Augustine & Aquinas: How Christianity Shaped Western Political Theory

Personal & Pedagogical Context

• Lecturer’s upbringing

  • Grandfather was Anglican clergy; extensive exposure to Sunday-school “caring & sharing,” Good Samaritan, choir, etc.

  • Later attended a school where “Divinity” meant mechanically copying Bible chapters (e.g. Corinthians II) → early experience of religion as ritual rather than mystical.

  • Casual familiarity with Christian liturgy enables an anthropological, not devotional, treatment of religious ideas in political theory.

• Why religion must precede modern political theory

  • Before the C20, almost every canonical political thinker (e.g. Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke) writes inside a Christian framework.

  • Without grasping Christianity’s conceptual vocabulary (sin, grace, natural law, etc.) the trajectory from Ancient Greece to Hobbes makes little sense.

  • Even “secular” concepts—rights, property, social contract—originate as theological claims about what God wills for humans.

  • Example: Locke’s “natural rights” are literally gifts of God; once God disappears, later theorists pivot to talking about “interests” rather than “rights.”

Global vs Western Centric History

• Western Europe has only felt globally dominant since roughly $1500{-}1600$; earlier world-shaping events (e.g.
  Mongol conquests of Constantinople, India) came from Eurasian steppe powers.

• Christianity’s impact often seems universal merely because of recent Western ascendancy; studying non-Christian legal orders reveals its parochiality.

Illustrative Contemporary Example: Pay Equity

• Legal/policy debate in NZ: women-dominated professions historically underpaid; Labour created a pay-equity mechanism; current government abolished it.

• Shows: when rights are not underpinned by a widely shared moral/theological foundation they can be politically downgraded to cost–benefit “interests.”

Augustine of Hippo ($354{-}430$ CE)

Intellectual Setting

• Converts under the spell of Cicero’s writings; nonetheless radically revises Ciceronian republicanism.

• Writes City of God after sack of Rome (410) to answer charge that Christianity weakened Empire.

Core Anthropological Claim: The Fall

• Humans are fallen (original sin) → limited free will, predisposed to pride, violence, libido dominandi (lust to dominate).

• Reason survives the Fall but can only distinguish “more or less sinful” options; cannot motivate genuine virtue unaided.

Justice, Reason & Res Publica

• Accepts Cicero’s definition of justice (“giving each his due”) but denies any earthly polity can live up to it.

• No pagan state is a real res publica because it withholds God’s due (true worship).

• Christian states fare better—can worship rightly—but still cannot know or achieve perfect justice; only the heavenly City of God meets the standard.

Two Cities Doctrine

• City of God: community of all past, present, future persons elected by grace; invisible to mortals.

• Earthly City: the rest of humanity, including political authorities; mixed with future saints.

• Both are conceptual, not geographic; individuals can belong invisibly to one while residing in institutions of the other.

Role of Politics

• Because we are fallen, politics exists to restrain evil, not to perfect virtue.

• Form of regime is secondary; crucial test: ruler must not coerce subjects into impiety/wickedness.

• Any ruler who secures order, peace, minimal material well-being deserves obedience—even if pagan.

Law, Coercion & Punishment

• State defined by coercive power.

• Punishment serves deterrence and (ideally) reform; hence Augustine disfavours death penalty (prevents reform).

Just-War Theory (foundational template)

• Legitimate cause = self-defence or punishment of wrongdoing.

• Pre-emptive defence allowed (enemy need not be “at the gate”).

• Implies collective guilt of aggressor society → later controversial.

Empire & Property

• Empires arise from libido dominandi → self-destructive.

• Prefers many small, peaceable polities.

• Property useful but spiritually secondary; without state coercion no ownership is secure.

Church–State Boundary

• Sacrament > minister ⇒ efficacy does not depend on priest’s moral purity.

• Church looks after souls; State after bodies/bellies.

• Christians must pay taxes, serve in armies, avoid rebellion, unless commanded to sin.

• Seeds of later doctrines of toleration and institutional separation.

Ethical & Philosophical Implications

• Deeply conservative realism: politics must cope with irremediable vice.

• Frames subsequent debates (e.g.
  Hobbes’ “war of all,” Protestant notions of vocation, modern interest-based politics).

Aquinas (Thomas, $1224/5{-}1274$)

Historical Milieu

• Europe now solidly Christian; unity spiritual, not imperial.

• Via Muslim Spain & Crusader contacts, Aristotle re-enters West; Aquinas’ Dominican colleague William of Moerbeke produces first direct Latin translation of Politics.

• Church anxious: Aristotelian eternity of the world, impersonal Prime Mover, etc., seem to threaten doctrine.

• 1277 Condemnations show tension; Aquinas writes amidst suspicion, dies $1274$.

Faith & Reason: “Grace Perfects Nature”

• Human reason is God-given instrument; insufficient for salvation but valid within limits.

• Excess fideism → irrationalism; excess rationalism → scepticism.

• Ethics & politics demand practical wisdom (prudence), not geometric proof.

Law Typology

1. Eternal Law – God’s rational governance of entire cosmos.

2. Natural Law – rational creature’s participation in eternal law; grasped by reason; first precepts:

   • “Seek good, shun evil.”

   • Golden Rule analogue: treat others as self.

3. Human (Positive) Law – concrete ordinances by legitimate authority; valid if derived from natural law; may vary with circumstances.

4. Divine Law (Revealed) – Scripture; provides guidance where natural reason insufficient (e.g.
   salvation, inner intentions).

Political Authority & Legitimacy

• Two medieval theories coexist:

  • Top-down: rulers’ authority is God-given.

  • Bottom-up: community grants power (Roman/Aristotelian tradition).

• Aquinas synthesises: rule is legitimate when oriented to common good, consistent with natural & divine law.

• Tyranny (rule for private good) illegitimate; people may have right to depose tyrant if prudent.

Common Good & Virtue

• Unlike Augustine, state can foster relative virtue and happiness—even if not salvific perfection.

• Political community natural to humans (Aristotle’s “political animal”) yet post-lapsarian reality shapes concrete institutions.

Property & Economic Questions

• Private property legitimate & natural (promotes order, responsibility, peace) but ownership carries social obligation (use for common benefit, charity in emergency).

• Slavery debated: scriptural toleration vs.
  natural equality; Aquinas reluctantly accepts as juridical status but stresses intrinsic human dignity.

Just War (Aquinas’ refinement)

• Adds three criteria later known as jus ad bellum:

  1. Legitimate authority.

  2. Just cause.

  3. Right intention (peace/restoration of justice).

• Influences modern international law (e.g.
  UN Charter self-defence clause).

Legacy

• Supplies intellectual architecture for medieval scholasticism, later Catholic social teaching, and natural-law theories influencing Grotius, Locke, US Declaration of Independence.

• Softens Augustinian pessimism, enabling affirmative theories of civil government and mixed constitutions.

Interlude: Writing-Skill Advice Given in Lecture

• Go straight to argument; omit biographical throat-clearing (“Rousseau was a great philosopher …”).

• Prefer first-person active voice; avoid vague fillers (“pertains,” “with regards to,” excessive ING forms).

• Essay structure template:

  1. Intro = thesis forecast.

  2. Argument Point 1, 2, 3 with evidence & footnoted scholarship.

  3. Conclusion restates thesis in past tense.

• Start early; drafts can be marked by lecturer if submitted during term.

Miscellaneous Illustrations & Cultural References

• Good Omens (Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett) clip as modern portrayal of angel/demon—demonstrates enduring cultural footprint of Augustinian cosmology.

• “Lobsters in the nativity play” (from film Love Actually) underscores secular distortion of sacred stories.

• David Tennant admiration, personal jokes re: The Feelers band, Adam Sandler, dog Maxie—to humanise lecture, show how ordinary experience coexists with academic abstraction.

Conceptual Connections & Comparative Grid

• Justice (Cicero) → unattainable ideal (Augustine) → regulative standard for positive law (Aquinas).

• Reason: Subverted (Aug.), rehabilitated (Aq.).

• Political purpose: restrain sin (Aug.) vs. cultivate natural sociability & relative virtue (Aq.).

• Church–state: sharp functional dualism (Aug.) enables later secularism; Aquinas’ harmonisation models medieval Christendom yet sets stage for Thomistic natural-law liberalism.

Key Dates / Numerics (LaTeX)

• Augustine: $354{-}430\,\text{CE}$.

• Aquinas: $1224/5{-}1274$.

• Sack of Rome: $410$.

• Aristotle’s works condemned: $1277$.

• Hobbes’ Leviathan: $1651$ publication.

• Lisbon earthquake: $1755$ reference in Voltaire/de Maistre anecdote.

• Modern Western ascendancy benchmark: $1500{-}1600$.

Formulaic Reminder (Natural Law Precept)

$\text{Primary Precept}:\; \text{Seek good} \; \& \; \text{Avoid evil}$