The Role of Art and the Status of the Artist in Augustine's City of God

Augustine is the first Christian thinker that paid a special attention to art and beauty and developed a comprehensive system in this area, which later had a tremendous effect on the post-scholarly thinkers, especially in the middle Ages. The attitude of Augustine towards art and beauty, along with his complete loyalty to Christian teachings, which has fully crystallized in the God's City by dividing man into the inhabitants of heaven and earth, has created a question that, what is the status of the artist in the City of God. Using an analytical-documentary method and concerning Augustine's deep belief in the Christian doctrines, this paper studies his attitude towards beauty and tries to explain his point of view towards types of arts to know the status of the artist in the intellectual system of the City of God.