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The City of God, Volume I

Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo · composed 413–426; published/issued in installments during composition primary

passage 259 of 449 · BOOK I. > BOOK EIGHTH. (12/37)

call him a philosopher who loves God; for philosophy is directed to the obtaining of the blessed life, and he who loves God is blessed in the enjoyment of God.

  1. Concerning that philosophy which has come nearest to the Christian faith.

Whatever philosophers, therefore, thought concerning the supreme God, that He is both the maker of all created things, the light by which things are known, and the good in reference to which things are to be done; that we have in Him the first principle of nature, the truth of doctrine, and the happiness of life,--whether these philosophers may be more suitably called Platonists, or whether they may give some other name to their sect; whether, we say, that only the chief men of the Ionic school, such as Plato himself, and they who have well understood him, have thought thus; or whether we also include the Italic school, on account of Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, and all who may have held like opinions; and, lastly, whether also we include all who have been held wise men and philosophers among all nations who are discovered to have seen and taught this, be they Atlantics, Libyans, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians, Gauls, Spaniards, or of other nations,--we prefer these to all other philosophers, and confess that they approach nearest to us.

  1. That the excellency of the Christian religion is above all the science of philosophers.
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The City of God, Volume I · Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo · 413–426