| Saint Augustine(354-430)is a master of Christian thought.His view of history laid the foundation for the development of Western philosophy of history in the future,and also provided a paradigm for Westerners to think about fate and meaning when faced with historical crisis.Augustine's philosophy of history is concentrated in his late large heavy book,"The City of God," and can be traced back to his foreshadowing in the autobiographical Confessions.Starting from the relationship between the two works,the theme of this paper is to examine the historical conditions,main contents and substantive meanings of the formation of Augustine's philosophy of history,and to reveal the connection between individual life and human history.On the basis of his own conviction,Augustine established a cognition of the entire human history.Augustine's attitude toward history is equivalent to his dealing with the situation of the people.The article cuts into Augustine's historical philosophy from two dimensions—the individual life and the entire human history—and believes that Augustine hides his personal life experience as he records his own personal life experience in Confessions.Repentance and reflection on the development,purpose,and meaning of the entire human history,and ultimately showed in the "City of God." Among them,from the overall perspective of human beings,he examines in detail the degeneration of mankind,the process of human history and,most importantly,the question of the ultimacy and purpose of human history.His thoughts on history are based on the discovery of personality,so that the final discussion of history is actually an exploration of each individual life in history.Specifically,I will give a demonstration from four aspects: the introduction and beginning of Augustine's philosophy of history,the premise of Augustine's philosophy of history,the core of Augustine's philosophy of history,and the essence and significance of Augustine's philosophy of history.Augustine put forward his own understanding of history on the basis of refuting the previous popular view of history.He believes that time is the premise of understanding individual life and human history.History is based on the biblical revelation,and is a narrative in itself.Human history starts from the beginning of man's self-confirmation,and this individual consciousness of his own will becomes the symbol of the fall and the source of history.The fall of man iscaused by the free will that God gave him to make a free choice between good and evil.However,the depravity of man cannot be attributed to the God who gives free will,but the disobedience caused by the pride of the "wanting to be equal with God" born in the human heart.Therefore,pride is closely related to the original sin.The social characteristics of the individual determine that the individual's survival must be group-based.According to different loves,it is divided into two different societies(city).The human social community is composed of countless “Augustine-type” individual life,but it can be divided into two different cities.History is,at best,a history of the parallel of the two cities in time.Historical Turning and Ending Pointing.Eternal entries into history is one of the crucial things that Augustine thinks in the course of history: the Incarnation is the same for both individual life and society as a whole,because in his view,this is a big problem concerning survival and meaning,and the only big event that breaking the "calmness" in the unchanging history of the whole fallen mankind.Augustine believes that divine providence has always played a role in the life of the individual and the history of the two cities,guiding individuals and society towards the end.The theory of eschatology means the end of history.The endings of the individual and the two cities in this world will be clearly revealed at this time.The eschatological perspective is the key distinction from the prevailing historical concepts and the significance of ensuring that what is experienced by individuals and societies in history.Augustine's concept of "history" is to make people realize that eternal things are not in our vision.We can only understand ourselves through history.This kind of linear historical philosophy with a beginning and ending has not only criticized and reconstructed many wrong historical views such as the previous cycle theory,but also guided people to think about the historical life meaning of the individual and the social group.Although it is ostensibly about a history of evolution,the ultimate concern is the ultimate significance of survival and death,peace and happiness.This is also the distinctive feature of Augustine's philosophy of history.In his mind,historical philosophy is consistent with philosophy of life. |
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