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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Augustine and the Six Ages of Human History

De Civitate Dei

Throughout the work Augustine makes occasional

references to the scheme of six ages (aetates) of

human history which he adopts in Comm. on Genesis

adv. Manichees & Truth of Religion.

But it is not fully or extensively employed in our

work.  See Book 16.12 where Augustine speaks of

the "division of time" (articulus temporis) that begins

with Abraham; it would, in fact, be the start of the

third age.  First age: Adam - Noah; Second age: Noah -

Abraham (16.24).  It is only in book 16, #43 that the

ages are explicitly linked to the periods of human life,

when Augustine talks of the age beginning with 

David (the fourth age) as humanity's young manhood

(iuventus, Latin )  and to earlier periods as "infancy",

"Childhood", and "youth" (adulescentia) of humankind.

CHAPTER 8, Gerard O'Daly Augustine's City of God

A Reader's Guide (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd ed. 2020)

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