Abstract / DOI
Augustine: Ethics and Politics of Peace. This essay outlines Augustine’s ethics and politics of peace by establishing his metaphyscial framework of peace. The very existence of an entity, according to Augustine, is dependent on a certain degree of peace, understood as inner unity. He juxtaposes this presupposition of peace to the perfect peace, the highest good, for which all things strive. While the fall to sin precipitates a loss in peace – within the human individual, between humans, and between God and humans – the order of creation prevents utter dissolution. Ordained by God, political authority, too, takes up the necessary and potentially good task of maintaining and even promoting peace, order, and morality. Even though Augustine decries the horrors of war, he upholds the distinction between just and unjust wars, defending wars responding to offences against international law, past wars divinely commanded, and the military service of Christians.