Book contents
- Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine’s City of God
- Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine’s City of God
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Parodic City
- 2 The Sack of Roma Aeterna
- 3 Exposing the Worldly Worldviews of Empires, Patriots, and Philosophers
- 4 Roman History Retold
- 5 The Sacramental Worldview and Its Antisacramental Distortion
- 6 The Status of Politics
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - The Status of Politics
Rereading City of God 19 in Light of Augustine’s Sacramental Vision
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2020
- Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine’s City of God
- Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine’s City of God
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Parodic City
- 2 The Sack of Roma Aeterna
- 3 Exposing the Worldly Worldviews of Empires, Patriots, and Philosophers
- 4 Roman History Retold
- 5 The Sacramental Worldview and Its Antisacramental Distortion
- 6 The Status of Politics
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Chapter 6, I consider the status of politics within this sacramental vision. Finding that Augustine’s ultimate goal is to help us see the world anew, I argue that he also helps us see politics anew. In other words, when it comes to politics, his deconstructive treatment of Rome in the early books is only half of his strategy; he also resituates it within the vision he spends the second half of City of God articulating. This is where book 19 comes in. Here, Augustine’s profound sense that the earthly city overstates its claim on the world translates into a different vision of politics: one in which our political communities are wounded. Making conceptual space between natural political community, postlapsarian political necessity, and sinful political behavior, the Augustine of book 19 does not concede the political sphere to the earthly city. Instead, he urges us to participate in our political communities without participating in the earthly city. Thus, I conclude, when it comes to politics, the psychagogic goal of City of God is that we participate as pilgrims, striving to be a healing presence within our political communities while seeking a good beyond them all the same.
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- Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine's City of God , pp. 144 - 181Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020