Aurelius Augustine and Vyacheslav Ivanov: concept of «Two Cities»

Aurelius Augustine (354 - 430) lived a long life rich in events; in hismature years he changed his views as well as ethical beliefs and converted from paganism to Christianity. Augustine's literary heritage isgreat. We are to look at two of his books: Confessions of St. Augustine (401) and City of God (427). In the former book he writes abouthimself, secrets of his soul, his sinful life, and in the latter about the way to the God of a worthy person. In this book he considers theworld to consist of two cities: the city of God and the earthly city. In 1915 V.I. Ivanov started to write his melodic poem ''Man''consisting of four parts and an epilogue. He finished the work in 1919, and later in 1939 it was published in Paris. The poem has adedication 'To the memory of Lev Shestov who on hearing the initial lines of ''Man'' defined the sphere of influence of the lyrical cycleby reciting St. Augustine's words: ''The two cities have created two loves: the earthly city created the love to oneself till the God'sdisdain; the God's city created the love to God till the disdain to oneself". The poem begins with the idea of man's self-affirmation: Godcreated him, and he announced 'I am' (the first part of the poem). Doing so, the man tries to affirm his personality and claim hisomnipotence. After that, being driven away from the Paradise and having taken severe sufferings, he understood that God was at thebeginning ('You are' - the second part of the poem, and after comes he, the man. Obedience to God and love to him, on the one hand,and hatred to the heavenly life, on the other hand, make the content of the third part called 'Two cities'. The triumph of truth, kindnessand beauty is reached in the fourth part of the poem named 'Man integrated' and in the 'Epilogue'. The second part of the poem considersthe idea of God's omniscience. The fourth part of the melodic poem 'Man' is called 'Man integrated'. Here the author opposes an ordinaryman, a sinner, to the Man (written with the capital letter), or godlike Man. We can see the connection between lines of the Russian poetand Bishop of Hippo. The division of people into holy men and sinners will be overcome. God's people will resurrect and peopleinfluenced by devil will find themselves in the Hell. The godlike Man and people who love God will be at power in all times. Thus, asLuther used to say 'With belief only'. And only a religious person could have written such a poem. Only the poet who knows thereligious heritage could have composed such a hymn to humanity. Only a philosopher who understands culture as a series of symbolicrevelations could have shown the connection of epochs through centuries. Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov was such a personality.

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