The Pilgrim City
Social and Political Ideas in the Writings of St Augustine of Hippo
Published on 28. February 2001
Book
Hardback
229 pages
978-0-85115-819-8 (ISBN)
Description
St Augustine on the human condition, justice, the State, slavery, private property and war: essential sourcebook for historians of late classical and medieval thought.
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. The result is a full and wide-ranging narrative account of St Augustine's thinking on the human condition, justice, the State, slavery, private property and war. This comprehensive sourcebook will be of value to students of St Augustine at all levels.Dr R W DYSON lectures in the department of politics, University of Durham.
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. The result is a full and wide-ranging narrative account of St Augustine's thinking on the human condition, justice, the State, slavery, private property and war. This comprehensive sourcebook will be of value to students of St Augustine at all levels.Dr R W DYSON lectures in the department of politics, University of Durham.
Reviews / Votes
As complete a reconstruction as is possible of Augustine's thinking concerning sin and history, the state, social institutions, war, and the church amd the state... helpful to historians of the ancient world's political thought. THEOLOGY [from the perspective of a first-year history student, Dyson has put together] a useful collection of primary texts in translation. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Woodbridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
517 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-85115-819-8 (9780851158198)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
R. W. Dyson is a former lecturer in Political Thought and the former Director of the Centre for the History of Political Thought at the University of Durham, England.
Content
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.