Between angels and beasts. Augustine’s rehabilitation of the Civitas Peregrina through an alternative reading of the City of God

TY - JOUR

T1 - Between angels and beasts. Augustine’s rehabilitation of the Civitas Peregrina through an alternative reading of the City of God

AU - Genghini, Maria Giulia

PY - 2020/6

Y1 - 2020/6

N2 - This paper explores Augustine’s ideal of just society, as developed in books XII, XIV and XIX of the City of God, and his rehabilitation of the notion of civitas peregrina. Bringing to maturity the classical notion of community (according to Aristotle and Cicero’s definitions), Augustine investigates how, in the Christian view, the different kinds of societies, which arise on earth, are dependent on the acceptance or refusal of the relation between man and his transcendental origin. This connection between metaphysics and history allows for an alternative reading of the City of God, by which man’s spiritual life and its public and social dimensions escape dichotomist views and the confinement to a purely philosophical or religious discourse.

AB - This paper explores Augustine’s ideal of just society, as developed in books XII, XIV and XIX of the City of God, and his rehabilitation of the notion of civitas peregrina. Bringing to maturity the classical notion of community (according to Aristotle and Cicero’s definitions), Augustine investigates how, in the Christian view, the different kinds of societies, which arise on earth, are dependent on the acceptance or refusal of the relation between man and his transcendental origin. This connection between metaphysics and history allows for an alternative reading of the City of God, by which man’s spiritual life and its public and social dimensions escape dichotomist views and the confinement to a purely philosophical or religious discourse.

U2 - 10.5840/agstm20206017

DO - 10.5840/agstm20206017

M3 - Article

SN - 2162-6499

VL - 60

SP - 165

EP - 188

JO - Augustinianum

JF - Augustinianum

IS - 1

ER -