O verdadeiro sacrifício no livro X de A Cidade de Deus de Santo Agostinho

Abstract

Augustine is one of the few thinkers of late Antiquity to offer a profound and dense reflection on sacrifice. Our research aims to develop a critical reading of Book X of the work De Civitate Dei, by analyzing the Augustinian notion of verum sacrificium. It also seeks to examine how Augustine understands true worship and true sacrifice in Christianity, in comparison with pagan religion and Neoplatonic philosophy. At the same time, it analyzes the relationship between sacrifice and the city, religion and politics. We want to show that, in Augustine’s view, the visible sacrifice is the sacrament, that is, the sacrum signum of the invisible sacrifice. God does not want the sacrifice of a sacrificed animal, but the sacrifice of a contrite heart. The true sacrifice is every work that the Christian does to unite himself to God in holy union, that is, every work related to the supreme good, the only principle of true happiness. But the foundation of the visible sacrifice which, according to true religion, must be offered to the one invisible God is Jesus Christ. The supreme and true sacrifice is made by the Mediator between God and man. In the form of God, he receives the sacrifice with the Father, with whom he is One God; in the form of a slave, he preferred to be the sacrifice rather than receive it, so that no one would think that sacrifices should be offered to any creature. That is why he is the priest, the offerer and the oblation. Christ wanted this to be the daily sacrifice of the Church, of which he is the Head and which offers itself through him. Only the citizens of the City of God make the true sacrifice in the Eucharist. The sacrifices of pagan religion are false. The path of purification of the soul proposed by Neoplatonism is illusory