Abstract

Exploring Augustine's comments on political life, one may tease out three interpretive schemes within his writings. One is a defense of the political viability of the Christian ethic-and of the norms of justice which it shares with classical culture and the Roman political ethos. Another is a "realistic" interest in describing the disordered affections of sinful humanity and the political processes by which these are harnessed in collective ways. A third looks at the willing of ends, enabling Augustine both to envisage the final values of the city of God and to affirm the proximate values of the earthly city.