Book contents
- Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
- Law and Christianity
- Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I
- Part II
- 10 Lactantius
- 11 Ambrosiaster
- 12 Augustine of Hippo
- 13 Leo the Great
- 14 Gelasius I
- 15 Dionysius Exiguus
- 16 Benedict’s Rule
- 17 Gregory the Great
- 18 Isidore of Seville
- 19 Pseudo-Isidorus Mercator
- 20 Jonas of Orléans
- 21 Hincmar of Reims
- 22 Regino of Prüm
- 23 Burchard of Worms
- 24 New Horizons in Church Law
- Index
- References
12 - Augustine of Hippo
from Part II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2019
- Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
- Law and Christianity
- Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I
- Part II
- 10 Lactantius
- 11 Ambrosiaster
- 12 Augustine of Hippo
- 13 Leo the Great
- 14 Gelasius I
- 15 Dionysius Exiguus
- 16 Benedict’s Rule
- 17 Gregory the Great
- 18 Isidore of Seville
- 19 Pseudo-Isidorus Mercator
- 20 Jonas of Orléans
- 21 Hincmar of Reims
- 22 Regino of Prüm
- 23 Burchard of Worms
- 24 New Horizons in Church Law
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter presents four aspects of Augustine of Hippo’s understanding of both law and politics in four separate movements. The first movement argues that Augustine held that there were at least four species of law: (1) the eternal law, which is God; (2) the natural law, which is a “notion” of the eternal law “impressed” on human beings, and thus an aspect of the innate image of God; (3) the temporal law, wherein particular laws change over time and vary according to circumstance, and which includes what we should call civil or secular law (and Thomas Aquinas will characterize both as “human law” and as “positive law”); (4) divine law: a term that sometimes refers narrowly to the Mosaic law but can also express a broader concept of any laws passed down by God. The second movement presents Augustine’s two-cities model of history, which he used to explicate the relationship between the Christian religion and the secular government. The third presents Augustine’s thoughts on the Christian use of government-sponsored coercion, especially during the Donatist Controversy. The final movement outlines his theory of the just war.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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