Topic 7 - St. Augustine

PSCI 2210 - POLITICAL THOUGHT 1
Bachelor of Political Science, KIRKHS, IIUM
#slidepoli

1. The Emergence of the Christian
Political world
•St. Augustine
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2. INTRODUCTION
•Doctrine of Christianity
•Subordinated the
temporal to the spiritual
•Commitment to the faith
over reason
•Believed that the Greeco-
Roman institutions had
failed
•Impact:
•Next world was far more
important than this
•Temporal affairs,
including government,
less important
•Divine government under
the fatherhood of God
•Secular government was
both unnecessary and
undesirable
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3. The Rise of Christianity
•The period of Cristianity
development was
considered as one of
hardship for the Christian.
•Refusal to worship the gods
of the state was considered
as treason.
•Christians were deprived of
property and citizenship,
and their churches were
destroyed.
•Emperor Theodosious (379-
395): made Christianity the
official religion of the state.
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4. The Rise of Christianity
•Church had grown large
and powerful.
•Church had developed
considerable strength and
prestige among such people
outside of Italy.
•Church became unifying
force with Christianity
become a common religion
•Christianity warned against
the evil of revolution
•The increase in membership
of the Church created
annoying problems.
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5. •# ' The Rise of Christianity
•Circumstances soon
conspired to change the
situation.
•The organization of the
Church was developing in
size and in the
effectiveness of its
administration.
•Implication: the issue of
divided loyalty.
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6. • The Early Fathers of the Church
•Spheres of jurisdiction:
example in Church
property.
•No well-developed
theory.
•St. Ambrose (340-397),
Bishop of Milan
attempted to supply a
theory.
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7. Rome and Christianity
•4
th
Century:
–Rome become Christian
government.
–Church and state
merged, reconcile itself
with political power
–Church became part of
political establishment
•How to accommodate
church and state authority
in a way that recognized the
altered social and political
context of both.?
•Christians: to articulate a
doctrine defending the
need for political authority
and insist on the true
Christian Commonwealth.
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8. The Early Fathers of the Church
•St. Augustine
•The most influential of the early fathers
•A student of St. Ambrose
•His most important work is City of God
•Purpose: to defense the Church against the charge
leveled against its enemies that Christianity was
responsible for the fall of Rome to Alaric and the
Visigoths. (first ten books)
•His views of man and the society (12 books)
•How to reconcile the religious doctrine and political
authority
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9. St. Augustine
•Nature of Human
Beings
–Because of the fall from
grace, humans are not
naturally sociable
–They are self-interested
and need the state to
compel order,
obedience, and social
cooperation
–Without state, anarchy would
result.
–The original sin :
emerges the creation
and separation of two
cities, each with its own
political and moral
values and loves that
hold them together.
–State: the origin is
located at a certain
point in God’s plan for
the universe.
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10. 2 St. Augustine
•Theory of the two communities:
•(1)The heavenly city and the earthly city
•Like Stoicism: reason was the common tie which make men
able to live together and to understand universal natural law.
•For Augustine: the force for mutually was belief in and
obedience to God.
•The cities are not heaven and earth, nor church and state,
rather they are the forces of good and evil.
•They are the kingdoms of God and of Satan.
•History is the struggle between the forces of the earthly city
and heavenly city which would eventually culminate in the
establishment of a Christian Commonwealth.
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11. St. Augustine
•(2) Basis of the two Cities: earthly city
–Dominated by the principle of self-love
–It devotees are those to whom material interests
are more important than spiritual.
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12. St. Augustine
•(2) Basis of the cities: The heavenly city:
•Dominated by the principle of love of God.
•Its inhabitants are those to whom spiritual things are
paramount.
•Agencies are provided by God to help achieve
salvation: Church and the state.
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13. • St. Augustine
•(3) Functions of each institution :
•State should had a proper function. He suggested a
definition of a good commonwealth.
•Commonwealth: an assemblage of a reasonable beings
bound together by a common agreement as to the objects
of their love.
•Whether it is good or bad it depend on the object of the
people’s love.
•It must bring justice to its people.
•Justice to be found in the word of God.
•It must be a Christian commonwealth: provide the
advancement of God’s cause
•Justice is impossible if people did not know the true God.
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14. • St. Augustine
(3)Functions; continue
•The primary function of a state( Christian or non-
Christian) is to maintain peace and order.
•Those of the earthly city wish peace in order to better
enjoy the objects of their love, that is material things,
the goods of this world.
•Those of the heavenly city wish peace so they can
devote themselves to the worship of God
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15. St. Augustine
•(4) Justice
•The past states lacked justice because they do not
have the Church and Christian doctrine.
•All pagan empires must fall in the course of history.
•What is important is to learn how to live in the ways
prescribed by God through his church.
•Man is born in sin, and life is not supposed to be easy.
•Problems man faced can never be solved because the
human mentality is limited.
•If God is obeyed perfection will be achieved, and it will
last forever.
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16. St. Augustine
•(5) Concept of men sinfulness
•If man were not sinful he would not be disorderly.
•Thus government is needed by man’s sinfulness.
•Men’s sin led to an inequality manifested by slavery,
government, and private property.
•God himself gave them to men to enable them to live
in a world in which equality was no longer possible and
peace no longer normal.
•Evil and brutal king is imposed upon people as
punishment for their sins, and still he must be obeyed:
doctrine of passive obedience
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17. St. Augustine
•(4)Concept of men sinfulness; continue
•4 reasons for the development of the doctrine:
»To combat tendencies for anarchism
»New Testament writing which suggested all power from
God
»The Old testament represent the King as the anointed of
God
»The new Christian church was anxious to allay the fears
that the empire had developed concerning the Church as
subversive organization.
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18. St. Augustine
•(5)Function of government:
•Not merely to secure and preserve the rights
•It is to enforce order
•Thus a stable tyranny is better than a disorderly
democracy.
•Equality, justice and freedom are goals to be attained
only in in the heavenly city.
•In the interest of maintaining order society is and must
be based upon the authoritarian principle.
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19. St. Augustine
•(6) On slavery:
•It is necessitated by human sinfulness
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20. / Conclusion
•The doctrine of two swords may serve as a
summary of the development of political
thought in the period extending from Christ to
the sixth century.
•However, the doctrine failed to provide
solution to the problem of relationship
between the state and the church.
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