Historia i historiozofia w myśli Świętego Augustyna
History and Historiosphy According to St Augustine

Author(s): Maria Chodyko
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: St. Augustine; De Civitate Dei; Historiography; Eschatology; Hermeneutics
Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the classic issue of historiography in St. Augustine’s thought. The concept of time as an object of consciousness for him becomes a tool for historical and metahistorical reflection, enabling the abstraction of history and its examination, organization, and the identification of general patterns in socio-historical phenomena. Self-awareness, gained through the realization of the passage of time, in the philosophical reflection of Augustine is transformed into a means of systematizing and ordering history. The introduction of an eschatological element into history allowed St. Augustine to reject the evaluative perception of history as either a process of decline or renewal. However, he does not exclude viewing the development of civilization as intellectual and moral progress, which he expresses in 'De Civitate Dei'. The introduction of Christ’s Parousia as the final element of history, albeit not belonging to the chronological order, enabled Augustine to reject deterministic thinking, such as millenarianism. A crucial aspect of 'De Civitate Dei' is the ability to hermeneutically interpret literary genres, which is essential for both understanding biblical texts properly and the message of Augustine’s work itself. He clearly demonstrates this in his commentary on the six days of creation in the Book of Genesis, where he explains that the term “day” is an anthropological unit that does not correspond in meaning to time measured from sunrise to sunset.

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