Augustine defines the City of God’s enemies as arising independent of any external threat

Evidence

This confrontation is repeatedly inscribed throughout The City of God, a book written unequivocally “against the Pagans.” “In embarking on this treatise of the City of God, I have thought it right to begin by replying to its enemies,” inimicis, “who, in their pursuit of earthly joys and their appetite for fleeting satisfactions, blame the Christian religion” ( 4.1). And although enemies appear to be the occasion for writing, enemies arise without ground or reason, and from the beginning (“From this world’s city there arise enemies,” inimici, “against whom the City of God has to be defended,” I.I). These enemies are not necessarily one with the barbarians (“the enemies of Christianity,” adversariis nominis Christi, “were spared by the barbarians at the sack of Rome, out of respect for Christ,” LI). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 154

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader interest in how enemies are constructed theologically/politically — parallels Anidjar’s ongoing argument about the theological construction of the enemy, and distantly echoes Schmitt’s friend/enemy distinction.