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Document Details : Title: A Leap from Innocence Subtitle: Cicero and Augustine on the Relationship between the 'Social' and the 'Political' Author(s): NEDERMAN, CARY J. , KHOOBIAR MARTINEZ, Kasey Journal: Augustiniana Volume: 69 Issue: 2 Date: 2019 Pages: 213-238 DOI: 10.2143/AUG.69.2.3287287 Abstract : While scholars gesture to Augustine’s critical stance toward Cicero’s political thought, little has been said in the affirmative concerning the substantive Ciceronian contribution to the basic precepts of Augustinian political theory. Against this common perception, we argue that the distinction between the basic categories of the 'social' and the 'political' realms, which is vital to Augustine’s thought in the City of God and elsewhere in his corpus, reflects a Christianized version of a conceptual division articulated by Cicero in numerous of his writings. In particular, both embrace the idea that the political sphere results from the inability of 'natural' social interaction, based purely on a principle of justice, to be sustained. Thus coercive mechanisms are necessary as remediation for conflict that would otherwise destroy humanity. On the basis of our analysis, we conclude that an important backdrop to Augustinian political theory may be found in key features of Cicero’s thought. Our paper is not an exercise in tracing sources per se, but rather an effort to make an intellectual connection that some previous scholars have briefly alluded to but not analyzed and defended in any detail. We also employ our interpretation to critique a recent trend in Augustinian scholarship – which actually has its origins in St. Thomas Aquinas – of ascribing an Aristotelian element to Augustine’s theory. |
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