ABSTRACT
As we saw in Chapter 7, Calvin read the distinction Augustine drew between the signum and the res dualistically, in the nominalist line of word as distinct from thing. It may be that Luther does the same with respect to the distinction Augustine makes between Jerusalem and Babylon, the heavenly city and the earthly city in De civitate Dei. As I quoted in the Introduction, ‘Of these, the earthly one has made to herself … false gods whom she might serve by sacrifice; but she which is heavenly and is a pilgrim on the earth does not make false gods, but is herself made by the true God of whom she herself must be the true sacrifice (cuius verum sacrificium ipsa fit)’ (1972, XVIII.54). Furthermore, these two cities are founded upon two antithetical economies of desire, both of them erotic:
the two cities were created by two kinds of love (civitates duas amores duo): the earthly city was created by self-love (amor sui) reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly city by the love of God (amor dei) carried as far as contempt of self … . In the former, the lust for domination (dominandi libido) lords it over its princes as over the nations it subjugates; in the other both those put in authority and those subject to them serve one another in love (serviunt inuicem in caritate), the rulers by their counsel, the subjects by their obedience. The one city loves its own strength (diligit virtutem suam) shown in its powerful leaders; the other says to its God, ‘I will love you (diligam te), my Lord, my strength.’
