Abstract

The article discusses the role of the historical views of Augustine in contemporary historical thought. The object of analysis is his major work, The City of God. The main thesis is that Augustine’s notion of history can be interpreted not only as a prerequisite for the formation of modern historical thought, but also as a source of its further development. The author’s position is based on the trend in historiography asserting that Augustine has a critical attitude toward the historical views of the Christians and the pagans. An analysis of Augustine’s statements in The City of God confirms his critical attitude toward any attempts to connect the date of the end of the world with the concrete events or to connect the direction of the course of the world history with the growth of Christian beliefs. Augustine’s judgment that the sense of calamities is equally applicable to the Christians and the pagans allows interpreting his view of the past not as a linear and continuous course, but as a series of historical experiences designed to test the strength of everyone’s religious beliefs. Augustine’s judgments about the inextricable mixing of the two cities and the wandering of the City of God allow interpreting the status of the idea of the City as a historical value that provides a choice of historical plots and types of historical narrative. This interpretation of Augustine’s views leads to reconsidering of the conventional theses about the providentialism and teleology of his general religious concept. It is asserted that in Augustine, they characterize the general sense of worldly existence, but not the direction of the historical process. In conclusion we state that the interpretation of the past as a series of historical experiences basically corresponds with general orientations of the modern historical thought and correlates with the providential and teleological ideas of the general religious concept of Augustine.