I just finished a paper on St. Augustine's City of God. The paper was focused towards political theory so I did not read the whole book. In the sections I did read it seemed that Augustine would spend a lot of his time discussing the gods worshipped by Romans and other Empires.
It seems to me that he discusses them as they actually existed. He references his god as the one true God but I'm not sure I remember him saying the only god.
I know its a bit of a long shot but is it possible that he somehow allowed for the existence of other gods?
I'm not trying to spark a religious debate just wondering if someone who is familiar with the text can clear things up. Thank you.
Augustine does acknowledge or assume the pagan gods existed, but he considers them evil demons. For example, from Book II chapter 22:
But in all this the demons only looked after their own interest, and cared not at all how their worshippers lived... If any one denies this, let him produce, let him point to, let him read the laws which the gods had given against sedition.
To Augustine, a "true God" was one who not merely existed but was worthy of worship. For example, in chapter 13, after quoting pagan Roman sources saying that the gods had themselves commanded pornographic theater shows, he says, "Was not this, then, the plainest proof that they were no true gods, nor in any respect worthy of receiving divine honours from the republic?"
This wasn't a view unique to Augustine; the Apostle Paul himself says, or at least strongly implies, much the same in 1 Corinthians 10:14-20:
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry... What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.