The fall of Rome
Augustine's City of God is essentially an attempt to elaborate his religious philosophy in response to ironic coincidences in his own experience of Western politics during the fall of Rome. The fall is ironic because the whole city already believed it was the city of God. Their desire for ideal life leaves them completely baffled when Rome falls despite their opinion that the empire was indestructible. This is the irony of saying, "This ship can't sink!" just to discover that, actually, anything is possible, because we can never prevent chaos and change.
The response to Christianity
Augustine responds to some unique and ironic allegations about the Christian God. The ideas seem to be a combination of paganism and Christianity, and here the saint takes his position on the side of Catholic teaching. Actually, the Christian God was never intended as the pagan gods were to represent certain people groups; perhaps back in the ancient days, it was more similar to that pagan model in the legends of Yahweh and Israel, but Christianity takes that model of religion and applies it all reality. The Roman response against the Christian God is ironic because they are baffled that their worship of God is not powerful enough to get God to only do whatever they want.
Augustine's ironic Christianity
Augustine's take on Christianity is extremely unique among the faith because he is conversational both in mystic approaches to the scriptures and in more orthodox points of view. When he responds to the political disaster unfolding among the Roman empire, he invokes Christianity in a way that directly opposes the popular conceptions of Christianity at the time. He leans heavily into transcendental detachment from political interests. He also comments on the aspects of Christianity which boldly oppose the hubris of empires.
Order and complexity
Augustine's writings show that truth is orderly and ironically complex. The irony is fairly straightforward; naturally the human mind wants simplicity and clarity as their idea of "order," but in Augustine's definition of God's will, the order of the universe is transcendental and complex. It is not the order that humans desire. It is not an order that protects or privileges human power or happiness. In fact, fate and chaos are also aspects of God dominion, and so Augustine speaks about the limitations of human consciousness and the general powerlessness we all experience as entities with regard to fate.
The irony of paradise
Augustine's title betrays this irony. During a time of horrific political unrest and intricate and dangerous political battles between "foreigners" and "citizens," Augustine writes a book highlighting the hellish aspects of human life, but he does this to invoke the heavenly idea of perfect community in heaven. One discovers by reading this book what Augustine himself believes about life; he believes we are currently embedded in a challenging existence defined by suffering, but when we die, we are all unified, harmonious, and immortal together in community, the Biblical "City of God."
