
politics of Augustine of hippo.
the term ‘city of god’ crops up now and then (even on this blog) . but it doesn’t hurt to quickly recap exactly what it means.
augustine of hippo 354-430 born at thagaste in modern Algeria (then a roman province). moved to Milan in 384 and came under the influence of Christian neo-platonism.
his work is important coz he set the agendum for about 1000 years of European politics till the enlightenment/napoleon basically … ( formation of renaissance intellectual groundwork shows in Machiavelli 16th century following on from the likes of ibn khaldun 14th) the well known philosopher historian. the modern state system developed from the rubble of medievalism.. and spread to other regions of the world where, prior to the modern era, they had their own simular fundamentalist approach. (Confucius, chanakya) so it s importance shouldnt need to be argued.
the city of god.. de civitate dei is not directly a work of political philosophy . augustine’s political thought is scattered throughout his entire opus which consists of many tomes. de civitate dei was written soon after the fall of the multiple towers of rome brought down by the visgoths 24 august 410..... it was an event that shocked many romans though from this distance you kinda ask why it took so long for it to happen. after the excesses of the aristocracy.. the book was a consolation to christians rocked by the visgoth’s sack.
to understand the work it is necessary to understand the fundamental doctrines involved at the time .
original sin, grace and predestination… underlie it. …. his work puts political philosophy in a whole new framework to the preceeding ideas of stoic roman imperium or the philosopher king of plato..or the moral philosophy of aristotle’s ethics that were the intellectual foundations of rome till that time.
it goes like this:
adam and eve were created with free will but chose to sin and so were damned along with their offspring.. (us).. we are all natural born sinners retaining only the freedom to choose our poison. (method of achieving damnation)
but.. because of god’s mercy he offers grace to mankind which is the chance to redeem one’s self by placing love of god before self. those predestined to benefit from the grace live in the city of god.. others live in civitas terrenna the city of earth.. (dunya)
right. damnation of the many is proof of divine justice, salvation of the elect in the city of god proof of his mercy. right.
medieval admirers of augustine equated the city of god with the roman church but his idea was of the communico sanctorum.. the saved.. elect both incarnate and departed, and angels loyal to god ..
you’re either in one or the other.
Augustine departs from the rational polis as the fundamental unit of political organization. while the temporal state is not part of the city of god but the result of sin, it acts to hold the excesses of human nature in check with the (oh so) fallible mechanism of earthly justice. the state is not a moral community as in Hellenic philosophy. coercion is justified to make heretics see the truth. its god’s will that we submit to the government as the state is part of gods plan eventhough it is the outcome of sin. the distinction between despotic and political rule is thus not important. active resistance to state authority cannot be justified ..the emperor though wicked derives his power from god.
the city of god comes to earth on judgement day .. not before.
its the coherent theory that led to the inquisition.
you might have said at the time.. 'let the dark ages begin'. as from that point the schools of philosophy disappeared from europe not to be rekindled till the enlightened fled from a similar dark age that started in the middle east.
anyone who tries to tick augustine off as obscure should have another look..