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Document Details : Title: Augustine of Hippo and Late-Roman Slavery Subtitle: A Reassessment Author(s): BERG, Karl Journal: Augustiniana Volume: 75 Issue: 1 Date: 2025 Pages: 67-109 DOI: 10.2143/AUG.75.1.3294280 Abstract : Scholars have often credited Augustine of Hippo with 'baptizing' the Roman institution of slavery by developing a new theological etiology for enslavement, which treated it as divinely-sanctioned and a 'just' punishment for sin. However, characterizing Augustine’s teachings on slavery as a simple endorsement of the prevailing status quo struggles to account for the nuance and breadth of his teachings, which could range from naïve fantasies of a Christianized form of 'just' slavery in which masters 'served' those whom they held as slaves to unexpectedly virulent critiques of the institution as commonly practiced. The present article offers a fresh assessment of Augustine’s teachings on slavery which aims to accentuate the inherent tensions within his teachings while also identifying a consistent principle which appears to have guided the bishop’s approach to the plight of the enslaved, even as the threat of slavery came to hang over his own head during the Vandal conquest of North Africa. The paper is principally concerned with the intersection of Augustine and the actual institution of late-Roman slavery and does not thoroughly consider the use of slavery as a theological metaphor in Augustine’s writings, as such metaphors not only often operate on a very different plane than actual slavery appears to have in practice, but also have received extensive attention in recent scholarship. |
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