The City of God

One of the characteristic features of City of God is Augustine’s use of pagan literary sources as debate partners. It would have been simple enough for him to forego such references and just write a treatise against paganism using only his own words and insights, but Augustine felt that his case would be stronger if it interacted with the best ideas of his opponents, as set forward by their best thinkers. As such, he selects leading figures from Latin literature and Neoplatonic philosophy, like Varro and Porphyry, offering expansive explanations of their positions before levelling his critiques. In many cases, he even commends the other writers when he appreciates some of their insights or finds their reasoning particularly strong, as with the Neoplatonic contention that there is a supreme, all-powerful Creator.

By using this literary device, Augustine ensures that he does not fall into the trap of the “straw man fallacy,” in which one attacks an exaggerated position that they imagine the other person to hold, but which is in fact a misunderstanding of that position. By using his opponents’ own sources, Augustine can deal with their arguments on their own terms—a strategy that likely attests to his training as a rhetorician.