessed observance of God) which is not yet accomplished in its entirety, but
will be enjoyed only after the Last judgment. From this it follows that a soul does not hibernate (sleep)
after it leaves the body, instead it waits in a partial bliss or curse for the final resurrection into eternal
life or eternal death.18 In the following section, Augustine‟s understanding of eternal life will be exposed
briefly.
Eternal Life
What Augustine calls “a blessed observance of God” can be compared to what is also known as
“paradise” or “heaven.” It is obvious that even Augustine was not certain when this blessed observance
takes place, be it right after the individual judgment or only after the Last judgment. It is hard to
understand from his writings, martyrs go directly to heaven, whereas all others await the resurrection
and the Last judgment.19 It can be said that Augustine‟s understanding of eternal life (the observation of
God) extends from partial bliss in awaiting the Last judgment to the eternity that takes place with the
resurrection of the body.
Augustine sees eternal life as a deserved seventh day of rest8 where nothing else will be done
except giving thanks to God and praising His mercy and goodness. 20 In that blessed abode, every person
is happy and peaceful, but in this bliss there is still a certain gradation which Augustine does not
explain, assuming that no human is able to comprehend it; this gradation is conditioned by the smaller
or greater merits of the earthly life. The most important thing in this is the fact that the souls of the
righteous “enjoy in God and in their neighbor in God”; in that, God‟s merciful gift to the individual to
enjoy ceaselessly in God‟s presence can be seen, not only as an individual, but in fellowship with one‟s
neighbors.21 Augustine‟s understanding of eternal life is almost indescribable. From his texts, one can
see Augustine‟s exceeding joy and thrill in the expectation of the day when he would leave this earthly
life and join the angels and all the other saints in the eternal observance of God, given as a gift to all
those who will endure in their life and awaken in the first resurrection (the resurrection of the soul).22
The further text will deal with what is probably the most controversial of Augustine‟s eschatological
ideas regarding the issue of eternal life and eternal death, and that is, of course, the idea of purgatory.
Purgatory
Augustine is considered the first theologian to establish a clear teaching about purgatory; he did
not doubt the existence of purgatory. He was not certain how one realizes purgatory, nor was he certain
where that place is. However, Augustine clearly states that there are “temporal punishments”23 which a

18
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
19
Dalibor Kraljik, “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of Hippo”
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060 (Accessed on 13th August 2022).
20
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
21
Dalibor Kraljik, “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of Hippo”
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060 (Accessed on 13th August 2022).
22
Dalibor Kraljik, “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of Hippo”
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060 (Accessed on 13th August 2022).
23
“All other punishments, whether temporal or eternal, depending on the divine providence for every individual, are
imposed because of sin (whether from the past or those in which the punished person is presently involved) or because of
testing and proving of virtue, or with the help of angels, or the good or evil. Thus, regardless of whether a person suffers
because of atrocity or the delusion of another, whilst he sins, a person that commits such an evil or in ignorance or because

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person must suffer after death, but before the Last judgment because he assumed that every sin must be
paid for to the last nickel.24 Purgatory takes place between the individual and the Last judgment, and
that is still a time of mercy. Augustine holds that Christians can go to purgatory if they die in the sin of
being tied to earthly goods.25 True, they are in a sinful state, but because they are in small sins,26 by the
grace of God, they are not under God‟s permanent condemnation; therefore they will not suffer an
“eternal punishment”.27 God‟s righteousness, which is offended by sin, demands atonement through
punishment, therefore the purpose of the punishments in purgatory is not healing for the sinner, but
rather, they avenge God‟s wrath. Purgatory is to suffer the “purifying fire” and the “fire of atonement.”
It seems that Augustine is not certain of whether this pertains to a real physical fire or whether the fire
represents only a picture of the punishment and the suffering endured by those who have died in small
sins.28
In his deliberations about purgatory, Augustine often cites 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. He asks
himself whether the mentioned “fire” is some kind of earthly temptation or a flame of purgatory. It
seems to him that it is more related to a Christian‟s life before death, though he does not exclude the
possibility that “fire” might represent the redemptive fires of purgatory. Augustine believed that the
“souls of the deceased” might relate to the “piety of their living relatives”. By such piety, the deceased
may acquire “a complete remission” of the punishment. He divides the deceased into groups of those
whose life was “quite good” so they do not need to be advocated upon death, those who lived an “evil
life” so there is no help for them, and those whose life was not entirely pure but who can make amends
after death, and the living can help them in that through their piety (prayers, sacrifices at the altar,
charity, good deeds, etc.). He saw proof of this in the biblical text of the Deutero- canonical book, 2
Maccabees 12:43 and in the church tradition where he saw room for mentioning the deceased in the
priest‟s prayers offered to God at the altar.29
“Also it cannot be truthfully said of some that their sins will not be forgiven either in this world or in the
world to come (Mt 12:32) if it were not for those who will be forgiven in the world to come, although
they cannot be forgiven in this world”.30 More will be said in the next lines of those who will go into
eternal death – hell.
Hell
Augustine did not doubt the existence of hell and that it represents the worst punishment for an
evil earthly life. He was uncertain about the moment when hell begins for the evil. He was not certain of
whether hell begins right after the individual condemnation or after the Last judgment. But it seems
from his writings (as also for the issue of eternal life), that he assumes that the condemned go to hell
right after their death, but that their full punishment begins only after the Last judgment. It is important
to emphasize that Augustine argued that all the unbaptized go to hell without hesitation because their

of injustice, it is not God that sins by allowing such thing to happen according to His righteous, although secret judgment.
But, these temporal punishments some suffer only in their earthly life, some after death, others now and then, but still before
the most rigorous and Last judgment. However, all those who suffer temporal punishments after death, will not undergo the
eternal punishments which come after that judgment”
24
Dalibor Kraljik, “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of Hippo”
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060 (Accessed on 13th August 2022).
25
Dalibor Kraljik, “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of Hippo”
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060 (Accessed on 13th August 2022).
26
It seems that in The City of God, what Augustine means by “small” and “big” sins is not clearly defined
27
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
28
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
29
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology:A Reader…, 621.
30
Lidsey Hall, Murray Rae, and Steve Holmes, Christian Doctrine (London: SCM Press, 2010), 415.

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unforgiven original sin31 separates them from God ultimately and forever. Similarly, those who are
baptized but die in severe sin go to hell because they were not able to make satisfactory amends with
God during their lifetime. That is why Augustine invited and warned Christians to live a serious and
pure Christian life.32
Augustine maintained that the amount of suffering in hell varies and it is different for every person
depending on the weight of the sins they commit. He was convinced that hell is eternal (Mt 25:41.46).
He disagreed with the Origenists who argued that every punishment must be limited because its purpose
is the purification of the soul and the healing of the sinful wound. He also disagreed with the so-called
“merciful” who claimed that the eternity of hell is inconsistent with God‟s goodness as a Father. For
him, hell is what the Scriptures call a “second death” (Rev 2:11; 20:6.14; 21, 8). The “first death” for
him is that which happens after the soul leaves the earthly body at death, and it is impossible to avoid
this death, whereas the second death can be avoided. The second death comes after the Last judgment
when the body goes to eternal suffering in hell. He regarded it as an alienation of the soul from God‟s
life, and he wrote slightly fatefully that this is a death which cannot end even in death. 33
Thus, “the first death drives the soul out of the body against its will, whereas the second death keeps the
soul in the body against its will, and common to both deaths is that they cause the soul to suffer from its
own body what it does not wish”.34 In his writings, Augustine points to the reality and the severity of
hell and he does not wish for any person to go to that eternal death which comes after the Last judgment.
The Last Judgment
At the Last judgment Christ will come and judge the living and the dead. The Last judgment is
also called “Judgment Day” or “The Day of the Lord” because it is a day when Christ will judge and
decide into which eternity an individual will go: into eternal death or eternal life. Augustine held that at
the end of times all people would come under judgment but not under condemnation. Namely, those
who did not obey the voice of the Lord during their lifetime and who did not pass from death into life
upon the resurrection of the soul – an issue to be discussed in the last theme – after the Last judgment
and the resurrection of the body, go to a second death. The Last judgment represents a breaking point for
each person where Christ-the-Judge decides the eternal destination of each individual depending on each
person‟s deeds (Rev 20:12).35
At the Last judgment, not only people will be judged (most certainly angels too), but also the devil and
his followers who will be condemned to an eternal perdition (Rev 20:10). Therefore, all the condemned
people, along with the devil and his troops will be thrown into eternal fire, about whose nature
Augustine does not specify.36
It is obvious that not only people will come to the Last judgment, but all of God‟s creation when “the
shape of this world will disappear in the burning of the world‟s fires, as once was with the flood of the
world‟s waters”. After that, the “new heaven” and the “new earth” will come (Rev 21:1), and God‟s
city and its citizens will descend on the new earth and live together with those who have resurrected in

31
Under original sin, Augustine implies the initial sin of our ancestors Adam and Eve which every person inherits from them,
and which can be “washed” only through baptism.
32
Lidsey Hall, Murray Rae, and Steve Holmes, Christian Doctrine…, 416.
33
Lidsey Hall, Murray Rae, and Steve Holmes, Christian Doctrine.., 416.
34
S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022).
35
S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022)
36
Lidsey Hall, Murray Rae, and Steve Holmes, Christian Doctrine.., 416.

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their bodies. More will be said on resurrection in the next section. To close this section, a short review
follows of Augustine‟s teaching on the Last judgment expressed in his own words:
“Thus, no one will deny or doubt that the Last judgment will be by Jesus Christ, exactly as it was
foretold in the Holy Scripture, besides someone who does not believe, out of arrogance or blindness, in
the actual holy writings which had proved its own authenticity to the whole world. Thus, on the
judgment, or in connection to it, Elijah the Tishbite will come, the Jews will believe, the Antichrist will
persecute, Christ will judge, the dead will rise, the good and the evil will be separated, the world will
burn out and be renewed. It should be believed that this will happen; but on what way or by which
order, we will learn more then by the experience itself, than even the perfect human understanding can
bear now.”37
Resurrection:
The resurrection does not have a central place only in Augustine‟s eschatology, but in his entire
theological thought. To him, nothing is more important than the resurrection of the dead because the
Christian faith stands by it, and it falls without it. Only by resurrection does one find full blessing or
curse. Until the resurrection, there is still time for salvation, but after the resurrection, a person finally
passes into eternity. To Augustine, the resurrection is a doorstep into eternity which every person must
cross over. He differentiates two resurrections: the resurrection of souls which takes place now
(knowledge of one‟s own sinfulness and living a God-pleasing life), and the resurrection of the body
which will happen after the Last judgment, upon which some go to eternal death, and some to eternal
life. Thus, all those who will not “resurrect” into new life during their lifetimes (during “the whole time
when the first resurrection is taking place”), will, in the second resurrection, pass over into the second
death.38
As far as the first resurrection is concerned, Augustine holds that souls have their death in the impiety
and sins, and according to such death they are dead to those about which the Lord says: “and let the
dead bury their own dead” (Mt 8:22). He saw a parallel in this resurrection to the resurrection of Christ
who died for our sins, and resurrected for our justification so that all who believe in him can participate
in the first resurrection. In the first resurrection, only those who will be blessed in eternity participate,
whereas in the second resurrection, all people participate.39 The second resurrection, the resurrection
which takes place after the Last judgment, happens according to the example of the Lord Jesus Christ
who was resurrected in his body three days after his death, and then shortly thereafter ascended into
heaven. This resurrection is for those who have passed into life by the first resurrection which is equal to
Christ‟s glorious resurrection by which He defeated death, whereas to those who have not resurrected in
the first resurrection, the second resurrection will be eternal death. 40
Therefore, Augustine‟s understanding of the resurrection is clear: the soul which is dead in sin needs to
obey the Lord‟s call and resurrect in life so that in the second resurrection the body and soul might live
forever. Still, Augustine warns that it is not enough to just pass the first resurrection in order to pass into
life by the second resurrection; rather, a partaker of the blessing will be “not only the one who passes
into life from death, which is in sins, but (the one who) will endure in the new life”. Therefore, the

37
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
38
S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022).
39
Augustine, City of God…, 498-500.
40
S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022).

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resurrection (of soul and body) truly must be one‟s main goal and ambition because the resurrection
offers eternal meaning to a person.41
Reflection:
Firstly, Augustine denies the universality of God‟s saving will. From a Catholic point of view,
however, God does not want the salvation of a small minority but intends the salvation of all human
beings. To be sure, the (Catholic) Church is God‟s instrument of salvation in communicating His
uncreated grace, i.e. the Holy Spirit, to the world, however, the Church teaches that all people can be
saved, no matter whether they are Christians or not. Augustine‟s exegesis of the relevant bible
passages seems to be debatable, especially if one asks the important but rarely posed question: What is
the possible content of Divine revelation? God does not reveal information about created states of
affairs or future events but reveals His presence in the sense that he gives a share in His own
Trinitarian life. Whether many or some people will end up in hell is no possible content of revelation,
hence, no object of faith, if one conceives revelation strictly as God’s self-communication in Jesus
Christ. All articles of faith explain but this basic mystery and can be reduced to it. On this view, Holy
Scripture is not the word of God in an arbitrary or biblicistic sense but only insofar as it can be
consistently understood as God‟s word when faced with God‟s utter transcendence and absoluteness.
Secondly, Augustine‟s view of original sin and its consequential theory of hell as a retributive
punishment seem to be problematic. Is the traditional historic understanding of Adams fall and the
Augustinian view of original sin convincing? Be that as it may, most people are, according to
Augustine, not in the state of grace, hence, they are not really free to perform good works: Sin is not
an expression of true freedom, it is rather slavery and paralysis. But then the notion of hell as
retributive punishment becomes problematic, for retributive punishment presupposes freedom and
responsibility. Furthermore, the idea of inherited personal guilt seems to be contradictory.
Additionally, one could ask whether any sin that a finite being commits in a situation of ambiguity and
(relative) ignorance deserves an infinite punishment asa just retribution. And wouldn‟t it be possible to
say that real justice requires not so much punishment but rather reconciliation and restoration? At any
rate, human beings have a strong tendency towards revenge, and sometimes they project this tendency
on God. St. Augustine was not free from human flaws. The text is interesting in many respects,
including the way in which it shows Augustine exploring the relation of "flesh" and "spirit," which
may owe as much to the Neo-Platonist writer Plotinus as to St Paul. Yet Augustine clearly
distinguishes the Christian view of death and immortality from the view he associates with Plato.
Conclusion:
The eschatological themes presented in this paper may seem well known, or like nothing new. However,
it should not be forgotten that these eschatological themes which people tend to take lightly are actually
initiated, shaped or established exactly by Augustine who was writing from the beginning of the ancient
5th century. It is precisely in this that the eschatological and general value and beauty of Augustine‟s
thought can be found: namely, it is steady and relevant even after 16 centuries of historic storms.
The goal of this paper is for the reader who might not have yet been introduced to Augustine‟s
theological, or to put it in more precise words, eschatological thought, to gain a concise insight into
Augustine‟s eschatology and his chief work The City of God. Augustine wrote worthy classics in
philosophical/theological literature, and not knowing his thought leaves one deprived of an important

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S J Robert Deinhammer, “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Eschatological_Universa
lism_Possible (Accessed on 12th August 2022).

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part of the theological and ecclesiastic heritage which every theologian and philosopher, as well as
Christian, should know.
Bibilography:
Augustine, City of God, trans. Marcus Dods. New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887.
Bittner, Rüdiger „Augustine‟s Philosophy of History‟, in The Augustinian Tradition, ed. by Gareth B.
Matthews. London: University of California Press, 1999.
Hall, Lidsey. Murray Rae, and Steve Holmes, Christian Doctrine. London: SCM Press, 2010.
Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines, 5 edition. London: A&C Black, 1977.
McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology: An Introduction. New Jersey: Blackwell Publishers, 1991.
McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology:A Reader. New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing, 1995.
Meconi, David Vincent The One Christ: St. Augustine’s Theology of Deification. Washington, D.C.:
The Catholic University of America Press, 2015.

Webliography:
Deinhammer, S J Robert “Augustine On The „Last Things‟ And Human Destiny:Is Eschatological
Universalism Possible?”
https://www.academia.edu/30865529/St_Augustine_on_the_Last_Things_and_Human_Destiny_Is_Esc
hatological_Universalism_Possible. Accessed on 12th August 2022.
Kraljik, Dalibor. “Review of the Central Themes of the Eschatological Thought of Augustine of
Hippo” https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/105060. Accessed on 13th August 2022.
The City of God, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm. Accessed on 12th August 2022.

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