Front cover image for The pilgrim city : social and political ideas in the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo

The pilgrim city : social and political ideas in the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo

"The political and social ideas of St. Augustine of Hippo are of central importance to the historian of late classical and medieval political thought. Augustine offers a penetrating critique of the moral and political claims of imperial Rome, and he is one of the founders of the Christian political thought of the Middle Ages. But the student's task is made difficult by the fact that Augustine did not write a single, systematic, political treatise. His political remarks are always incidental to his theological and pastoral concerns; they occur in many different contexts; they have to be dissected out from a great variety of works. In this volume, Dr. Dyson brings together an extensive selection of primary sources and provides a detailed commentary on them
Print Book, English, 2001
Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, 2001
Early works
xii, 217 pages ; 24 cm
9780851158198, 0851158196
45466221
Introduction. Part 1 Sin and human history - narrative texts: Good and evil; the fall and Original Sin; freewill and divine foreknowledge; freewill, predestination and grace; the two cities; the earthly church; human history. Part 2 The state in a sinful world -narrative texts: The sociable nature of man; natural law; the state as an expression of sin; the state as remedial community; the state as a means of discipline and punishment; the Roman commonwealth; Christian obligation. Part 3 Social institutions -narrative texts: Property as a source of sin, pain and fear; property rights and the law; righteous ownership; usury; slavery. Part 4 War - narrative texts: War and peace; the Roman experience of war - foreign wars, civil wars, the Sack of Rome; just warfare; the morality of military service. Part 5 Church and state - narrative texts: The spiritual and temporal spheres; the Christian ruler; religious persecution - Augustine's initial view, Augustine's justifications.
Translated from the Latin