The political thought of Saint Augustine

Abstract

"Now to the extent that we are willing to recognize in Augustine the most brilliant, profound, and enlightened Greek or Roman since Aristotle, we must also admit that Roman intelligence did not begin to decline until after the year 406." Pickman, E.M. , The mind of Latin Christendom. Oxford 1937, P.288. "If we Western Christians are shut up to the conviction that religion moves between the poles of sin and grace - nature and grace; if we subordinate morality to faith, in so far as we reject the thought of an independent morality, one indifferent to religion; if we believe that it is necessary to pay much greater heed to the essence of sin than to the forms in which it is manifested - fixing our attention on its roots, not on its degrees, or on sinful actions; if we are convinced that universal sinfulness is the presupposition of religion; if we expect nothing from our own powers; if we comprise all means of salvation in the thought of God's grace and of faith; if the preaching of faith and the love of God is substituted for that of fear, repentance, and hope; if, finally, we distinguish between law and gospel, gifts and tasks appointed by God - then we feel with the emotions, think in the thoughts, and speak with the words of Augustine." Harnack, A., History of dogma. London, 1898. Eng.trans. Vol.V. , PP.72-3.